WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: POOL A - NETHERLANDS VS CHINESE TAIPEI

March 11, 2023

Hensley Meulens

Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium

Team Netherlands

Pregame Press Conference

Q. (No translation.)

HENSLEY MEULENS: I think since 2000, when we were allowed to play, professionals were allowed to play on the team, we started to turn over, and gaining more ground in the world ranking and moving up spots in the ranking. Like you said, the last ten years, we finally got major league players out of the country, so that also rose the level for us.

Those guys always want to play when this tournament comes around and they keep coming back, and that's the reason why I think, also, that we've had continuity in fielding the lineup with the same type of names over and over and over.

So it's a credit to our Major League players that they want to participate in this tournament, but it's also something that started probably 20 years ago to get to this point. It's a lot of development going on in the Netherlands and also in the six islands.

Q. Are you guys at all worried about the noise tonight, the loud noise? The fans, Mike Piazza was saying it was difficult to play under these conditions. Have you talked to your guys about are they ready for the big crowd?

HENSLEY MEULENS: No, we're not, we played here in 2013. It was the same. Only two players on the field today didn't experience that, which is Profar and Josh Palacios. The rest of the guys were on the field in 2013.

And then we've just got -- like I said, we've just got to focus and stay within ourselves and play our game and not have that bother us too much because it's not going to go away. It's going to be present all game and it's going to be loud and it's going to be nonstop, and we've just got to focus on what we've got to do to win the game tonight.

Q. (No translation.)

HENSLEY MEULENS: So we used every piece of information that we can get, either from our own guys that played in this league in the past or either from people that know people being over here. We've played a bunch of games over here ourselves, and so our coaches have been over here watching style of play.

Every tournament we come here, we watch the style of play. Obviously every tournament is different, so as much information as we can get, we'll take it, and from wherever it comes from. We have a scout that watched them play the first couple games. We're well-prepared. It's just a matter of going out there and executing.

Their pitcher, I think it's a different style of side-armer, side-winder. You've just got to be patient. He doesn't throw very hard. Again, the guys have to stay -- not try to do too much and take what he gives us. He's going to throw strikes and he's going to be throwing sliders and sinkers and some fastballs, so we know his repertoire. We just have to make sure we get a pitch we want to attack.