Summing up the Dutchies per MLB organization: Kansas City Royals

Another short episode of “Summing up the Dutchies per MLB organization. Not many Dutchies are playing in the following organization to put it mildly:

            Number of Dutchies: 1

Juan Carlos Sulbaran:
Juan Carlos recently was promoted from the AA Nortwest Arkansas Naturals to the AAA Omaha StormChasers. Against the odds he is actually doing better with Omaha than with the Naturals.
Anyhow, Juan Carlos started to play baseball at the age of four. At the age of six, the RHP already played international games for his native island of Curacao. After he moved to the United States he played for the Heritage University in Flordia. But in those years he was plagued by some shoulder injuries that limited the number of games he played. Eventually he was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in 2008. In July 2008 he participated with a combo team of Aruban and Curacao players in the Haarlem Baseball Week. During that tournament he left such a good impression that manager of the Dutch team and former Yankee shortstop, Robert Eenhoorn added him to the Dutch roster for the 2008 Summer Olympics. 

Halfway the 2012 season he was traded by the Reds to the Royals, who placed him at the AA Northwest Arkansas Naturals in the Texas League. Through the years in the minors his ERA always has been rather high, varying from 7.62 to 3.25 last year. Also this year with the Naturals his ERA was 4.80 and his opponents hit .282 with him on the mound. After his promotion to Omaha he is pitching a lot better, or perhaps I should say, his numbers are better since I cannot imagine that he is pitching differently. Anyhow his ERA now stands at 3.12 after three starts in which he recorded one win and two no-decisions and he is limiting his opponents to a much lower batting averag: .197. His debut at AAA was a blast. In 6.2 innings he gave up only one run on two hits. He walked two and fanned nine. In his second game, vs the Iowa Cubs, he was hit hard. In 4.2 innings he gave up five runs on six hits and he walked two and struck out seven. Luckily for Juan Carlos, the StormChasers won that game so he got a no-decision. In his last game, on August 11, he pitched a six inning shutout gem in which he threw 86 pitches. He struck out four and walked three. Unfortunately the bullpen spoiled his outing as they gave up five runs in the last two innings. Of those five runs, only one was earned.

Juan Carlos masters a change up, a curveball and a fastball that peaks at 90 mph. Juan Carlos was also part of the Dutch team that won the World Championship in 2011.