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Mitchel Dekker – Right/Left Field – Luxembourg Lancers – 70.2% Third Ballot

Mitchel Dekker was a 6’0’’, 200 pound left-handed corner outfielder from Bergen, Netherlands; a town of about 30,000 in North Holland. Dekker was an especially strong batter against right-handed pitching with a career 159 wRC+ and .950 OPS. Against fellow lefties, he graded as slightly above average with a 109 wRC+ and .739 OPS. In total, Dekker statistically had very good contact and power skills with an above average eye and subpar strikeout rate.

Dekker topped 30+ home runs ten times and 40+ four times, although he especially mashed righties with more than 5/6 of his career homers against RHP. His gap power was respectable with around 25-30 doubles reliably each season and 30+ four times. Dekker’s baserunning instincts were alright, but his speed was laughably poor. This also led to lousy range in the outfield.

Defensively, Dekker’s career was split fairly evenly between the corner outfield spots with a bit more time in right over left. His arm was good enough to make him merely mediocre in right compared to awful in left. Despite his flaws, Dekker was one of the hardest working guys in the clubhouse and was considered quite adaptable. He also showed impressive durability for most of his career, playing 140+ games in all but one season from 1992-2005.

Dekker’s bat immediately stood out amongst the Dutch amateur scene and he quickly rose up the prospect ranks for the 1991 EBF Draft. Luxembourg would select him with the #1 overall pick, becoming a full-time starter immediately. Dekker had a remarkable debut season with 6.9 WAR, 42 home runs, and a .999 OPS. He was the undisputed Rookie of the Year and won Rookie of the Month in four of six months.

In six seasons for the Lancers, Dekker posted 5+ WAR, a OPS above .900, batting average above .300, and 35+ home runs each season. His strongest effort was his final Luxembourg season in 1997 with career bests in homers (48), wRC+ (183), and WAR (8.0). Despite his success, Dekker wasn’t in awards conversations with the competition at the corner outfield spots.

Dekker also had almost no black ink, but he was reliably in the top ten in many of the power stats each year. He also didn’t get much recognition in his early years as Luxembourg was atrocious at this point. The Lancers’ best record during Dekker’s tenure was a mere 74-88 in 1995. With that, Luxembourg figured they weren’t going to be able to keep Dekker as he entered a contract year in 1998.

He did have some notoriety back home in the Netherlands as a regular in the World Baseball Championship. Dekker had 138 games and 115 starts for the Dutch team from 1992-2009, posting 100 hits, 62 runs, 16 doubles, 27 home runs, 51 RBI, a .236/.330/.474 slash, 128 wRC+, and 3.5 WAR.

In January 1998, the Lancers traded Dekker to Barcelona for four prospects. With Luxembourg, Dekker finished with 950 games, 1072 hits, 552 runs, 141 doubles, 237 home runs, 614 RBI, a .312/.376/.579 slash, 165 wRC+, and 37.7 WAR. It was easily his longest and most statistically impressive tenure, although Dekker isn’t remembered necessarily as a Luxembourg legend by the public.

Barcelona won the 1996 European Championship, but narrowly missed the playoffs in 1997. They hoped Dekker could solidify the lineup and he helped them get a wild card in 1998, although they lost in the first round of the playoffs. Unfortunately for Dekker, those five games were the only playoff games of his career.

1998 was his lone season as a league leader with 43 doubles. It also saw career bests in runs (109), homers (48), batting average (.337), and OPS (1.041). The Bengals were impressed, giving Dekker a five-year, $18,800,000 extension in the summer of 1998. Dekker put up very similar numbers in 1999, winning his lone Silver Slugger. Despite his efforts, Barcelona shockingly plummeted that year to 62-100, a stunning drop considering they had been one of EBF’s better teams in the 1990s overall.

Dekker’s power dropped a bit in 2000 with only 26 home runs and a career-worst to that point 4.3 WAR. Barcelona got back to 76 wins, but Dekker decided to opt out of the remaining part of his contract. In three seasons for the Bengals, Dekker had 578 hits, 280 runs, 110 doubles, 112 home runs, 334 RBI, a .328/.378/.593 slash, 162 wRC+, and 18.2 WAR. In December 2000 heading into his age 31 season, Dekker signed a five-year, $19,600,000 deal with Birmingham.

The Bees had also been a top tier team in the 1990s, although they would oscillate between mediocre and mid in the 2000s. Dekker had a great debut season in 2001 with 47 homers, 7.1 WAR, and a career high 123 RBI. He never matched that production in the next four seasons. Dekker also suffered a broken bone in his elbow in July 2002, missing the entire second half of that season. While not elite, Dekker was still a solid starter-quality outfielder.

With Birmingham, Dekker had 770 hits, 390 runs, 113 doubles, 149 home runs, 443 RBI, a .296/.334/.525 slash, 141 wRC+, and 19.0 WAR. He was two away from the 500 career home run mark and in striking distance of both 2500 hits and 1500 RBI. However, Dekker’s EBF career ended here after his age 35 season, as teams could find younger and cheaper guys to get that production.

Dekker still played pro baseball five more seasons. In 2006, he signed a three-year, $6,600,000 deal with Vanuatu, who was entering the Oceania Baseball Association that year as an expansion team. Dekker was decent in 2006 with 3.0 WAR and 31 home runs. The Wizards would trade him to Christchurch after one season.

The Chinooks used him purely in a platoon role in 2007 and 2008 with respectable results, getting 177 hits, 93 runs, 37 home runs, a 138 wRC+, and 4.7 WAR over 225 games and 138 starts. Dekker was a free agent again for 2009 at age 39 and again found his way to a new expansion club looking for reliable veterans.

Dekker signed three years and $11,400,000 with Yaounde, a newcomer into West African Baseball. He was a full-time starter with very average results in 2009, missing part of the spring to a strained hamstring. Dekker stunk in a part-time role in 2010 with -1.2 WAR, giving him -0.2 WAR for his Yellow Birds tenure. He retired from pro baseball that winter at age 40.

The full pro career stats saw 2917 hits, 1482 runs, 417 doubles, 590 home runs, 1684 RBI, 820 walks, a .301/.356/.545 slash, 148 wRC+, and 82.4 WAR. That combined stat line probably is a pretty sure bet for Hall of Fame induction. However, the extra five years outside EBF padded Dekker’s counting stats a bit. Just in EBF, he had 2420 hits, 1222 runs, 364 doubles, 498 home runs, 1391 RBI, 667 walks, a .311/.366/.564 slash, 156 wRC+, and 74.9 WAR.

Those stats were a bit more borderline, plus Dekker had the misfortune of being on mostly bad teams. He didn’t have any big statistical seasons or awards either. As of 2037, he’s 54^th on the home run list, 58^th in RBI, and 63^rd in hits. Certain voters saw Dekker as a “Hall of Pretty Good” level guy. Being the #1 overall draft pick actually hurt him too with that group, as you’re expected to be a regular MVP candidate from that slot.

Dekker still only narrowly missed the 66% requirement with 62.4% for his 2011 ballot debut. He slightly dropped to 59.7% in 2012, but got a bump up with a quieter 2013 group. At 70.2%, Dekker had the second-best percentage among the three 2013 inductees into the EBF Hall of Fame.



Spyridon “Crayon” Sidiropoulou – Starting Pitcher – Athens Anchors – 68.5% Second Ballot

Spyridon Sidiropoulou was a 6’2’’, 200 pound right-handed pitcher from Thessaloniki, the second-largest city in Greece. Sidiropoulou threw hard with solid stuff, excellent control, and above average movement. His fastball was stellar with regular 97-99 mph velocity. Sidiropoulou’s curveball was also strong and was mixed in with a respectable changeup and occasional circle change. His pitching stamina was above average relative to other EBF aces, although he would run into some injury troubles.

Sidiropoulou was considered to be the next possible two-way star in EBF. If EBF used the designated hitter, he probably would’ve gotten plenty of starts there. Despite being a tremendous athlete and a good defensive pitcher, Sidiropoulou’s glove work anywhere else was atrocious. He did make 23 starts at second base and was a sub there a few times, but his defensive stats were Little League level. Thus, Sidiropoulou never was a true two-way guy.

That said, he got regular pinch hit use and even some pinch running use. Sidiropoulou was a very quick and crafty baserunner and boasted a reliably solid well rounded bat. He had 815 games and 370 starts in his career as a hitter and managed 19.4 WAR, a .307/.355/.577 slash, 154 wRC+, 471 hits, 277 runs, 70 doubles, 30 triples, 95 home runs, 261 EBI, and 90 steals. Sidiropoulou’s very strong value at the plate as a pitcher definitely helped him get across the line for Hall of Fame induction.

The possible two-way potential helped Sidiropoulou to earn the #1 overall pick by Zagreb in the 1992 EBF Draft. The Gulls only used him in three relief appearances in 1993, then he was awful in 12 starts in 1994 with a 7.05 ERA. However, Sidiropoulou tossed 9.2 scoreless innings in the 1994 playoffs, showing his potential. The Gulls fell that year to Barcelona in the Southern Conference Championship.

Sidiropoulou became a mostly full-time starter pitching with merely above average results in 1995. Disaster struck in late August 1995 with a torn UCL, which kept him out the rest of 1995 and much of 1996. Sidiropoulou did make it back late in 1996 and had a 3.75 ERA over 3 playoff starts. Zagreb again made the conference final and again were denied the pennant by Barcelona.

1997 was a breakout year, leading the conference in wins and shutouts. Sidiropoulou also had an impressive 1.223 OPS and 3.2 WAR at the plate in only 155 plate appearances. He struggled in his one playoff start as Zagreb had a first round exit. The Gulls would miss the playoffs in the next two seasons. Sidiropoulou would lead in complete games in 1998 and in both innings and quality starts in 1999.

Sidiropoulou had three straight 5+ WAR pitching seasons for Zagreb from 1997-99 and had 2+ WAR offensively each of those years, but he never got awards consideration. Sidiropoulou gave you reliable innings, but lacked the raw pitching dominance needed to earn attention. 1999 would be his best season by ERA at 2.89. Sidiropoulou only had one more sub-three ERA season in 2002.

Heading into his contract year in 2000, the 29-year old Sidiropoulou was traded in the offseason by Zagreb to Athens for five prospects and a draft pick. With the Gulls, Sidiropoulou finished with a 76-47 record, 3.48 ERA, 1187 innings, 1045 strikeouts, 166 walks, 111 ERA+, and 22.0 WAR.

Sidiropoulou was excited to return to his home country. He had pitched for Greece in the World Baseball Championship previously, posting 156 innings from 1994-2006 with a 9-9 record, 3.91 ERA, 167 strikeouts, 25 walks, 91 ERA+, and 1.6 WAR. At the plate in the WBC, he was 17-80 for a .212/.308/.412 slash.

Athens was in the mix in the early 2000s, winning division titles in 2000 and 2002. However, they were defeated both seasons in the second round of the playoffs and missed the cut in Sidiropoulou’s other seasons. His career playoff stats were lousy with a 4.53 ERA over 53.2 innings, 45 strikeouts, and 84 ERA+, plus a .242/.265/.333 slash at the plate.

Sidiropoulou did lead the Southern Conference twice in wins (2000, 2001) with Athens and led in innings in 2002. All of his seasons for the Anchors had 3.5+ WAR or better pitching with a high of 6.0 in 2002. Sidiropoulou was worth 10.3 WAR total in 2002 with a blistering 1.119 OPS, 203 wRC+, and 4.3 WAR offensively with a .353/.400/.719 slash.

Still, Sidiropoulou didn’t get any MVP consideration. He also never won a Silver Slugger as a pitcher, sharing a conference with stronger true two-way batting stars like Daniel Ramires, Atanas Kalkanov, and Michael Stojanovic. Sidiropoulou did earn a four-year, $19,900,000 with Athens in February 2001.

Sidiropoulou started to run into elbow troubles in his later years with the Anchors and became a free agent in 2006 at age 35. With Athens, Sidiropoulou had a 98-62 record, 3.42 ERA, 1436 innings, 1298 strikeouts, 213 walks, 28.1 WAR, and 113 ERA+. At the plate, he had a .307/.353/.558 slash, 149 wRC+, 11.2 WAR, 50 home runs, 265 hits, 151 runs, and 62 stolen bases over 460 games and 202 starts.

Berlin signed Sidiropoulou for three years and $13,560,000. However, he was abysmal in his limited time pitching in 2006 with a 6.03 ERA over 74.2 innings. Much of the season was also plagued by a ruptured finger tendon. After just one season with the Barons, Sidiropoulou retired at age 36.

Sidiropoulou’s pitching stats saw a 178-113 record, 3.52 ERA, 2697.2 innings, 2397 strikeouts, 390 walks, 207/347 quality starts, 112 complete games, 109 ERA+, and 49.7 WAR. As of 2037, Sidiropoulou has the second worst ERA of any Hall of Famer in EBF. The other, Gianfranco Marinis, could get by on throwing more innings than anyone else. Sidiropoulou’s accumulations weren’t anything jaw-dropping either and he didn’t have awards to his name.

However, guys like his Hall of Fame classmate Reggie Hobart and Vincent Cassar the prior year made it in with similar pitching WARs. 49.7 was very low-end, but the 69.1 when combining Sidiropoulou’s offensive value became much more nice. He never was the true stud expected from a #1 overall pick, but you could put him in a lot of spots in the batting order during his pitching starts and expect positive results.

Sidiropoulou debuted at 64.4% in 2012, just short of the 66% requirement. 2013 only saw a slight bump to 68.5%, but that got him across the line. Sidiropoulou isn’t mentioned among the best-of-the-best two-way type guys, but he’s got his slot in EBF’s Hall of Fame.