Switch Pitching?

by Stros Bro on Jul 2, 2008 9:27 PM CDT Comment 5 comments

This is very interesting... and kind of crazy. We all know about switch hitters and have heard of pitchers who have hurt their arm and eventually became pitchers with the other arm(Billy Wagner), but I've never heard of a pitcher that was good enough with either hand to be able to pitch effectively with both... until now.

Link

Venditte, the 20th-round pick of the New York Yankees in this June's Draft, received national attention after making his debut with the Staten Island Yankees June 19. With two outs and a runner on first in the bottom of the ninth inning, switch-hitter Ralph Henriquez came to the plate representing the Brooklyn Cyclones' last hope. What resulted was a moment of high comedy: Henriquez entered the batters box batting right-handed, so Venditte switched his glove to his left hand. Henriquez then decided to bat lefty, so Venditte switched his glove back to his right.

And on and on it went. After a prolonged delay, Henriquez was ordered to bat right-handed. He then struck out on four pitches to end the ballgame.

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A college pitcher did it few years ago

He was even on the roster twice. Listed as as RHP and LHP. Although he said he could only pitch effectively from one side or the other in the same game.
It is the next generation of baseball. The switch pitcher.
I saw the video of the play you wrote about and it was quite funny.

My friends suggested I see someone about my baseball problem. So I made an appointment but just ended up helping the doctor with his fantasy team.

by TBurford on Jul 3, 2008 3:42 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

hear about this on the radio

last week. i think it was one of the fox sports radio broadcasts over the weekend. anyway, they said that only one other switch-pitcher had made it to the major leagues in the history of the game, and i guess he only pitched one inning, or to one batter, something very insignificant. i can’t remember the guy’s name or when it was. when talking about this guy Venditte, they said that apparently he is just about as good from either side and that his dad claims he can stand at home plate and throw the ball over the outfield fence with either arm. pretty amazing.

i doubt this is something we’re going to see very often, but who knows? if this kid does make it to the bigs and draws a lot of attention, there may be more dads out there trying to teach their kids to throw with both arms. seems to me it’d mostly be a waste of time, though.

they brought up an interesting point as to whether or not the guy doubles his pitch-count by being able to throw with both arms. i wonder how true that would be.

by littlevisigoth on Jul 7, 2008 11:30 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Hmmm interesting..

But a good point about the pitch count… if he is equally good with both arms, you think teams would make their lineups all left handers or right handers to either get him out fo the game(from throwing too many pitches from one side of the plate) or to make him switch to his other arm(once he’s tired with the first arm) to give his hitters the advantage of facing a lefty(or righty)

Go 'Stros!

by Stros Bro on Jul 7, 2008 12:04 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

wonder

if he warms up from both sides between every inning. i assume he doesn’t get extra time for that.

a lot of interesting conversation bits with the potential of a switch-pitcher

by littlevisigoth on Jul 7, 2008 12:25 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Funny Goth

I had not even thought about the warmup.
You’re right though. There are a bunch of iterations to think about if you have switch pitcher.

My friends suggested I see someone about my baseball problem. So I made an appointment but just ended up helping the doctor with his fantasy team.

by TBurford on Jul 10, 2008 3:53 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

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