Sale reaches 300 starts, 8th in strikeouts

Chris Sale became the 31st pitcher in DMBL history to make his 300th start but more impressively, he moved into 8th place on the all-time strikeouts list.

End Of The Line: Mark Buehrle

End Of The Line is an occasional offseason series that will take a closer look at the career of DMBL players leaving the league after the 2016 season. Today, we look at Mark Buehrle, who burst on the scene in 2002.

Colon notches 100th career win

Bartolo Colon became the 26th pitcher to earn 100 career wins after earning a victory Friday night against Hoboken. Colon went 6 innings, giving up 2 runs and striking out 5 to beat the Cutters, 6-2.

Now in his 12th season, Colon ranks 25th all-time in wins, tied with Barry Zito and one win away from matching Brad Radke at 101.

Colon is enjoying a resurgent season this year, standing at 5-1 with 3.48 ERA in eight starts for Livingston. Earlier this year, he passed David Wells for 15th all-time in career starts, with 320, and is just two behind Roy Oswalt for No. 14 (322). He's also 26 innings away from reaching 2,000 career innings, a mark only 15 other pitchers have eclipsed.

Colon enjoyed eight straight seasons of at least 31 starts for the Hillsborough/Vatican City/Wanaque franchise  but surprisingly only one winning season, 13-7 in 2006. His best season might be considered 2003 when he went 16-16, 3.61 ERA, with 12 complete games and 4 shutouts. He experienced double-digit losses in seven straight years, including another 16 games in 2005 and a career-high 19 in 2004. He entered the 2014 campaign 7th all-time in losses, with 130.

After 2006, Colon took some time off from the DMBL to get his head right and eat some Krispy Kreme, returning in 2012 as a supplemental pick by Blue Ridge.

2k hits for Pujols, 200 SBs for Ichiro

Albert Pujols became the 14th player in DMBL history with 2,000 career hits. Philly's main man reached the milestone during the week leading up to the all-star break. While he homered off Roy Oswalt later in the game, it was a first-inning single that turned out to be 2k for Pujols. The Endzone Animals eventually topped Las Vegas for an 11-8 win, thanks to 10 runs in the last two frames, capped by a walk-off David Wright grand slam.

The first overall pick of the 2002 draft is on track to pass Mike Piazza (2,025) and Jeff Bagwell (2,047) and if he can pick up his current pace slightly (now 88 hits in 88 games), Pujols could surpass current free agent Bobby Abreu (2,089) for 11th all-time by season's end. Catching Ken Griffey, Jr. -- 10th with 2,176 hits -- would have to wait until the 2013 campaign. The Dominican native is still a few seasons away from challenging all-time hits leader Derek Jeter, who took that crown earlier this year.

(Trivia question: Who was selected second overall in the 2002 draft, after Pujols? Answer at the end of this post.)

Pujols had a career-low 161 hits in 2011, a year after his career-high 208 (when he won his second straight Mitchell Award), and has averaged 192 hits per season. He has been remarkably steady, logging at least 600 at-bats in each of his 10 seasons and playing an average of 160 games per year.

Two other players could reach the 2,000-hit mark this year: Vancouver's Todd Helton started the second half of the season needing just 13 more hits while Pujols' teammate, Ichiro Suzuki, was 29 hits away.

Ichiro reached his own career milestone this week. The Japanese import stole his 200th career base on Monday night, in the first game after the all-star break. The theft broke a tie with Chuck Knoblauch for 8th all-time. Ichiro started the year tied with Otis Nixon and Alex Rodriguez, each with 197 stolen bases.

(Trivia answer: The now-defunct Honolulu Sharks selected Oswalt -- way!)

Buehrle wins his 100th game

It took 14 starts but Mark Buehrle has his first win of the season -- and the 100th of his career. The left-hander scattered four hits and a run over seven innings while striking out four in a 4-1 home triumph against Philly last night.

The 100 wins puts him squarely in 20th place in all-time victories, breaking a tie with Jake Peavy, who's spent most of this season working on his mechanics in the Hopatcong minor league system.

The third overall pick of the 2002 draft, Buehrle went on to win the McDonald Award that year for the Columbia Crusaders, going 18-9 with a 2.32 ERA and wicked awesome 0.98 WHIP-- yet somehow losing out on the Listach Award for Rookie of the Year to Joel Pineiro (who did win 21 games). He's been among the steadiest starting pitchers in the DMBL over past decade despite being with his seventh franchise in the St. Louis Farrakhans. Through his first five seasons, Buehrle pitched no fewer than 220 innings in all but one of them, and routinely recorded two dozen or more decisions a year.

Buehrle also is closing in on the top 20 in innings pitched, trailing Barry Zito and Bartolo Colon. He's third among active pitchers in complete games with 31 (behind Roy Halladay and Roy Oswalt), which ties him for 15th all-time with Mike Morgan. He's also within the top 30 in career starts, with 259.

Buehrle is just 1-5 this season with a team-high 6.37 ERA. The losses have added up, putting him just two away from 100 for his career (which puts him 18th in league history).

Milestone night for Oswalt

Roy Oswalt, the longtime Honolulu Shark who has bounced around four different teams in the last five seasons, last night became the 16th pitcher in league history to make 300 starts, while becoming the 13th hurler to reach 2,000 innings pitched. It was quite the milestone game as Oswalt fell to 2-5 on the season, matching Tim Hudson for 10th all-time in losses, with 112. He also sits just 12 strikeouts from 1,500, a mark only 14 pitchers have reached.

Oswalt reached the milestone in the uniform of the Las Vegas Rat Pack, who selected him in the 4th round of this year's draft, after spending the last two seasons in Vancouver. He won a career-high 17 games last year for the Iron Fist but spent his first six seasons in Honolulu, where he was the workhorse of the staff, going 75-74 in 194 starts but averaging 32 starts and 221 innings per year. He also spent a season each with Tampa (2008) and Amityville (2009).

The Mississippi native is now tied with Kevin Appier, who sits at 15th all-time with an even 300 starts. Oswalt is likely to pass Al Leiter, up next at 308, and if he can stay healthy enough to make 26 starts this year, he'd pass David Wells at 315 and move into 13th all-time. Could Oswalt be putting together a potential Hall of Fame career?

Oswalt very nearly had a complete game, which would have been his 43rd, matching David Cone for 11th all-time. He was lifted after 8 2/3, plunking pinch-hitter Ian Desmond before making way for Fernando Rodney who promptly gave up the game-winning double to Justin Smoak in the 5-4 loss.

Century mark within reach for seven hurlers

A handful of pitchers are within striking distance of reaching 100 career wins during the 2010 season. Only 15 players in DMBL history have eclipsed the century mark.

Vancouver's Roy Oswalt, acquired in the offseason from Amityville for Adam LaRoche, starts the season closest to 100 with 97 (tied with Al Leiter for 16th all-time). A good first half of 2010 could mean 100 career wins by the All-Star break for A.J. Burnett of Las Vegas (93) and Johan Santana of Arkansas (90).

It's going to take a strong season for Hoboken's Mark Buehrle (86), Philly lefthanders Barry Zito (85) and C.C. Sabathia (84), and Kevin Millwood of Marietta (84) to reach 100 wins. Even a decent year -- heck, a lousy year might do it -- from any of the four will put them past David Wells (89) and into the top 20 all-time in wins.