Petr Baroch

Petr Baroch

• Bats Left, Throws Right

• Born April 3, 1982

Biographical Information

Petr Baroch played and coached for the Czech national team in several events and appeared in the Hoofdklasse. He led the Czech Extraliga in average, OBP and steals.

In 2003, Baroch hit .356/.433/.423 with 18 steals in 19 tries for the Tegola Praha in Extraliga. He was 10th in the league in hits (37), 9th in average, tied for third with 26 RBI, tied for second in steals and led in assists (95). In the 2003 European Championship, Petr was 3 for 21 with 4 walks and 4 steals in 4 tries. He tied Nick Markakis and one other player for 4th in the event in swipes.

Baroch batted .417/.520/.592 in 2004 with 22 steals in 29 tries and 28 runs in 29 games. He was third in the circuit in hits (43), 4th in average, second in total bases (61, trailing Pavel Budský), third in slugging, tied for third in walks (20), 4th in OBP, 7th in RBI (20), led in steals and was third in runs.

In 2005, Petr moved to Krč Altron and slumped to .341/.455/.500 with 9 steals in 11 attempts and was not among the league leaders in many departments. He was with the Czech Republic for the 2005 European Championship, hitting .333/.344/.400 with 7 RBI in 8 games, fielding .938 at SS. He led the Czechs in hits (10, 2 ahead of Jakub Hajtmar) and RBI (3 ahead of Hajtmar and Michal Müller). In the 2005 Baseball World Cup, the first Baseball World Cup the country ever played in, Baroch hit a fine .263/.375/.316 with 3 steals in 5 tries, fielding .903 at shortstop. He was second on the team in OBP as one of the bright spots on an 0-8 club.

Baroch moved up to Hoofdklasse in 2007 and hit .336/.380/.414 for the MediaMonks RCH. He was 9th in the league in average, trailing 3 former US minor leaguers and a former Cuban Serie Nacional player. He was just 7-for-13 in steal attempts. In the 2007 European Championship, Baroch only was 1 for 15 with a walk.

In the 2008 Hoofdklasse campaign, Baroch hit .265/.383/.364 and stole 15 bases in 17 tries. He was second to Jermaine Esprit in steals, tied for 8th with 25 walks and just missed the top 15 in OBP. Baroch was MVP of one of the qualifiers for the 2009 European Championship, hitting .429/.500/.643 with 5 runs in 4 games and 4 steals in 4 tries to help the Czech Republic advance. He was third in the tourney in slugging and tied for second in steals.

Baroch returned to the Czech Republic in 2009, citing personal reasons. He saw limited action that year for the Eagles Praha, hitting .241/.267/.379 in 7 games and fielding .895. He still made the Czech squad for the 2009 Baseball World Cup, going 1 for 6, his lone hit coming off Francisco Cordoba of Mexico. He produced at a .273/.529/.273 clip in the 2010 European Championship with six walks in five games, fielding .913. He was 9th in the first round in OBP and tied Eugene Kingsale for 3rd in walks (the Czechs did not make the second round).

In 2010, he hit .397/.482/.548 to place among the Extraliga leaders in OBP (6th, between Petr Síla and Ryan Murphy), average (5th) and slugging (6th, between Murphy and Sila). His batting line in 2011 was .348/.405/.417, he fielded .919 and he stole 7 bases in 8 tries. He tied for 7th in the loop with 46 hits. He hit .351/.429/.458 and fielded .933 in 2012, finishing 10th in hits. He backed up Martin Schneider at short in the 2012 European Championship and pinch-ran often. He was 0 for 3 with a walk and 3 runs. Running for Petr Čech in the 9th inning against Germany, he scored on an error to tie it at three but Germany won in the 10th. He also got the first run in their 3-2 upset of the Dutch national team, running for Jakub Sládek in the 8th and scoring on a Jakub Malik hit.

His last appearance for the Czech national team as a player was in the 2013 World Baseball Classic Qualifiers; the 30-year-old got into a game and did not bat. He had a huge campaign in 2013, hitting .474/.532/.654 and scoring 29 runs in 20 games, fielding .929. He led the Extraliga in OBP (.007 over Martin Veselý), average (.044 over Malik), triples (4) and was 3rd in slugging (behind Jiří Marek and Malik). He slumped to .269/.342/.373 and fielded .910 in 2014. By the 2014 European Championship, he had transitioned to a coaching role for the Czech team. In reduced action in 2015, he hit .378/.410/.459 as Praha won its first title.

He coached for the Czechs in the 2016 World Baseball Classic Qualifiers.

Sources

• Old Dutch Baseball Federation site
• Czech baseball stats
• Harry Wedemeijer's international tourney stats
• Italian Baseball Federation
• CEB
• World Baseball Classic
• Wayback Archive of the 2005 European Championship site