Before a few links about the very best story of this baseball season so far, just a tiny bit of Pat Venditte-related analysis...
Of course the knock against Venditte in the minors has always been that he doesn't throw hard enough. But how hard does a pitcher who (almost) always has the platoon advantage have to throw?
Randy Choate and Javier Lopez have both enjoyed long, successful, and renumerative careers while topping out around 85 or 86 with their fastballs. Pat Venditte throws 86. Choate and Lopez have thrived, relatively speaking, because they've so often had the platoon advantage, facing mostly left-handed hitters. Of course they're outliers; most pitchers, platoon advantage or not, can't survive long in the majors without throwing 90, or close. My point is that throwing that hard isn't a prerequsite for making a good living as a major-league relief pitcher.
Now, those links I promised...
– Via MLB.com, here's the awe-inspiring video of Venditte's debut with the A's (along with some historical background in case you're late to this fine party).
– Speaking of video, the last pitcher to throw with both arms in a game -- and the first to do it in the majors, in many decades -- was Greg Harris, nearly 20 years ago. I didn't see it then, but we can all see it now.
– Does Pat Venditte really look exactly like Lionel Messi? I link, you decide...
– Okay, so this doesn't have anything to do with Pat Venditte, but I do feel compelled to offer yet another reminder that while Alex Rodriguez has passed Barry Bonds all the all-time RBI list, he has not passed Babe Ruth and he is not No. 2 on anyone's reasonable list. Here's the reasonable list.
– I found this old blog post that ripped me for thinking Venditte deserved a promotion from Class A whilst he was pitching brilliantly. Good times...
