Paul Astl

• Bats Right, Throws Right

• Born March 3, 1985

Biographical Information

Paul Astl has played for the Austrian national team.

He debuted in the Austrian Baseball League with the 1999 Schwarz Tigers, going 0 for 2 at age 14. In 2000, he was 2 for 11 and pitched a scoreless inning. By '01, he was 1-3 with a 14.16 ERA and hit .182/.229/.212. He then did not play in the ABL from 2002-2004. In 2005, he had a 1-5, 7.30 record and batted .231/.344/.359 with his first home run. He struck out 80 batters, good for 7th in the loop. He then spent another two years out of the ABL. With the 2008 Tigers, he was 9-2 with a save and a 3.20 ERA and produced at a .205/.333/.295 clip. He was 7th in ERA, 2nd in wins (two behind Walter Strasser), 2nd in IP (90, 21 behind Werner Harrasser), 2nd in K (129, 1 behind Harrasser) and 10th in WHIP (1.43).

Astl was with Austria for the 2008 European Championship Qualifiers but did not play. In 2009, he had a 9-6, 4.11 record and batted .263/.380/.465 with five home runs. He was 4th in home runs, tied for 6th with 26 RBI, led in wins (one ahead of Strasser), was 2nd in innings (105, 5 behind Harrasser) and led in strikeouts (114, 22 ahead of Strasser). He was out of the ABL in 2010. In '11, he hit .299/.390/.373 and was 4-2 with a 2.90 ERA. He was 10th in ERA, 8th in K (72), 9th in WHIP (1.25) and 4th in opponent average (.190). During 2012, he struggled (2-8, 11.21) on the mound but hit .273/.356/.443. He tied Joachim Frick for 5th in the league with four home runs.

Paul moved to the Dornbirn Indians in 2013 and rebounded to 4-6, 3.27 while batting .239/.314/.370. He was 5th in ERA, tied for 5th in wins, 7th in IP (63 1/3), 5th in K (45), 9th in WHIP (1.34) and 3rd in opponent average (.212). In the 2013 B-Level European Championship, he faced Denis Leonov and the tournament champion Russian national team, lasting only 1 2/3 IP and allowing three hits, three walks and five runs (four earned) in a loss. For Dornbirn in 2014, he was 7-2 with a 4.52 ERA and batted .250/.342/.312. He led the league in wins, was 2nd in IP (67 2/3), was 4th in K (47) and was 10th in WHIP (1.43). The next year, he was 4-3, 4.27 and .207/.419/.345. He was 7th in ERA, tied for 4th in wins, 6th in innings (52 2/3), 4th in strikeouts (43), 8th in WHIP (1.48) and 9th in opponent average.

In 2016, he was 0-2 with a 10.61 ERA and did not bat much either pr that well (.154/.371/.308). He was 0-1 with a 6.43 ERA for the '17 Athletics Attnang-Puchheim. In the 2017 B-Level European Championship, his woes continued, as his 60.75 ERA easily was Austria's highest (Clemens Cichocki was next at 9.00, giving up 9 runs in 1 1/3 IP (7 H, 4 BB) in a loss to the Swiss national team. During 2018, he returned to Dornbirn and had a 0-3, 6.65 record but hit four homers in 43 plate appearances (.314/.442/.713). He tied for 7th in the ABL in home runs. The next season, he hit .224/.324/.362 and was 3-1 with a save despite a 8.50 ERA.

The right-hander was with Austria for the 2019 European Championship, pitching in relief against Silver Medalist Italy. He took over for Thierry Letouzé in the 4th with a 4-1 deficit and worked the final five innings, allowing four hits, five walks and six runs, mostly on a grand slam by former major leaguer Chris Colabello. He struck out Colabello the other two times he faced him, though.

He did not play in 2020. He was 50th in career hits (159), 8th in career home runs (21, between Sammy Hackl and Richard Alzinger), tied for 31st in RBI (128), tied for 33rd in games played (213), 54th in slugging (.392), 6th in wins (43), 4th in IP (596 2/3, behind Harrasser, Strasser and Cichocki), 42nd in ERA (5.13) and 3rd in K (640, behind Strasser and Harrasser).