Due to lack of motivation and needed recovery from the Hamfighters softball party, I didn’t write a post yesterday. To make up for my laziness, today will be a double post day. In this issue of Crown Gems I will recap some news items from the previous week and drop a few links as well. Tonight’s post will deal with recent DFA moves in baseball and of course the DFA of Sidney Ponson.

Noteworthy News and Notes on the Farm:

RF-Jordan Parraz was promoted to AAA and made his debut for the Omaha Royals on Tuesday July 28th. After 3 games he was 0-9, but he recovered to go 7-12 with 3 doubles in his last 3. Overall, Parraz now has a line of 0.333/.391/.476 in his 21 AAA at bats. He is now hitting 0.356/.442/.557 in 264 at bats covering his time in Omaha, NW Arkansas, and his 4 game rehab stint in Idaho Falls.

On Sports Radio 810 WHB this morning there have been a couple of negative comments about Mike Moustakas so I thought it would be appropriate to provide another update. In his last 10 games, Moose has hit 0.316/.381/.632 with 4 doubles, 1 triple, 2 home runs, and 12 RBI. Even with his “struggles” this season the power, production, and talent are still apparent. He is among the Carolina League’s top 10 in; HR (9th), RBI (4th), 2B (4th), and Total Bases (6th).

22 year old RHP-Daniel Gutierrez made his 2009 season debut in Wilmington on July 28th and pitched 1 scoreless inning of relief allowing only 1 hit. He made his 2nd appearance on Friday and pitched 2 scoreless innings allowing 1 hit while striking out 2. Gutierrez was drafted by the Royals in the 33rd round of the 2005 draft and remains one of the Royals top prospects. Last year in Low-A with the Burlington Bees, he compiled a 2.70 ERA, 1.200 WHIP, 4.16 K/BB, and 10.4 K/9 in 90.0 innings pitched. His 2009 debut had been delayed due to injury.

The promotion of Parraz and the debut of Gutierrez weren’t the only significant events on July 28th. LHP-Danny Duffy left his start that day with tightness in his back after throwing only 3.1 innings. He hasn’t missed his turn in the rotation yet so I don’t know if this is something to be legitimately concerned about or not. Hopefully Duffy is healthy and back on the mound quickly.

Thus far this season I have neglected to mention 24 year old RHP-Juan Abreu who, on Friday, gave up his first runs of the season as a member of the NW Arkansas Natruals bullpen. Prior to his July 20th debut in Double-A, Abreu was pitching in Wilmington. With the Blue Rocks, he pitched 21.1 innings with a 1.69 ERA, 1.031 WHIP, 2.00 K/BB, 11.8 K/9, and racked up 12 saves in 20 appearances. Despite his rough outing on Friday, he still has a 2.84 ERA, 1.263 WHIP, 1.57 K/BB, 15.6 K/9 and 2 saves through his first 5 appearances as a member of the Naturals.

“Programming” Note: The Pitching Perspectives series is being dismantled and rebuilt. It will return in the near future with a new name, Rotation Review, and a new focus. Notably, it will no longer include bullpen statistics. It will now focus on the starts from the previous week not only the ML rotation, but the rotations of Omaha, NW Arkansas, Wilmington, and Burlington as well. My plan is to put it together and publish it early in the week, but I’m not sure whether it will appear on a weekly or every other week basis.

Links from the Past Week: