Filip Čapka: I expected Dutch league to be even better
After winning the tile with Draci in the previous season, Filip Čapka decided to travel the world a little bit. He first played in Australia for him to join Oosterhout Twins playing in Dutch Hoofdklasse after World Baseball Classic. He had a good season in Netherlands, throwing 95 innings with ERA 2.35. As he admits in the interview, we might see him back in Extraliga next year.
Filip, you played the entire season in Netherlands. What was your motivation?
I finished my bachelor’s degree last year and I decided I wanted to try out to play in Australia over winter. I wouldn’t have much to do until September since I started my master’s degree. I got an offer to play in Netherlands a year before, but I had to decline because of the school. But ever since then the thought of trying it out kept nagging in my head.
Since I joined Baseball Jobs Overseas to play in Australia, some clubs from Europe contacted me. So I made a decisions as I already wanted to play in Netherlands.
How do you compare Dutch and Czech leagues?
I expected Dutch league to be even better. It is less competitive compared to Extraliga. There are nine teams. I would say that the first three teams are TOP 3 in Europe. Then there’s middle three, where my team belongs. They would compete for TOP 4 in the Czech Republic. Maybe they would win a semifinal but it would be close. And then there are bottom three teams which would be at the bottom of TOP 6 in the Czech Republic.
Is there something you would bring from Netherlands to Extraliga?
We played Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. The Thursday game wasn’t bad at all, because it was without BP and time limited to 3 hours. They can have ties. So Friday was free. If we played Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and got Sunday free that would be ideal (he smiles). But they really think about the players. When they came from the work there was no BP and no games until the midnight. But it’s a bit easier there, because traveling away takes an hour at most.
I like the system as a whole. After the regular season, which they have in the same format as we, the teams split into the first four and the remaining five. But teams from the bottom five have a chance to get to playoff and theoretically to win. I liked that system more than ours.
You already mentioned you continue in your studies. Will we be able to see you on Czech fields in the next season?
The deal is not done yet, but it’s likely.
