Bryan Engelhardt
From BR Bullpen
Bryan Engelhardt
- Bats Left, Throws Left
- Born January 10, 1982 in Curaçao
Bryan Engelhardt is an outfielder for the Almere Magpies. He was the first two-time winner of the Jacques Reuvers Award. He twice has led Hoofdklasse in home runs.
Engelhardt was in talks with the Baltimore Orioles when younger, but did not impress in the Venezuelan Summer League and went to Holland instead. Bryan debuted in Hoofdklasse in 2002 with PSV. He started off on a strong note, homering against Ruan Klink in his first at-bat. He wound up tying for sixth in the league with two triples. He starred in 2002 Haarlem Baseball Week, hitting .389 and winning his first Jacques Reuever Award, beating out the likes of Carlos Quentin, Dustin Pedroia and Huston Street. He also hit .429/.600/.571 for the Dutch national team in the 2002 Intercontinental Cup.
In 2003, the 21-year-old finished 9th in Hoofdklasse with 12 stolen bases (in 14 tries). That year, he played with the Dutch national team in the European Championship, World Port Tournament, 2004 Olympics qualification tournament and the World Cup. In the 2003 European Championship, Engelhardt hit .308/~.308/.500 with 10 RBI in 7 games. He led the competition in RBI and made the All-Star outfield. In the 2003 Baseball World Cup, Engelhardt hit .238/.346/.476 with 6 RBI in six games. In the 2003 World Port Tournament, he hit .280/~.333/.320 for the Netherlands.
He moved to B.S.C. Almere'90 in 2004 and tied Greg Halman for the league lead with four homers. He was 2 for 13 in the 2004 Haarlem Baseball Week. In 2005, Bryan batted .323/.417/.516 but was limited to nine games. On May 5, he tore a muscle in his shoulder and missed the remainder of the year.
Engelhardt hit .297/.343/.506 in 2006. He tied for 10th in Hoofdklasse with 9 doubles, tied for 4th with 3 triples and led with six home runs. During 2006 Haarlem Baseball Week, he batted .444/.565/1.000 with a tourney-leading three homers and won the Jacques Reuvers Award for a record second time. In the 2006 Intercontinental Cup, he split left field for the Netherlands with Danny Rombley but hit just .211/.211/.263 in 5 games for the silver medalists.
Engelhardt batted .250/.368/.382 only in Hoofdklasse in 2007. In the 2007 World Port Tournament, he was 3 for 19 with 2 doubles and 4 walks. He was left off of the Dutch squad for the 2007 European Championship but was added for the 2007 Baseball World Cup and hit .258/.378/.484. He missed a cycle by a triple against the Venezuelan national team and homered for the lone Dutch run against Team Canada.
In 2008, Engelhardt was decked with a 10-game suspension for his role in a large brawl between Kinheim and Neptunus on May 18. Bryan hit .222/.300/.389 for Kinheim as they won the 2008 European Cup in Grosseto. He had the lowest average of the team's starters but hit their only home run.
Sources: Honkbalsite.com, Dutch baseball stats, Marco Stoovelaar's Dutch baseball site, Haarlem Honkbalweek site, IBAF site, Harry Wedemeijer's international competitions statistics site, 2008 European Cup in Grosseto
