Venditte Keeps On Rolling
Last year, Eric pointed you to a video of switch-pitcher Pat Venditte facing switch-hitter Ralph Henriquez. The match-up was a sensation and led to “The Pat Venditte rule”, as the Professional Baseball Umpries Corporation issued an official ruling on how such situations should be handled going forward.
Needless to say, Venditte has gotten significantly more recognition than most 20th round picks. However, with the way he’s pitched as a professional, he’s giving people reason to think that he might be more than a circus sideshow.
Last year, Venditte threw 32 2/3 innings, walked 10, struck out 42, and allowed just two home runs. His FIP was 2.34 – however, an older pitcher with college experience should be able to pitch well out of the bullpen in short-season ball, so he needed to continue to prove himself as a professional. So far, so good – his first four innings in full season ball have resulted in just two hits, no walks, and six strikeouts.
At some point, the Yankees are going to have to decide that he’s too good for the low minors and find out if his stuff can play at higher levels. Scouts continue to question his ability to get good hitters out with below average stuff, but his ability to always have the platoon advantage covers a multitude of sins. It’d be great for baseball if Venditte could prove that he had the chops to make it in the big show, so let’s hope the Yankees move him up this year and let the experiment get a real test.
After all, who doesn’t want a switch-pitcher to succeed?
Dave is the Managing Editor of FanGraphs.
I agree! I would love to see a switch pitcher pitch. Man that is hard to say!
I have to say that this is precisely the sort of guy where I think biases of evaluators are going to be harmful to him. As much as I want to like scouts, the literature on cognitive biases makes it very hard for me to trust their opinions, especially when they’re dealing with unorthodox players. Much literature in psychology shows that people use exemplars and models to make judgements; that same literature shows that people are much worse at making successful judgments when things are very different from their model.
I’m not saying that scouts are stupid. In fact, I think the smartest and most admirable scientists work in this very same way. Human cognition pretty much innately engages certain biasing processes that are very difficult to overcome. Scouts are probably very good at what they do within the ordinary context within which they work. Venditte, however, is not that context.
Besides, how awesome would it be to have a pitcher that could get Tommy John surgery on one elbow and still be able to xOOGY while rehabbing?
Also, is it possible that Venditte could throw 200 pitches in a game and still be within normal pitch counts?
The possibilities are endless.
Unless he has another pair of legs, no.
I think the most intriguing possibility is starting him two days in a row or using him in different ends of a double header (notoriously hard on bullpens).
Working video….http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/media/player/mp_tpl.jsp?w=http%3A//mfile.akamai.com/14668/wmv/milb.download.akamai.com/14668/2008/ss/sta/video/061908_stabro_b9_switch_pitcher.wmv&type=v_free&_mp=1
So does Venditte switch hands between batters, not just innings? Does he have an ambidextrous glove?
Yes, he has an ambidextrous glove.
Yes, he switches between batters. He pitches left handed to lefties and right handed to righties. For switch hitters, they play to the hitter’s weakness and Pat’s strengths.
A trivial search finds this YouTube clip that explains his history, approach, and six-fingered glove.