Peter Stroobants

Peter Stroobants

• Born April 10, 1975

Biographical Information

Peter Stroobants played for the Belgian national team several times.

Stroobants debuted in 1991 with the Hoboken Pioneers and went 1 for 8 at age 16. In 1992, he was 6 for 18 with 2 doubles, a triple and 3 walks; he also was 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA as a pitcher. During '93, Peter went 6 for 45 with a double, triple and four walks. He had a save and a 11.25 ERA. He hit .328/.426/.483 in 1994 and had a 3.86 ERA and one save. In 1995, the Hoboken player hit .476/.560/.667. He was 3-2 with four saves and a 5.57 ERA but walked 54 in 53 1/3 IP. He was 6th in the First Division in batting average. In the 1995 European Championship, he batted .308/.471/.538 with 8 runs, 7 RBI and two home runs in 9 games. He tied for 6th in the event in home runs and also tied for 6th with 8 walks.

Stroobants hit .424/.518/.685 in 1996. On the mound, he was 4-4 with 8 saves and a 12.95 ERA. He walked a league-high 90 in 57 2/3 innings. He did not finish in the top 10 in average or slugging. He produced at a .485/.569/.796 clip in '97 and was 1-3 with 5 saves and a 13.35 ERA; he served up 11 homers in 31 innings. He was third in the circuit in batting average, 7th in slugging and 10th in runs scored (41). In 1998, he had another strong season at .412/.515/.776 with 14 homers, 14 steals (in 17 tries), 63 runs and 59 RBI; on the hill, he was 1-2 with two saves and a 11.53 ERA. He placed 6th in average, tied for 5th in runs, tied for 8th in home runs and tied Kevin Peeters for 6th in walks (31).

In 1999, Stroobants played his final season for Hoboken. He was 15 for 42 with two doubles, four home runs and ten walks. He had a 6.35 ERA. He hit .238/.273/.238 in the 1999 European Championship, had 14 putouts and one assist in five games in the field. He was named the All-Star center fielder, the only Belgian to win All-Star honors. In the outfield, he was flanked by Italians Daniel Newman and Claudio Liverziani. Moving to the Brasschaat Braves in 2000, he hit .388/.480/.612. In 2001, he hit .429/.509/.747 for the Braves. He struggled in the 2001 European Championship, going 2 for 23 with four walks and nine strikeouts. He appeared in center field (4 games), shortstop (2 games) and right field (1 game).

Stroobants batted .425/.564/.763 with 45 runs in 2002. He pitched for his only time after leaving Hoboken (1-0, Sv, 6.00). He was second in the First Division in average, led in runs (1 ahead of Randy Giorgiadis), tied for the lead in walks (26), was 4th in home runs (6) and was second in slugging. In 2003, he fell to .308/.510/.526 while moving to the Antwerp Royal Greys. He was Belgium's third baseman in the 2003 European Championship, going 3 for 20 with 5 walks, 9 strikeouts and 2 times hit-by-pitch. He made four errors. He tied for 11th in the event in free passes.

In 2004, the veteran batted .298/.409/.684 for the Greys, finishing 4th in slugging. He hit .354/.464/.522 in 2005. He tied for third in the league with 31 runs and led with 13 times hit-by-pitch. In his final season, 2006, he batted .260/.451/.411 for Antwerp.

Sources

• Belgian Baseball Federation
• International baseball statistician Harry Wedemeijer