Claus-Jan Hendricks

• Born May 12, 1977 in Mettmann, North Rhine-Westphalia Germany

Biographical Information

Claus-Jan Hendricks played in the Bundesliga and for the German national team.

He debuted for the Ratingen Goose-Necks in 1998, hitting .317/.425/.386 and was 4-10 with a 10.70 ERA. He was 9th in the Bundesliga-1 north in putouts (182, between Matthias Winterrath and Wilgen Reyes), tied for 7th in errors (16), was second in strikeouts (105, 11 behind Frank Stattler), was 4th in losses, threw 7th in IP (90, between Alexander Schnitzler and Mirko Heid), led in walks (90, 24 more than anyone else), led with 48 wild pitches (22 more than anyone else) and led in K/IP (1.17, .18 ahead of runner-up Stattler). In '99, he had even wilder pitching numbers (1-15, Sv, 11.64, 120 K, 101 BB in 89 2/3 IP) while throwing over half of his team's innings (their other hurlers combined for 74 1/3, going 2-10) as he started 16 of their 28 games (and relieved in two others). He batted .267/.308/.314 while leading the team in both RBI (16) and steals (11). In the Bundesliga-1 north, he tied for 5th in swipes, was 3rd in errors (13), fanned the most (33 more than Stattler), led in walks, was second in innings, walked the most (37 more than Benjamin Kleiner) and was second to Dustin Carlson in K/IP.

Moving to the Bonn Capitals in 2000, he improved dramatically to 4-6 with a save and a 3.79 ERA. He was 5th in ERA (between Rob Dyer and Carlson), 6th in losses, 10th in innings (57), 5th in walks (46), 5th in wild pitches (17) and 9th in WHIP (between René Herlitzius and Michael Wäller). The next summer, he had a 9-5, 3.90 record, hitting .271/.375/.291. He was 6th in ERA (between Thorsten Wöhner and Frank Röpke), second in strikeouts (92, 7 behind Röpke), second in wins (two shy of Stattler), first in innings (87 2/3, 4 ahead of Röpke), 5th in walks (42), tied for second in wild pitches (12), 3rd in K/IP (after Wil Rikard and Röpke) and 9th in WHIP. In the 2001 European Championship, he made four appearances but totaled just 2 2/3 IP (1 H, 6 BB, 2 K, 4 R, 3 ER). He tied for 2nd in the 2001 Euros in games pitched (even with Andrey Semenov, Marc Cerbone, Ivica Anić, Dirk Fries and Radek Procházka, one behind Dave Draijer).

The Mettmann native fell to 6-7, 5.00 in 2002 and batted .261/.286/.318, usually playing the outfield when not pitching. He was 9th in ERA, 2nd in strikeouts (64, 51 behind Wöhner), tied for 7th in wins, tied for 4th in losses, was 4th in IP (66 2/3), led in walks (52, 2 more than Wöhner) and was 4th in K/IP (.96, between Stefan Fechtig and Jens Cornelsen). He was 0-2 with a save and a 5.60 ERA in 2003 and produced at a .304/.349/.375 clip. In 2004, he was 6 for 19 and had a 3.00 ERA in limited action. The next year, he was 1-1 with a 8.24 ERA and hit .343/.410/.400. During 2006, he went 8 for 29 and had a 2-2, 8.15 record. He then spent four seasons back with the Goose-Necks, who had fallen to the German minor leagues.