Paul Weichard

Paul Weichard

• Bats Both, Throws Left
• Height 5' 10", Weight 200 lb.

• High School Ringwood Secondary College

• Born November 7, 1979 in Ringwood, Victoria Australia

BR Register page

Biographical Information

Paul Weichard played in the minors leagues and the CPBL.

Weichard debuted with the Melbourne Reds in the 1996-1997 Australian Baseball League, hitting .226/.324/.258. He was signed by the Arizona Diamondbacks in 1997 (the scout was John Wadsworth), and he hit .183/.356/.226 for the AZL Diamondbacks in his first season. The next winter, he was at .188/.257/.375 for Melbourne. He hit .293/.412/.367 with 19 steals in 23 tries for the Lethbridge Black Diamonds in 1998. He tied Scot Hemmings for 10th in the Pioneer League in swipes. He was then dealt with a player to be named later (Jason Boyd) to the Pittsburgh Pirates for All-Star Tony Womack.

His batting line fell to .225/.288/.313 with 23 steals for the Hickory Crawdads in 1999. He tied Vic Gutierrez and Manny Ravelo for 5th in the Bucs chain in swipes. In the International Baseball League of Australia that off-season, he was 4 for 20 with 9 steals in 5 games! He tied Ben Utting for second in steals, one shy of Adam Burton. Weichard then stole 20 bases with a .251/.338/.361 batting line for the Lynchburg Hillcats in 2000, then he hit .255/.367/.314 in the IBLA but was only 3-for-11 in steals. He only got 75 at-bats for the Hillcats in 2001 and hit .243/.270/.257. He hit .196/.312/.235 for the '02 Hillcats. He batted .188/.278/.438 for Victoria in the 2003 Claxton Shield.

Weichard was turned into a pitcher after going to the Atlanta Braves. He had a 2.14 ERA in 22 games for the Rome Braves (going 2-0 with two saves), and he also pitched 5 shutout innings for the Danville Braves. He was 1-0 but allowed two runs in 2/3 of an inning for Victoria that winter, then gave up 2 runs in 2/3 IP for the Australian Provincials in the 2005 Claxton Shield. In the '06 Shield, he allowed 12 runs (5 earned) in 3 1/3 innings for the Provincials. Moving back to the outfield, he batted .357/.438/.536 with 7 runs in 10 games for Victoria in 2007, his best offensive time yet in Australia.

He signed with the St. Joe Blacksnakes as an outfielder for 2007, and he hit .313/.365/.425 with 3 homers. He also played 31 games that year for the Sioux City Explorers, but his batting line fell to .204/.316/.357. In the 2008 Shield, he hit .333/.370/.513 with 12 RBI in 12 games. Only Tom Brice had more RBI and only Mitch Dening had more triples than his two; he led with 3 sac flies. The DMedia T-Rex then signed him as a pitcher in 2008, but he had a 18.00 ERA in 3 games. He represented Australia in the 2008 Final Olympic Qualification Tournament, hitting .226/.273/.290, played error-free ball as their main center fielder and even pitched two shutout innings against South Korea.

In limited time in the 2009 Claxton Shield, the veteran batted .400/.462/.657 with 9 RBI in 8 games for Victoria. His last Claxton Shield was the 2009-2010 one, when he hit .342/.415/.507. He was 9th in average (between Trent D'Antonio and Andrew Graham), tied for 7th in RBI (15), 7th in slugging (between Graham and D'Antonio) and 9th in OBP (between Josh Davies and Tim Kennelly).

Sources

• Flintoff & Dunn Australian Baseball Almanacs
• 2002 Pirates Media Guide, pg. 291
• Taiwan Baseball Wiki
• Australian Baseball Federation site
• 2008 Final Olympic Qualification Tournament Final Report