Allesandro Maestri (ITA):

Alessando “Alex” Maestri has been a European baseball household name for a long time – as a player. The Italian looks back on a successful pitching career that spanned 1 and a half decaded and at least four continents – depending on whether you want to split the Americas or not. Signing a professional contract in the US (Chicago Cubs) he reached Double A. But he was far from done. He continued and played in the NPB (Japan), Korea Mexico, Australia and Europe and the North American Independent leagues.

But this is not about Maestri the pitcher, but the pitching coach. Maestri signed on with his Homeland National team when Francisco Cervelli was named Manager. He is also a Coach in the Pittsburgh Pirates System (Dominican Summer League) and served on the field staff for Team Europe in the 2024 Global Baseball Games in Japan.

With Team Italy in this summers European Championship, when Italy bounced back from a disappointing 9th place showing two years ago, he led his staff to a 6-1 record, a 2.72 team ERA (3rd in the tournament) and holding opposing batters to a .180 AVG and a WHIP below 1. Back in 2023, Italy´s hurlers sported a 5.06 ERA. Maestri played a pivotal part in turning the success of the staff and his country around, going head-to-head with the Netherlands once again in a Gold Medal Game for the Crown of European Baseball.

Jonathon Cramman (GBR):

Jonathon Cramman led Team GB U23 to a Championship. The first ever for Great Britain in any age category this far.

Cramman, who has been involved with GB Baseball for several years, has served in multiple roles, coaching ana managing. While he is most experienced with the development teams - he has coaches at the U15 level and was the 3rd Base Coach for the U18 Team – he also served as Bench Coach for the Seniors in the 2023 Euro Baseball Championships, when GB surprised many continental baseball fans by winning the Silver Medal.

In 2025, Cramman led the GB U23 team to the title, beating Host Czech Republic in a tight 9-7 affair to claim gold. Advancing to the final, GB took care of Israel (7-0), lost to the Czech in the group stage (o-3) and beat France 4-3 to advance to the knockout stage. In the semi-final, GB got the best of the Netherlands and for the title revenges the loss against the Czech in their first matchup by scoring only twice, but putting up a 5-spot in the 3rd and a 4-spot in the bottom of the sixth, that the Czech were unable to answer.

Marian Krasny (CZE):

Marian Krasnys specialty is working with the youngest ones. Not surprisingly, he has been extremely successful coaching and developing players in the U12 category – and achieving tremendous results in the process.

In 2025, Krasny led the Czech U12 National Team into the European Championships to the title on home soil. While Czech republic winning Championships from U12 to U23 is far from headlines anymore, this time something was different. Czechia dominated every opponent, including its fiercest competitors and household names like the Netherlands, Germany and Italy, mercy-ruling every single one of them. Italy took Silver, but was shelled by an astounding score of 18-1 in the final.

Just a few weeks later, his team competed on the global level. While the type of dominance was understandably not in the cards at the World Cup, Czech again beat up on Germany and South Africa to finish in 10th place. Krasny´s team did get shut out by the US, Panama, Cuba and Korea, the pitching did hold its throughout most of the games.