Petr Síla

From BR Bullpen

Petr Síla

  • Bats Left, Throws Right
  • Height 5' 9", Weight 170 lb.

Biographical Information[edit]

Petr Síla has won an Extraliga OBP title and played for the Czech national team.

Síla participated in the MLB European Academy in 2009. He made his Extraliga debut with Technika Brno; the 17-year-old was 1 for 4 with a walk and had 3 putouts and 2 assists. In the 2009 European Junior Championship, he hit .200/.407/.300, fielded .938, stole four bases in four tries and scored nine runs in six games to tie Nick Urbanus for the event lead.

In the 2010 Extraliga, he moved to Kotlářka Praha and hit .426/.483/.528 with 28 runs in 30 games and 22 steals in 25 tries. The youngster was second in the league in hits (10 behind former minor leaguer Jakub Hajtmar) and steals (8 behind Hajtmar). His steal total tied Petr Baroch and Michal Ondráček for the 8th-best season in the Extraliga for the period 1995-2010. He was also 5th in average, tied for 6th with 49 total bases, tied David Winkler for 8th in slugging, ranked 9th in OBP (between Jan Pojer and Přemek Chroust), was 10th in RBI (18) and tied for 5th in runs. He was 7 for 14 with five runs in the postseason. He hit .346/.485/.423 with 8 runs and 4 steals in 6 tries over 8 games in the 2010 World Junior Championship, fielding .951 as the main Czech 2B. Only Tomáš Sýkora had a higher average for the Czechs. He tied for the event lead in runs, tied Brandon Dailey and Andy Ibáñez for 3rd in walks and led in steals.

The Prague native hit .433/.547/.567 with 12 steals and a .939 fielding percentage in 2011. He was 3rd in the Extraliga in average (behind Martin Červenka and Martin Schneider), trailed the same two guys in OBP, was 7th in slugging and tied Martin Laube for 5th in steals. He opened 2012 with Redlands Community College in the US and hit .391 with 25 steals. He was not their lone Czech player as Ondráček was on the squad as well. Returning to the Extraliga late in the year, he hit .333/.411/.542 with 17 runs in 12 games, but fielded .864. He hit .176/.167/.176 in the postseason.

He produced at a .373/.478/.529 clip with 43 runs and 18 steals in 49 games for Redlands in 2012-2013; he was now joined by Matěj Šůcha and Daniel Vítek as Czech players at the school. Back in the Extraliga, he hit .308/.361/.423 and fielded .983 in 16 games. Transferring to the University of Arkansas Little Rock, he hit .288/.430/.363 and fielded .991 in 2013-2014. He was back with Kotlářka Praha for the 2014 European Cup but went 0 for 10 with 3 walks, a run, no steals in one try and a .941 fielding percentage. In the Extraliga regular season, he hit .368/.448/.745 in 15 games and handled 48 chances error-free. Had he qualified, he would have tied for 7th in average, been 10th in OBP and finished second to former minor leaguer Jakub Sládek in slugging. He batted .471/.571/1.176 with five runs in five postseason games and led the postseason in OBP and slugging. He hit .188/.308/.219 in the 2014 U-23 World Championship.

With UALR in 2015, he hit .268/.341/.287. He was 2 for 8 with four walks, a double, two runs and four RBI in the 2015 Universiade, tying Adam Hajtmar for the Czech lead in RBI. Moving to the outfield in the Extraliga, he hit .424/.525/.621 with 25 runs in 16 games, stealing 17 bases in 19 tries and fielding .977. He was 3rd in average (behind Mitch Nilsson and Schneider), led in OBP (.006 over former minor leaguer Matěj Hejma) and was second in steals (four behind Daniel Mráz) despite having spent the first part of the summer in the US. He then put on a strong show in the postseason, hitting .438/.514/.688 and leading all players in runs (13), hits (14) and steals (4). He was second in average behind Przemyslaw Paluch and won the best hitter of the postseason award. He helped lead the team to its first title. Through 2015, his .386 average was tied with Tomáš Pribyl for 9th in the history of the Extraliga (since records were first tracked in 1995).

He debuted for the Czech senior national team in the 2017 World Baseball Classic Qualifiers in March 2016. He pinch-ran for Sládek in the 8th inning of the 15-3 romp of the German national team and scored on Červenka's grand slam; he stayed in at DH but did not bat as the game ended early due to the mercy rule. He started the semifinal against Nicaragua in left field, leading off; the Czechs had tried Ondráček and Adam Hajtmar in left and leadoff the first two games. He singled off Berman Espinosa and scored on a Jakub Malik homer in the first but went 0 for 5 with three whiffs the rest of the day in a 7-6, 11-inning loss that showed that the Czechs could compete now with well-established baseball countries.

Sources[edit]

Retrieved from "https://www.baseball-reference.com/bpv/index.php?title=Petr_Síla&oldid=1219572"