Yankees Daily

Pat Venditte – Prospect Profile
by Sean Serritella Yankees Daily

Full Name: Patrick M. Venditte
Born: 06/30/1985
Birthplace: Omaha, NE
College: Creighton
Height: 6′ 1″
Weight: 180
Bats: R
Throws: R

Background:

Pat Venditte was drafted by the New York Yankees in 2007 but opted to return to Creighton University in Omaha Nebraska for his senior year. He was again drafted by the Yankees in the 2008 Major League Baseball Draft, in the 20th round with the 620th overall pick, and decided to sign.

Pat is the only ambidextrous pitcher(This means he pitches with both arms) in professional baseball and uses a six-finger glove with two thumb holes. He is a natural right-hander, but has thrown with both arms since the age of three. More on that..

Pat’s father, Pat Sr., noticed his son’s ambidexterity when Pat Jr. was three years old and encouraged vigorous ambidextrous athletic training throughout Pat Jr.’s childhood. Pat Venditte Jr’s backyard had astroturf, a batting cage, a radar gun, and a pitching machine.

In addition to training both arms from a young age, practicing 100 tosses with the right arm and 120 with the left, Pat Jr. practiced punting footballs with both legs in order to establish the leg motion needed when pitching with each arm. He was home schooled so he could practice pitching as many as four times a day with his father. He would be six years old working until 12 o’clock at night working on baseball.

Venditte’s dad also had him throw footballs with both arms and write as a left-hander to develop muscle memory. These days, Venditte’s a natural right-hander, “unless I’m stuck behind a tree in golf and have to swing lefty,” he said.

Little League:

Venditte used both arms when playing in little league which sometimes caused him to be confused for twins.

High School:

Venditte played for Omaha Central High School in Omaha Nebraska. He had a 5-4 record his senior year and achieved All-Nebraska second team honors.

College:

Venditte joined the Creighton Bluejays in 2005 as a walk-on. Ed Servais, who was the head coach, didn’t allow Venditte to pitch with both arms during his freshman year fearing it would create a circus like atmosphere.

In 2006, he started using both arms in his sophomore year in college. He played summer ball for the Central Illinois Collegiate League’s Quincy Gems.

In 2007, Venditte had an outstanding junior year in which he appeared in 36 of Creighton’s 58 games before going into the 2007 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament. His opponents batting average of .185 was the fourth best in the nation and at one point during the season, Venditte had a streak of 43 2/3 scoreless innings.

This performance earned him first-team all-conference honors for the Missouri Valley Conference and led Creighton to its first ever conference championship in which he was named the tournament MVP. He was named the national player of the week by Collegiate Baseball and was named to the All-American third team for the 2007 season. He was also voted Midwest Region Pitcher of the Year by online pitching magazine InsidePitching.com.

He played 2007 summer ball for the Wisconsin Woodchucks in the Northwoods League. As the Woodchucks’ closer, he had a 4-1 record, nine saves, a 1.76 ERA, and a .154 opponents’ batting average.

His decision not to turn pro:

Venditte said that he was not quite ready to turn professional and wanted to build velocity with his left arm and add another pitch with his right arm. He didn’t sign with the Yankees after being drafted the first time around and returned to Creighton for his senior season.

He had a higher ERA during his senior season but had a higher K/9 in 2008.

Minor Leagues:

Venditte, 24, forced the Professional Baseball Umpire Corp. to create a rule for ambidextrous pitchers when he squared off with a switch-hitter in a bizarre cat-and-mouse sequence on June 19, 2008, that became a YouTube sensation that I posted below.

Venditte, pitching for short-season Class A Staten Island, kept switching glove hands. (A custom-made glove allows him to wear it on his left or right hand.) Brooklyn’s Ralph Henriquez kept switching sides of the plate to create the more favorable match-up. Henriquez finally decided to hit right-handed and Venditte struck out a very frustrated Henriquez (who slammed his bat against the dirt in anger) to end the game.

Here’s the Venditte rule. Pat has to declare first which side he’s pitching on when he faces a switch hitter. Then the hitter decides. Then they are allowed one switch a piece after that.

Venditte completed his first season in pro ball with 23 saves in 30 appearances and a 0.83 ERA. His performance earned him a spot on the New York-Penn League All-Star team. He received the Minor League Baseball Yearly Award for Best Short-Season Reliever.

Even though he pitched in only 28 games for Charleston in 2009, he was fifth in the league in saves with 20. The top reliever pitched in 60 games and had 27 saves. He was a SAL Mid-Season All-Star.

He was promoted to the Tampa Yankees of the Florida State League on the 26th June 2009. He finished the regular season with a 2.21 ERA and two saves in 21 appearances.

Pitched in Winter Ball and only appeared in seven games posting a 4.82 ERA in 9.1 innings giving up five earned runs, 11 hits (two homers), seven strikeouts and three walks with a Whip of 1.50, and a .314 BAA.

Pat Venditte Scouting Report:

His pitching coach, Jeff Ware, treats Venditte like he is two different pitchers because his mechanics with both arms are totally different.

Strengths:
As a right-handed pitcher:

He throws a 93 mph fastball and a hard, biting curve ball using an over the top delivery. His fastball is a major league fastball when throwing right-handed and he has great command of this pitch. His curve ball reaches 72-75 mph with 11-5 action and has good enough command of it to keep hitters off balance. It has a good break.

As a left-handed pitcher:

He comes at you side arm and throws an 81-86 mph fastball with a Randy Johnson type, funky, frisbee type of side arm delivery. He also uses a murderous slider and a change up. His pitches to left-handed batters are hard to pick up and he gives the appearance that he’s throwing behind them like a Randy Johnson use to do.

He has a huge sweeping breaking ball that comes in at batters at 68-71 mph and spots it on the outside part of the plate. It has huge lateral action to it and a nice tilt. If you watch the videos, you’ll see how lost left-handed batter are against him.

Pat does a nice job changing speeds and pitching down in the zone with both arms.

Weaknesses:

Some scouts believe that he won’t get any better than what he is now and that he isn’t over powering enough. He doesn’t have much deception pitching right-handed as he does left-handed and his curve ball grades as average pitching right-handed. He won’t get a lot of strike-outs pitching right-handed.

The future and my take:

Here’s my prediciton on Pat with an “if.” If he makes it to the Yankees’ pro team and becomes successful, he will be more popular than Derek Jeter. People are amazed at his ability to pitch with both arms and it intrigues people myself included.

Venditte would not only offer the Yankees the option to match up righty/lefty depending upon the hitter, but by splitting his pitches between arms, he would be able to pitch longer and more often before becoming fatigued.

Louis Sojo said that Pat really does his homework and is a hard worker who wants to get better. All I Know is that every time he jumps up a league, he pitches well so why not think about Pat pitching in the big show? I really don’t know of any time table for Pat because I don’t think the Yankees do either. If he keeps pitching well, they’ll keep moving him up and see where it goes.

I want to see Pat succeed. I want to see him succeed because I want to see a pitcher that pitches with both arms be successful. Because of all of my disabilities, it gives me hope that if he can do it, so can I.

Pat Venditte Scouting Report:

Scouting Report
Control:	78
K-Rating:	87
Efficiency:	94
vsPower:	41

The cat-and-mouse video with the Brooklyn’s Ralph Henriquez

Mini Biography video on Pat’s life on ESPN.

Pat Venditte pic Pat Venditte picture

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