You may have heard about Pat Venditte, the switch-pitching reliever for the Class A Charleston RiverDogs. You may have heard about him because CBS News has done a shout out on him and YouTubers worldwide are all a-twitter about how he goes both ways, not that there's anything wrong with that.
Venditte is a Creighton product now in his second year of minor league ball. He wears a unique six-fingered glove that allows him to change hands from batter to batter. As you might expect, he throws southpaw to lefties and right-handed to righties. The South Atlantic League had to create special rules for his match-ups against swith-hitters. (The batter gets the advantage.)
Venditte is a phenomenon, but he's also a phenom. Unaffected by all the buzz, Venditte is buzzing through the minors after chopping down college opponents. In his first year of pro ball for the Yankees' Low-A team on Staten Island, he surrendered just 13 hits in 33 innings, walking 10 and mowing down 42 en route to 23 saves. His 0.83 ERA earned him selection as Short Season Pitcher of the Year.
The 2009 season is young, but it's already clear that Venditte belongs at Double-A. In 12 innings he's whiffed 21 batters and has yet to give up an earned run.
Now, objects in your mirror may be closer than they appear. Venditte, who turns 24 in June, is a man pitching to 19-year-old boys at this level. Ther are no 24-year-old prospects in Single-A. He needs to maintain his dominance through Triple-A -- and do it soon -- if he has any hope of making the majors. Batters who can't hit like-handed pitchers have been filtered out by the upper levels, which will force Venditte to succeed on the basis of his pitches, not his novelty.
Will Venditte make The Show? We can only hope. Because oh, what a show it would be.
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