Orkas BBCAfter two years of traveling to Valencia’s city in Venezuela; the Dutch baseball academy The European Baseball School (EBS) found in the Academia Latina de Beisbol (ALB) a second home far from home.
The EBS went to Venezuela to learn a little of Caribbean ball. There, they both; the EBS and the ALB, decided to put some effort together to get a Dutch team in the Venezuelan Minor League during winter in the second largest pro-competition of this popular baseball country. The EBS and the ALB are both non-profit organization with the main goal of help poor kids in the Latino countries. After many conversations Ivan J. Rodriguez Rodriguez got the news that they were accepted in the Liga Paralela competition. The Liga Paralela is a competition that runs parallel to the big competition in the winter period. This competition is the AA and AAA of the Liga Venezolana de Beisbol Profesional; here is where you can see playing some big leaguers after the MLB competition is done. The ALB arranged and setup everything for the new team in the Liga Paralela. This team will be named ALB-Orkas BBC and will be the first non Venezuela-Americans team to participate in this competition. First plans were just for a Dutch team, but since the team got so much attention all over Europe the organizers decided to bring in prospects from outside the Netherlands too.
Currently the league consists of 15 teams, including squads from the Major League organizations in Houston, Pittsburgh, New York (Mets), Detroit, Philadelphia, Tampa Bay and St. Louis. The ALB-Orkas BBC would be the next team. 2008 Season by the Numbers. The first European team in the Venezuelan Liga Paralela, the ALB-Orkas BBC, held their ground and finished with an 18-28 record in tenth place in the 15-team league. Especially in the second half (5-21) of the season, the ORKAS had a few problems against the reinforced other clubs, who were able to rely on a few professional players. Let’s take a look at a few numbers after their inaugural year in winter baseball. Batting.
 Photo: Erick Rodriguez The offense batted a combined .244 (OBP .324/SLG .384), which ranked 12th in the league. They scored 215 runs (11th), were second in the standings with 43 homeruns and seventh with 47 stolen bases. Infielder David Rivas led the team with a batting average of .317 (OBP .336/SLG .462). Only Emilio Linarez (.307/.373/.453) reached the .300-mark among regular players. He also led the club in doubles (13).
Bryon Bell (.273/.351/.492) and Gabriel Montero (.235/.337/.425) each had 36 hits, hit eight homeruns and 26 RBI. Leadoff hitter Gerson Manzanillo (.289/.306/.422) scored the most runs (26). The Dutch players Zair Koeiman (.196/.262/.375), Sytse Visbsen (.236/.300/.236) and Steffan Hoogewerff (.182/.280/.227) struggled a little bit in their first experience with winter ball.
Pitching
Steven Van Groningen had an ERA of 4.70 in 15 appearances (two starts) with 17 strikeouts and 17 walks in 23 innings.
 Photo: Erick Rodriguez Jurjen Van Zijl had a 3-1 record with an ERA of 5.88 in eleven games (two starts). He struck out 18 (six walks) in 26 innings. Shane Gnade had an ERA of 4.20 in nine games (one start) with eleven strikeouts (seven walks) in 15 innings. Nelson Santander had a 0-1 record in six games (four starts) with an ERA of 3.91 and 21 strikeouts (eleven walks) in 25 1/3 innings.
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