Another short edition of “Summing up the Dutchies per MLB organization”. This time:
Number of Dutchies: 1
Shawn Duinkerk:
The 21-year old Aruban native, Shawn Duinkerk, played his first professional game in 2011 with the DSL Athletics. In that year he only played nine games in which he batted a modest .129. The A’s signed Shawn in 2010 as their first international signing from Aruba.
The club had some patience with him at the AZL Althletics, where he spent three seasons before he got a shot at a “real” affiliate after a very solid spring training. The A’s had some faith in him as they sent him to A Full Season Beloit, but the numbers that he posted there were rather disappointing, so the Athletics decided to move him down to A Short Season Vermont of the New York – Penn League. But that stay with the LakeMonsters was a real short one since he beat up the pitchers that he faced. In only six games and 24 at bats he collected nine hits (.375) with three runs batted in and an OPS of .840. So no need to keep him any longer in Vermont.
After he went back to the Snappers, he didn’t really recover. In his first three games he went 1 for 12, striking out four 
times. If Duinkerk can return to his Spring Traning shape, where his batting average hovered around .300, things will be okay. And in the last ten games it looks like he is going back to that shape. Sure his batting average is still on the low side but in in his last ten games he batted a decent .285.
But next to the offense there is something more in baseball. How is his defense? In 75 games in the Midwest League, Shawn has committed eight errors resulting in a fielding percentage of .945. Not bad but there is some room for improvement here.
Shawn claims that he is working on hitting the curveball and the slider. If he can deal with those pitches at bat, his batting average may improve indeed and a nice career may lay ahead.
Dutch Baseball Hangout 