Zambrano earns 100th career win as a Posse

Carlos Zambrano won his 100th career game with the Oak Ridges Posse by bringing his "A" game to the mound against the Melbourne Beach Manatees. Zambrano only made a couple mistakes, a 3-run homer to Jay Gibbons and a solo shot to Prince Fielder as he tossed 8 innings, allowing 6 hits, 2 walks and 8 strikeouts. The Posse won the game 7-5 after getting out to an early 6-0 lead. Zambrano became the first pitcher in Posse history to earn 100 wins in a Posse uniform.

Strat-O-Matic Report

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BOXSCORE: 2008 Oak Ridges Posse At 2008 Melbourne Beach Manatees     6/1/2008

 

  Posse              AB  R  H RBI AVG     Manatees           AB  R  H RBI AVG

  D.Jeter SS          5  2  4  2 .349     E.Byrnes RF         4  0  1  0 .285  

  C.Snyder C          3  1  2  2 .278     B.Harris 2B         4  0  0  0 .287  

C-C.Kotchman PH,1B    1  0  0  0 .250     R.Belliard 3B       4  0  0  0 .299  

  A.Ramirez 3B        5  0  0  0 .351     P.Fielder DH        4  1  1  1 .274  

  F.Thomas DH         5  1  1  3 .255     M.Byrd CF           4  1  3  1 .378  

  J.Posada 1B,C       4  0  1  0 .305     B.McCann C          3  1  0  0 .238  

  S.Sosa RF           2  0  0  0 .214     L.Overbay 1B        4  1  1  0 .228  

A-B.Abreu PH,RF       1  0  0  0 .221     T.Pena Jr SS        2  0  0  0 .271  

B-C.Figgins PH,RF     1  0  0  0 .284     J.Gibbons LF        3  1  1  3 .216  

  T.Hunter CF         4  1  1  0 .290                                          

  R.Johnson LF        4  0  1  0 .298                                          

  P.Polanco 2B        3  2  1  0 .374                                          

                     -- -- -- ---                            -- -- -- ---      

         Totals      38  7 11  7                 Totals      32  5  7  5

 

A-Pinch Hit For Sosa In 5th Inning

B-Pinch Hit For Abreu In 7th Inning

C-Pinch Hit For Snyder In 8th Inning

 

Posse........... 1 3 0  0 2 0  0 1 0  -  7 11  0

Manatees........ 0 0 0  0 3 1  0 0 1  -  5  7  1

 

Posse (50-11)            IP       H   R  ER  BB  SO  HR  PC    ERA

C.Zambrano WIN(7-2)       8       6   4   4   2   8   2 122   3.52

J.Nathan SAVE(22nd)       1       1   1   1   0   1   1  16   3.00

Totals                    9       7   5   5   2   9   3

 

Manatees (15-37)         IP       H   R  ER  BB  SO  HR  PC    ERA

D.Davis LOSS(4-3)         4 1/3   7   6   5   1   6   1  75   4.07

D.Brocail                 1 2/3   1   0   0   0   1   0  17   9.58

J.Gobble                  1 2/3   3   1   1   1   1   0  37   9.00

R.Betancourt              1 1/3   0   0   0   0   0   0  15   6.10

Totals                    9      11   7   6   2   8   1

 

ATTENDANCE- 49,907 DATE- Sunday, June 1st 2008 TIME- Day 

T- 3:00

LEFT ON BASE- Posse: 7  Manatees: 2

DOUBLE PLAYS- Posse: 2  Manatees: 1

ERRORS- R.Belliard

DOUBLES- D.Jeter-2(20th), C.Snyder(9th), L.Overbay(14th)

TRIPLES- M.Byrd(6th)

HOME RUNS- F.Thomas(11th), P.Fielder(13th), M.Byrd(4th), J.Gibbons(2nd)

WALKS- J.Posada, P.Polanco, B.McCann, T.Pena Jr

HIT BY PITCH- C.Snyder

STRIKE OUTS- A.Ramirez-3, J.Posada, S.Sosa, T.Hunter-2, R.Johnson, E.Byrnes,

             B.Harris, R.Belliard-2, P.Fielder, M.Byrd, L.Overbay, T.Pena Jr,

             J.Gibbons

GIDP- P.Polanco, B.Harris, J.Gibbons

 

Two pitchers hit career milestone's

With all the focus on the minor league system and minor's draft, a few milestone's were missed during the first two months of the season. Two of those milestone's were accomplished by starting pitching Carlos Zambrano and Brad Penny, who both reached there 100th win.


On April 24th, Zambrano took the mound looking for win #100 against the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers. The Posse won the game 12-5 with Zambrano tossing 6.2 innings allowing 9 hits, 5 earned runs, on 4 walks and 4 strikeouts. "This was not the type of appearance I wanted to have in getting my 100th win, but I would be no where close to this number of wins if it were not for the offense this team has generated for the last four years", stated Zambrano. Zambrano is in his sixth season in the MDBL, winning 20 games in the last four seasons including 30 games last year. Carlos got all but 4 of his career wins with the Oak Ridges Posse.


It took Brad Penny quite a few more years then Zambrano to get his 100th win, but he accomplished the feat on May 2nd against the same Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers. Penny tossed 7 innings in the game and pitched quite well. He allowed 9 runners and 3 runs while striking out 6. The Posse won the game 7-3. "I am really happy to get to this milestone. It took me eight years, including a couple years of injuries but I got there.", claimed Brad. Penny has played in three organizations in accomplishing his goal getting 26 wins with the House of David, then 8 wins with the Pittsburgh Crawfords and his last 66 with the Oak Ridges Posse.

Posse make Blackburn their second first round selection

The Posse entered the MDBL draft with four first round draft selections. Earlier on they took high school senior Kyle Skipworth as a high ceiling catching prospect that will one day fill the void left by Jorge Posada. With the second selection they went for something that was more immediate, Nick Blackburn. Blackburn is a starting pitcher that is expected to jump into the major league rotation next year. "Yes, we are probably going to need some starting pitching help next year due to Randy Johnson's injury concerns. Right now we have Carlos Zambrano, Adam Wainwright, Fausto Carmona, Mike Mussina, Brad Penny and Randy Johnson. Adding some youth to that mix quickly was very important to us.", stated GM Shawn Luddington.



Blackburn was the 56th ranked prospect by Baseball America in their latest numbers. He is not the typical top of the rotation starter that the Posse Management likes to target, but he will be in the majors quickly. He is a very similar player to Chris Volstad, another Posse prospect that is knocking on the major league door. Blackburn has an above average fastball that tops out in the low 90's, but has good downward life which induces alot of ground balls. Blackburn also has a strong group of secondary pitches, including a plus slider and a solid cutter. "What makes Blackburn inticing is his ability to keep the ball down and throw strikes. He will not walk a ton of batters which means he will be a pretty consistent player, and he will induce many double plays. Another thing we like about him is his ability to get left handers out, typically that is something tough to find in a right handed pitcher.", claimed GM Luddington. With the good comes the bad. Blackburn does not throw overly hard so he will tend to be hit quite a bit, and he has had a checkered injury past with two knee surgeries.

Spring Training Report - Adam Wainwright

Twice is the charm so far for Adam Wainwright. He started off the spring training by being our top player on the first day, and he continues the trend by being the Posse's top spring player for Monday. In his first start, Adam went 3 innings and only allowed a single runner via the walk. In his second start he was stretched out to 4 innings pitched and still did not allow a hit, walking 2 over the 4 innings.

Wainwright looks like he is a lock for a move from the bullpen to the rotation where he will join Mike Mussina, Carlos Zambrano, Jeremy Sowers, Brad Penny and possibly Roger Clemens. Wainwright is not the only prospect pitcher banging on the door of the rotation; Jeff Niemann and Micah Owings are also pretty close to ready as well.