Simon Rosenbaum

Simon Rosenbaum

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 6", Weight 230 lb.

• School Pomona College
• High School Los Altos High School

• Born December 28, 1993

BR register page

Biographical Information

Simon Rosenbaum has played for the Israeli national team.

Rosenbaum was 5-1 with a 2.03 ERA and hit .398 as a college freshman before injury ended his season. In 2014, he batted .474/.578/.822, leading NCAA Division III in OBP and finishing 2nd in average. He was named Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Player of the Year and first-team All-American. As his father was an Israeli native, he was able to play for the Israeli national team in the 2014 C-Level European Championship. He batted .529/.636/1.294 with 10 RBI and an event-leading four dingers to win MVP honors as Israel won the event. He was 7th in the event in average, led in slugging, was 6th in OBP, tied for first in runs, tied teammate Aric Weinberg for 2nd in RBI, was 2nd with 9 hits, led in homers and led in total bases.

He hit .359/.479/.627 in college in 2014-2015. As Israel's first baseman in the 2015 B-Level European Championship, he produced at a .417/.462/.667 clip with 2 homers and 8 RBI in 5 games; in their last game against Sweden, he came up big with 3 hits but his team fell, 9-8. He tied Dominik Talir for 8th in the tournament in average, was 6th in slugging (between Eitan Maoz and Joachim Frick), tied for 2nd with 10 hits (1 behind Magnus Pilegård), was 2nd in RBI (trailing Maoz by 4), was 3rd with 16 total bases, tied Joel Johnson for the most dingers and led in fielding percentage (0 E in 48 TC). He batted .245/.288/.327 for the Vermont Mountaineers in summer ball. As a senior, he slipped to .286/.420/.457 for Pomona, while going 2-1 with 4 saves and a 4.63 ERA>

Simon was a player-coach for the Brussels Kangaroos in 2016, when they were not in Belgium's top league. He was an advance scout intern for the Tampa Bay Rays. Tampa Bay then hired him in their baseball development department.

Back on the field with Israel for the 2019 B-Level European Championship, he did just fine for someone who had not been an active player for a few years. He batted .360/.407/.640 with 2 homers and 6 runs in 6 games. The front-office guy tied Maxim Monakhov for 5th in the event with 9 hits and tied Mitch Glasser and Geidys Soler for 5th with 16 total bases. In the finale, he grounded in Glasser with Israel's first run against Russia. Down 3-2 in the 8th, he homered off Andrei Lobanov to tie it and Israel rallied tow in, their first B-Level title. That got Israel a spot in the 2019 European Championship Playoff against Lithunia. Israel swept both games; Rosenbaum homered off Eimantas Žičkus in the opener and drove in 5 the next day, taking Marius Balandis deep. He led the playoff in average (.571), slugging (1.571, .071 ahead of Rob Paller), OBP (.700, tied with Paller), RBI (one ahead of Paller), hits (4, tied with Jeremy Wolf) and homers (tied with Paller and Wolf). Israel advanced to its first European Championship.

For the 2019 European Championship, Rosenbaum was in the heart of the batting order, even though he had no pro US experience and the team boasted two former major leaguers in the lineup and five of the other starters had some (or a lot) of US pro experience. Rosenbaum just kept hitting, including a grand slam against Silver Medal-bound Italy's former AAA hurler Murilo Gouvêa. He hit .333/.500/.500 heading into the final day (which did not count for statistical leaders), with 5 RBI, outproducing the two former major leaguers on the team, Danny Valencia and Ty Kelly. Only Blake Gailen had a better OPS for Israel. He tied Sharlon Schoop and Jordan Serena for 7th in the event in OBP and the 6' 6" guy with the big strike zone tied Roger Bernadina and Alberto Mineo for 5th with 6 walks. In the Bronze Medal Game, he was hit by a Jorge Balboa pitch and fanned against Leslie Nacar before being replaced by Benjamin Wanger in a loss to Spain. Israel had won a spot in the 2019 Europe/Africa Olympic Qualifier, though.