Rémi Lejeune

• Bats Right Throws Right
• Born January 19, 1981

Biographical Information

Rémi Lejeune pitched in the Division Elite and for the French national team.

He debuted for France Équipe Fédérale in 1999, going 3-1 with a 3.82 ERA. In 2000, he fell to 1-3, 6.65 for the same club and allowed two unearned runs in four innings for the Paris Université Club. He moved to the Lions de Savigny sur Orge in 2001 and made huge strides at 10-2, 2.19 with a save and a .208 opponent average. He was a big part of the Lions' title run. He debuted for the national team in the 2001 Baseball World Cup. In his first outing, he relieved Patrice Briones in the 8th with a 5-1 deficit against Nicaragua and retired all six batters he faced (Julio Osejo, Sandy Moreno, Edgard López, Jimmy Gonzalez, Jorge Avellán, Jenrry Roa) for a strong showing. His next game, against Italy, he again excelled; taking over for Briones in the 6th, he retired six of seven batters (one reached via error) while he struck out one before Guillaume Gisbert succeeded him. He got a tough call against Team USA in his third game, facing Jason Stanford. Against a team with several future MLB regulars like Carl Crawford, Orlando Hudson and Joe Borchard, he allowed three hits, a walk and two runs in two innings before Patrick Carlson relieved. The bullpen gave up 15 runs in 5 innings as he again outshone his staffmates. For the event, his 3.00 ERA was third on France, after Samuel Meurant and Anthony Piquet.

Lejeune fell to 4-4 with a save and a 3.52 ERA for the 2002 Lions, who repeated. He was 2-0 with a 1.13 ERA in '03. In the 2003 European Championship, he had a 1.35 ERA for France, part of a dazzling staff ERA of 1.70. After two fine international tournaments, he was rocked in the 2003 Baseball World Cup in a loss to US and outings against Japan and Panama. He gave up 21 hits (6 doubles and 6 homers) in 44 at-bats with 2 walks, 2 hit batsmen and 3 strikeouts; he yielded 19 runs (16 earned) in 7 1/3 IP. His 19.34 ERA was France's second-highest; Thomas Langloys was higher. The Lions won in 2004 and he had a career year at 15-3, 1.97; the rest of the staff had a combined 11-9 record; Florian Peyrichou was second with four wins.

After his dazzling 2004, Lejeune did not pitch in 2005, then was 1-0 with a save and a 2.45 ERA in 2006. He did not pitch for the Lions in 2007-2008 then was 1-0 with a 3.21 ERA in 2009. He also pitched in the Challenge de France in 2003 and 2009, going 2-0 with a 3.55 ERA. His career record in France was 39-13, 3.03 with 3 saves in 78 games (60 starts).

Sources

• Stats.free.fr
• Defunct IBAF site
• Wayback Archive, 2003 European Championship