Fantasy Baseball Cafe Forums

by **jcde7ago** » Fri May 08, 2009 3:26 pm

No need to scram to your waiver wires, but ESPN (surprisingly) has an interesting article on a 23 year-old switch pitcher:

From the Article:

His name is Pat Venditte, he's 23, and he's pro baseball's only ambidextrous pitcher. This living piece of history is more than a YouTube star; he's throwing almost daily for the Charleston RiverDogs, the Yankees' Single-A club. And he's not just throwing: He's blowing through hitters like a Cub Scout through Skittles. At one point in April, the closer's ERA was 0.00 in 6 1/3 innings, and he hadn't blown a save in five games.

Last season, he had 23 saves for the Staten Island Yankees, with a 0.83 ERA. And best of all, the kid can relieve himself!

He wears a specially made six-fingered Mizuno glove with two thumbs. (His Dominican teammates call him Pulpo, Spanish for "octopus.") When he warms up, he throws four pitches righty and four lefty. You should see the opposition when he does it. It's as if they had seen a ghost. Wait—did you just see that? If a righty is up, he throws righty, and vice versa. Whenever Venditte switches sides, everybody in the Charleston ballpark is encouraged to switch seats.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=4145564 >>> Article
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2oD8KzxS14 >>> Venditte switch pitching vs. a switch hitter

Fun stuff.

by **Dan Lambskin** » Fri May 08, 2009 3:37 pm

Ambidextrous Div I Relief Pitcher

Ambidextrous Pitchers: Future Weapon?

by **markj11** » Fri May 08, 2009 3:56 pm

Move over Mo. Wait, how many 23 year olds are in A ball.

by **nolanwood** » Fri May 08, 2009 4:24 pm

markj11 wrote:Move over Mo. Wait, how many 23 year olds are in A ball.

He graduated from Creighton last year, then went to MiLB.

by **Yoda** » Fri May 08, 2009 4:38 pm

Are left/right splits that significant for pitchers to train both arms? It is hard enough to make it while focusing on throwing with just one arm.

by **Big Pimpin** » Fri May 08, 2009 6:23 pm

Yoda wrote:Are left/right splits that significant for pitchers to train both arms? It is hard enough to make it while focusing on throwing with just one arm.

In a word, yes.

I pulled ESPN's stats for All Hitters vs. each of RHP and LHP, then Righties vs. RHP and Lefties vs. LHP (so I could back out R vs. R and L vs. L). Implicit is the assumption that all switch hitters would bat opposite the pitcher. The OBP (and therefore OPS) numbers are going to be slightly off because the data I pulled didn't include HBP or SF.

Anyway:
RHP

Code: Select all: Hitter BA OBP SLG OPS Righties .258 .320 .413 .733 Lefties/Switch .267 .351 .423 .774

LHP

Code: Select all: Hitter BA OBP SLG OPS Lefties .247 .316 .390 .707 Righties/Switch .271 .344 .433 .777

Anyway, it's not as big of a deal with a righty on the mound, for all the reasons that you'd think (more RH hitters, more RH pitchers breeds more familiarity, etc.), but it's still a fairly decent impact. Always having the platoon advantage is a pretty big deal. For an above-average MLB pitcher, maybe not so much, but for a guy like Venditte who from all accounts doesn't have big league stuff, being able to have that advantage during every AB may be the only way he could ever reach the show.