Don't know if we already have something on him...
Anyway, Venditte is a switch pitcher in the Yankees organization, in Charleston. Righthanded, he features a fastball and breaking ball, and lefthanded, he's a specialist (according to Newsday). Damn, this looks so awesome on paper.
(Sorry, I can't find a current link. Any will be appreciated.)
Pat is two different pitchers from each side of the plate. I had the luxury of watching him pitch for Staten Island this past season and can say he is good.
From the right-side he has a high80s fastball, a curve, and a changeup
From the left-side he has a low80s fastball, a devestating slider that no one can hit, and now has a changeup.
I spoke to him a couple days ago and I will be doing a Q&A with him for my website.
that's cool that he's a switch pitcher and all, but does he ever profile to be mlb pitcher? or is more of a gimmick than anythign else?
All indications are that he's a bona fide switch pitcher. Will he make it to the MLB? I don't have a clue. But is he interesting? Hell yeah!Originally Posted by boog204
I'm rooting for the guy. It's very interesting. Amazing that a guy could even throw 80+ miles per hour with his non-dominant arm.
I hope he keeps progressing.
If I had 3 wishes... One of my wishes would be to make a select few of you Pirates Fans.
Cool video from when he was at Creighton.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U2xkHOTvvw
If I had 3 wishes... One of my wishes would be to make a select few of you Pirates Fans.
Isn't he ambidextrous?
Forced. Not naturally.
If I had 3 wishes... One of my wishes would be to make a select few of you Pirates Fans.
He's a nice story. But the chance of seeing him in big league is slim to none.
Really? I think he would make the major leagues. He dominated last year. HE is our closer in Charleston and will be pitching in the majors barring injury. How effective he will be is still a question, but he will get an oppurtunity.
To say there is slim to none chance is kind of harsh. The switch-pitching isnt just a gimmick he can do it and do it well. The next two years will be the real test, he is developing a new pitch and building strength to throw harder from both sides. I wouldnt be surprised if he continues to have the success he has.
He can pitch more often than a regular pitcher because he throws with both arms.
If I had 3 wishes... One of my wishes would be to make a select few of you Pirates Fans.
He's mid 80's from the right side and high 70's from the left side and average stuff from both sides. If was realistic about getting to the majors, he's ditch the left arm and work on his right handed stuff.
No, the chance is slim to none. After the switch pitching thing, there is nothing impressive about Venditte at all. He has below average stuff and ok command with an uninspiring frame. I would be surprised if Venditte ever makes it past AA.
He has an advanage that he can pitch to the batter's weakness all the time. No one else has that advantage. If his slider against Lefties is excellent (as they say it is), he might do well as a short reliever that could pitch nearly every day.
This season should be interesting.
If I had 3 wishes... One of my wishes would be to make a select few of you Pirates Fans.
His stuff is still below average. A high 80 MPH fastball with no plus pitch or a low 80 MPH fastball with one plus pitch won't make a major league reliever.
Even though he has a very good slider, it means little when his fastball is only top at mid-80 MPH.
Tell that to guys like Moyer and Glavine.
If his breaking stuff is that good and his location is spot on, he can succeed on that velocity.
I'm very excited to see how far this guy will go. I'm not expecting anything, but I'm glad to see he's doing well in our system so far. Whether he ever makes it past AA or not, he is a pretty special story.
I agree 100%
If I had 3 wishes... One of my wishes would be to make a select few of you Pirates Fans.
Do you really want to use Moyer and Glavine as the example? First they are the exceptions in the big league. Second both of them have good breaking stuff and good command of their pitches as you said. Right now Venditte only have one above average breaking pitch and his control is average at best.
He is a good story. But right now there are lots of 2 tier relief propects who are ahead of him, like Nicholas Chigges, Jonathan Ortiz, Eric Wordekemper, Joshua Schmidt, Jose Valdez, etc.
Chigges was released last year, Schmidt seems to be on his last licks with the Yankees. Venditte is a much better pitcher then you all give him credit for.
not to mention they are both left handed and Venditte barely cracks 80 from the left side, making his velo significantly lower than even those two. His best bet is being a Mike Myers type from the left side and a poor mans Braden Looper from the right side.
Venditte does not have Moyer or Glavine like command, pitching guile, or veteran experience. And if he does, then every single scout that looked at him should be fired because all of their scouting reports would be wrong. He also would have been drafted much higher if he was actually expected to be a viable MLB pticher. The switch pitching thing is just a gimmick. At best it will give him a minor deception advantage. Unforunately, he is nothing special from either side.
As mentioned, Chigges was released even though he was mostly a starter anyway. Wordekemper is a long reliever who cannot do anything right. Valdez is old. Schmidt is yet to prove himself past SI, but I think this might be his year. It is fair to say he has similar potential to Jon Ortiz even though they are completely different futures. Ortiz is a very good pitcher right now.
Also to the person who said he should have been drafted higher if he had potential then I assume you think Rulon has less potential than Venditte being a college senior drafted in the 34th round, 14 lower than Venditte even when he went to a more prominent sports college in a power conference. And from what I've heard Rulon hasn't been injured either. Rulon had such a low ERA. Watch him and Venditte progress together perfectly
And every 5"7" balding white kid who swings from his heels is gonna become an MVP.
Jose Valdez has pitched in AA as 25 years old. Venditte is going to pitch in low A as 23/24 years old. If Jose Valdez is old, so does Venditte.
Wordekemper didn't have a good season in AA. But he pitched very well in A+ and low A when he was 22-23 years old (47IP, 0.57ERA, 1.06WHIP in Tampa. 80IP, 1.80ERA, 1.04 in Charleston). If he cannot do anything right, then Venditte does everything wrong compare to him.
Schmidt in Tampa as 24 years old - 67.2IP, 92SO, 2.79ERA, 1.21. He has a high-80 fastball and a above average slider. His stuff is better than Venditte, and his SI season is far more impressive.
Jose Valdez is currently 26 and he may still be in AA. I think he and Arias need to get out of there soon. Valdez be 29 when he first sees the majors.
Venditte coming from college has to be ready to do Charleston for 3/4 of the year and then bump up to Tampa for the tail end of the season. When he is 25 he can do half in Tampa and half in Charleton. When he is 26 he will start the season in Tampa, but go to Trenton right after that for the rest of the season. When he is 27 he is in Scranton and added to the 40 and maybe getting to New York before the season ends. Venditte would be added to the 40 man roster age-wise before Valdez because he is more talented which was the point of the thread. He should get some recognition.
Saying Valdez was too old was not the right thing to say. It is more of and age and talent graph if everything goes correctly.
A few years ago, Josh Schmidt dominated in the NYPL for Staten Island. I mean really dominated. His career has been OK, at best, since then.
You have to do it over a full season league before anyone gets excited about predicting Major League status for someone.
Yes, I've been told that before. Schmidt was moved to Tampa immeditately though and wasn't closing for Tampa. No one was expecting him to put up those numbers again. His ERA has been good since except for that one yeat when he was moved directly to Tampa. Venditte has better control also. Schmidt struggled when he went to Trenton last year. Not like he did when he skipped a level, but you don't even see this in his numbers. He gave up 3 unearned runs or else his ERA would have been much higher. In the stats you can see that his WHIP was 1.54 and he only had 6.2 Ks/9. And he gave up 1.5 HR/9. I expect him to improve this year in Trenton. HE will perform better than he did last year. The same thing will imply to Venditte. In the beginning of the year he may post an ERA of about 3.90 (not skipping a level), but when he is adjusted to the level I think he can bring it back to about 2.90-3.00. Both Schmidt and Venditte have their strengths. Venditte doesn't rack up the Ks that Schmidt normally does or give up that few HRs, but he has control and pitches from both sides.
Now in that post I did say that I didn't know how effective he would be in the majors. I was just saying that the yankees would give him his shot. The yankees will eventually give Schmist a shot too I think. Most people that aren't stars struggle when they reach a new level. They just have to have time to adjust.
So far Venditte has 2 saves. Last night he worked the final two innings for the win. He struck out five of the seven batters he faced, and switched from right-handed to left-handed to retire one batter on a popup.
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index...eps-on-rolling He has a little article about himself
http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=4145564
I hope we keep him in the organization, see how he fairs in AA and AAA.
2010 Regular Season Record: 88-57
Seems to be making the Sally League hitters look foolish with the numbers he's put up so far.
lefties seem particularly foolish. Maybe he'll turn out to be more than a novelty after all.
Baseball is life;
the rest is just details.
The Charleston Radio guy was on ESPN 1050AM last night around 8 :05 P.M. Nothing earth-shattering, at least from the stuff I caught. Lots of talk about Venditte though. One word - Impressive.
Why isn't he in Tampa? No one in the sally league can hit his stuff.
Bring back Ted Lilly!
I think its cause Jon ortiz is in Tampa
There are 6 bullpen spots in Tampa. How does one guy block him? He's not a infielder.
Bring back Ted Lilly!
And have older siblings convicted of child molestation to boot...
Can we wait for the guy to fail before we dismiss him as a possibility in the future. I'm not saying he is going to be Moyer. Stop being stupid. I'm saying he should look to use the same approach.
The Yankees want him to remain in the closer role. Jon Ortiz is the closer in Tampa.
If the Yankees thought he had ML potential they would probably take him out of the closer role. Actual prospects are never used in that role because it limits when they can be used.
Actually in the lower levels they use the players in roles they feel they would best suit them in. They dont start with how you are saying until AA.
If that were true Cox, Melancon and many others would have closed in Tampa.
I don't think Cox was ever viewed as a closer, and Melancon was coming back from an injury, and they wanted him to get innings, so he went the mid-relief route.
Venditte is DEFINITELY not viewed as a ML closer. I'm positive Cox was held in higher regard. If anybody needs to build innings in middle relief it would be the guy who's pitch counts are down because he throws with both arms. The reason Venditte is/was a closer is because he is a feak show and it sells tickets. I'd love if he became a major leaguer as sort of a Mike Myers from each side, but I don't think the Yankees are counting on it.
If they wanted to sell tickets using him as a freak show (as you put it) then he would be a starter. As a closer, one never knows if he will pitch, and then it would be only for 1 inning or so.
Is there any reason why Venditte is still toiling away in Charleston and not in at least Tampa?
23 G, 25.1 IP, 19 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 38 K, 0.79 WHIP, 0.71 ERA
They have Jon Ortiz in Tampa. They should still bring him up. Ortiz hasnt done too well
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