Written by Greg Fertel
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23 June 2008
Its no secret that I've been borderline obsessed with Pat Venditte for a long time now. On Saturday,
the New York Times told the story of Venditte's encounter with a switch pitcher in his major league debut, and the rules desicison that came out of it.
The question of "How good can Venditte be?" is a complex one. Since we don't know what the value of a switch pitcher is in regards to stamina, being able to pitch on consecutive days, or reduced injury risk, let's leave those out. Venditte has solid stuff as a right-handed pitcher, and weak stuff as a lefty. He throws his fastball like a slider in the low 80s as a lefty, compared to 89-91 as a right-hander. Theoretically, the Yankees could try and play with his delivery (as per team policy, they'll leave him untouched for a month and see how it goes) and get some more power out of his left arm, but I'm not sure that they really know how to procede with that.
All in all, we probably can't expect, yet, major league success for Venditte. He wasn't drafted by the time the Yankees picked him in the 20th round for a reason. That doesn't mean that Venditte can't prove us wrong, but he may end up being a minor league pitcher along the lines of Josh Schmidt. Venditte will still be dazzling to watch, a great story, and a faint hope for a truly unique major league pitcher, but by no means is he a top prospect.
