Michal Műller

Michal Müller

• Bats Right, Throws Right

• Born July 16, 1979

Biographical Information

Michal Müller played and coached for the Czech national team. He won one batting title in the Czech Extraliga.

Müller hit .355/.394/.355 for Sokol Krč in 1999, the first season for which stats are available online (as of Sept. 2014). He was 12 for 30 with 7 walks, 4 doubles and a homer in 2000. In 2001, the team became Krč Altron and he hit .350/.480/.550 in 12 games, fielding .941. He was a regular on the infield for the Czech Republic in the 2001 European Championship, hitting .267/.371/.300 with a team-high 9 runs and tying Tomáš Ovesný for the most steals (4) without being caught. He fielded only .867 with six errors. He tied major leaguer Ralph Milliard and Ovesný for the most steals in the event and tied Francesco Casolari and Roberto De Franceschi for second in runs, one behind Sylvain Hervieux.

Michal did not play in the Extraliga in 2002. In 2003, he was 9 for 26 with a double, two triples and four walks for Krč Altron. While not playing much in the regular season, he saw a lot of work with the national team. In the 2003 European Championship, he was 2 for 25 with a triple, 3 walks, hit-by-pitch, one run, one RBI and two walks. He was better in the 2003 European Olympic Qualification Tournament, going 4 for 12 with a double, two runs, three walks and a team-best eight RBI. He led the event in RBI, one ahead of Claudio Liverziani, Sharnol Adriana and Dirk van 't Klooster; despite his strong play, the Czechs did not make the 2004 Olympics.

Müller batted .321/.396/.462 for Krč Altron in 2004, stealing 9 bases in 9 tries, and fielding .952; he tied for 6th in the league in swipes. In '05, he produced at a .385/.496/.526 clip, stole 12 bases in 12 tries, scored 23 runs in 19 games and fielded .974. He was 4th in the loop in stolen bases, 7th in average, 6th in slugging (between Tomáš Červinka and Jakub Hajtmar) and 8th in OBP (between Hajtmar and Martin Střítecký). In the 2005 European Championship, he hit .259/.394/.333 and fielded .926 as the starting 3B for the Czechs. He was only 2 for 18 with two runs and two RBI in the 2005 Baseball World Cup. He fielded .850 at third, with three errors.

He had his best season for Altron in 2006, hitting .487/.544/.628 and fielding .948. He led in average by .039 over Martin Veselý, led in OBP by .001 over Veselý and was also among the leaders in hits (38, tied for 7th with Aleš Navrátil), total bases (49, 9th) and slugging (4th). The next year, he batted .368/.471/.439, went 11 for 11 in steals, scored 16 runs in 16 games and fielding .883. He was 5th in OBP, third in steals and 6th in average (between Jan Jablonka and Tomáš Polanský). He did not make the Czech squad for the 2007 European Championship as Jan Drábek was picked at 3B; Michal would not play again for the national team.

Müller saw limited playing time after 2007. He was 7 for 13 with a double, triple, three walks, seven runs and seven RBI for the Eagles Praha in 2008, 3 for 9 with two walks in 2009, hit .161/.229/.226 in 9 games in 2010, went 4 for 17 with four walks in 2011, did not play in 2012 and was 9 for 45 with three doubles and 11 walks in 2013. He became the Eagles' manager (officially head coach as the Extraliga does not use the title manager) for 2014 and went 0 for 1 as a player to boot. He was bench coach for the Czechs in the 2014 European Championship and also coached for them in the 2016 World Baseball Classic Qualifiers.

Primary Source: Czech Baseball Federation