Michael Wäller

Michael Wäller

• Throws Right

• Born February 9, 1964 in Hamburg Germany

Biographical Information

Michael Wäller was a top German pitcher of the 1990s.

He was 1-0 with a 1.50 ERA for the German national team in the 1990 B-Level European Championship and went 2 for 2 with a double at the plate. He struck out 7 in a 7-inning mercy rule two-hit shutout in the 1992 B-Level European Championship, blanking third-place Great Britain as Germany won the event. He was named the best pitcher in the Bundesliga-1 north in 1993 but statistics are unavailable.

In the 1993 European Championship, he was 1-1 with a 3.45 ERA, leading the team with 15 2/3 IP and second to Frank Jäger in ERA. For the event, he tied Vincent Lhoste for third in innings and was 9th in WHIP (between Magnus Höglund and Danny Wout). His win came against Russia. He was 14-2 with a 3.28 ERA for the 1994 HSV Stealers. He was second in ERA (well back of Gavin Marshall's 0.95), third in strikeouts (83, behind Marshall and Andrew Kohlar), led in wins (5 ahead of Georg Bull and Marshall), led in IP (9 1/3 ahead of Kohlar) and was second to Marshall in WHIP. Marshall beat him out for Best Pitcher honors.

The right-hander was 14-2 again for the 1995 Stealers, this time with a 2.48 ERA, a .97 WHIP, .194 opponent average and 92 K in 98 IP. He led the league in ERA (.24 ahead of David Amato), strikeouts (15 more than Michael de Gelmini), wins (5 more than Kohlar), IP (12 2/3 ahead off de Gelmini), K/BB ratio (4.18; de Gelmini was a distant second at 1.26) and WHIP (.12 ahead of Amato). He won best pitcher honors again, an easy choice for a pitching Triple Crown winner. He had a 2-0, 5.28 record in the 1995 European Championship. He tied for second in the Euros in wins (with Eelco Jansen, Dante Carbini, Erik Lommerde and Guillaume Coste, one behind Frank Mathys) and tied Roberto Cabalisti for 7th in IP (15 1/3 IP). He beat Russia and Sweden.

1996 may have been his best season: 14-0, 1.63 ERA, .84 WHIP, .190 opponent average, 11 BB in 88 1/3 IP. He just lost the ERA title (.05 behind Hidalgo Lavidou), 3rd with 81 K (behind Lavidou and Andreas Becker), led in wins (6 ahead of Suk-Hwan Jun and Niels Buschke), led in innings, led in K/BB ratio easily and led in WHIP (.04 ahead of Lavidou). He repeated as Best Pitcher. In '97, he slipped to 9-3, 2.01 with a 1.04 WHIP for the Stealers. He easily won the ERA title (1.17 ahead of Alexander Schnitzler), tied Schnitzler for the most wins, was 7th with 63 K and led in WHIP (.09 ahead of Schnitzler). He won his fourth Best Pitcher award in five years.

Michael was 0-1 with a 8.00 ERA at the 1997 European Championship, his worst European Championship. In 1998, he was 12-3 with a 3.56 ERA for HSV. He fell to 4th in ERA (between Frank Stattler and Martin Almstetter), was 5th with 88 strikeouts (between Schnitzler and Tobias Meyer-Langenfeld), ranked second in wins (one behind Stattler), was third with 116 1/3 IP (after Meyer-Langenfeld and Stattler) and was 4th in WHIP (1.38, between Stattler and Almstetter). He repeated at 12-3 in 1999, this time with a 3.18 ERA. He was 4th in ERA (between Dustin Carlson and Stattler), 7th with 61 whiffs (between Thorsten Wöhner and René Herlitzius), led in wins (one ahead of Dirk Fries) and was 4th in WHIP.

The 1999 European Championship was his last stint for the German national team. The 35-year-old was 1-0 but with a 6.75 ERA; only Becker was higher on the team. His win over Slovenia was Germany's lone win in round one. He tied Peter Budny for the most wins in German national team history at 6. He slumped to 7-3, 6.08 for the 2000 Stealers, still tying for 4th in the league in wins. He was 1-2 with a 8.68 ERA in the postseason but HSV won its first title.

In 2001, he was 2-6 with a save and a 4.62 ERA, 4th in losses, 9th in ERA and 6th in WHIP (1.44). He was 0-2 with a 3.82 ERA in the postseason. The veteran spent 2002 in the Bundesliga-2, going 9-3. He returned to the Bundesliga-1 in 2003 and had one a strong year at 2-2, 2.45. He won the ERA title (.66 over Stattler) and second in WHIP (1.34, trailing Fries). He wrapped up his career in Germany's top loop with another fine campaign in 2004, going 5-2 with a 1.91 ERA. He was 5th in ERA (between Mirko Heid and Enorbel Marquez), tied for 7th in wins, tied Fries for 7th in IP (56 2/3) and 5th in WHIP (1.16, between Jason McCarter and Fries).

He had gone 6-2 with a 4.32 ERA for the German national team. Through 2010, he was among the national team's career leaders in ERA (13th, between Claus Helmig and Helmut Oppelt), strikeouts (7th, 38, tied with Klaus Knüttel), wins (tied with Marquez and Budny), IP (58 1/3, 6th, between Almstetter and Knüttel) and walks (29, tied for 7th with Oppelt and Almstetter). In 2012, Marquez broke the tie to deprive him of his share in the all-time win lead for the Germans.