Baseball: Ex-Bluejay Venditte climbs minors ladder

Pat Venditte quickly learned a key difference between the low Class A and high Class A levels of the minor leagues.

“They hit your mistakes a lot harder at high A,'' Venditte said, chuckling.

Fortunately for him, he's kept his mistakes at a minimum since signing with the New York Yankees' organization 13 months ago. That's allowed the ambidextrous former Creighton pitcher to quickly move up three rungs on the Yankees' minor league ladder.

Venditte pitched last season at rookie league Staten Island, where he saved 23 games and compiled an 0.83 ERA. MiLB.com, the official Web site of the minor leagues, named Venditte its short season reliever of the year and the Yankees promoted him to low Class A Charleston to start this season.

In 28 appearances for the Riverdogs, Venditte posted a 2-2 record with 20 saves and a 1.47 ERA. He struck out 40 batters and walked just two while limiting hitters to a .212 batting average.

After a June 26 game against the Savannah Sand Gnats, Charleston manager Torre Tyson told Venditte he was being promoted to high Class A Tampa.

“I was surprised at being called up so soon,'' Venditte said Wednesday in an interview from Tampa. “This organization is stacked with good pitchers that are putting up great numbers. For them to take me over some of the other guys caught me off guard.''

Venditte has made six appearances for Tampa and has allowed five hits in eight innings. One of the hits was a three-run homer, which accounts for all the runs he's allowed.

“With the exception of one bad pitch,'' Venditte said, “things are going very well for me here.''

Well enough for outsiders to begin to speculate about just how far he might be able to take the most unusual act in baseball. Venditte is the first ambidextrous pitcher in professional baseball since 1995, when Greg Harris threw one inning for the Montreal Expos in his next-to-last major league game.

Before that, one has to go back to the 19th century to find a pitcher who could throw with both hands. Naturally, Venditte's unique talent has brought him more than his share of attention.

While at Creighton, he was the subject of feature stories that appeared in the New York Times and Sports Illustrated. The CBS Evening News chronicled Venditte for its viewers. He has become a YouTube superstar since turning professional, with one three-minute video getting more than a half-million views. Others have generated five- and six-figure traffic.

Venditte said he continues to draw attention wherever he pitches, although being in Tampa has provided him some relief from the scrutiny.

“It got to be pretty hectic in Charleston,'' Venditte said. “It's a smaller city, and they take their baseball seriously there. Now that I'm in Tampa, things have calmed down a little bit. You have the Buccaneers and the Rays and a lot of other things going on around here.

“We're not as big on the radar.''

Where the 24-year-old Omahan sits on the Yankees' radar remains uncertain. Like most minor league players, he has had little contact with his bosses.

“In some ways, that's good,'' he said. “Ultimately, how far I go is going to be based on performance. It's important for me to go about my business. I can't be concerned about what they might be thinking in New York. I can't control that.

“The only thing I need to be concerned about is working as hard as I can and doing what I need to do.''

Venditte said he has not had to make any drastic adjustments as he's moved through the minor leagues. Like any pitcher, the keys to his success are location and command. That's especially important because he lacks an overpowering pitch.

As a right-hander, he throws a fastball that nips at 90 mph along with a curveball and a change-up.

He struggles to hit 80 with his left-handed fastballs but possesses a wicked slider as well as a change-up.

“At this level, I have to worry a little more about getting ahead of hitters,'' Venditte said. “But it still comes down to keeping the ball down in the zone and not walking people.

“The one thing I think I've become better at dealing with is going out there on those nights when I don't have my best stuff. You're going to have to work on nights when you don't have your best stuff, and I've become better at working through the games to get things done.''

Venditte knows he's already made it further than many people thought he would. When he was in high school at Omaha Central, he received little recruiting interest. He walked on at Creighton and became an All-American.

Some observers doubted a professional team would take a chance on him, but he wound up getting drafted twice by the Yankees.

They picked him in the 45th round in 2007, then took him in the 20th round with the 620th pick in the 2008 draft.

“I do have a little something extra that a lot of my teammates here don't have,'' Venditte said. “I know what it's like to be at the bottom of the barrel. A lot of these guys, they've always been the star since they started playing in the little leagues.

“I've seen the other side. I've had to work hard to get here, and I think that makes me want it a little more and appreciate all this a little more.''

Contact the writer:

679-2298, steve.pivovar@owh.com