We’ll track the day’s minor moves in this post:
- Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that the Athletics have agreed a trio of minor league deals. Outfielders Anthony Garcia and Nick Martini will be in camp with the A’s next spring, as will lefty reliever Jarret Martin. The 25-year-old Garcia and 27-year-old Martini are both longtime Cardinals farmhands. Garcia has struggled in 354 Triple-A plate appearances (.232/.299/.397) but posted a solid .284/.376/.465 slash in more than 800 Double-A PAs. Oakland is known to be looking for right-handed-hitting outfielders, and Garcia gives them a depth option that matches said description. Martini swings from the left side but has a better track record in the upper levels, having slashed .299/.387/.423 in 787 PAs in Triple-A. As for the 28-year-old Martin, he parlayed a strong two seasons on the indy circuit into a look with the Giants last year and turned in a 2.04 ERA with 9.1 K/9 against a more troublesome 6.8 K/9 in 39 2/3 frames with San Francisco’s Double-A affiliate.
Earlier Updates
- Righty Kyle Lloyd cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A by the Padres, MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell reports on Twitter. He’ll remain on hand as a depth option after cracking the majors briefly last year. In 147 1/3 frames in the upper minors in 2017, Lloyd carried a 5.01 ERA with 8.9 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9. Lloyd joined the San Diego organization after being selected in the 29th round of the 2013 draft.
- The Dodgers have a minors pact with switch-pitcher Pat Venditte, as SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo tweets. Venditte, 32, is a unique and perhaps under-appreciated artist who is able to create his own preferred platoon match-ups by pitching with both arms. He owns only a 4.97 ERA in his 50 2/3 MLB frames. But Venditte ran up 69 2/3 inning of 3.36 ERA ball with 8.9 K/9 and 4.7 BB/9 at the Triple-A level last year with the Phillies organization.
I will always root for Pat Venditte
Same. Always wanted him to have success.
Same here as well. Something both a Cardinals and Cubs fan can agree upon.
He’s something to watch, that’s for sure. Of course if he could really “pitch with both arms” that would totally be something to watch!
It is interesting; I wonder if he’d have been better served by just picking one arm and getting really good with that one, or if his amidextrous-ness was what got him drafted in the first place. He’s a similar pitcher from both sides, a sinker-slider guy who gets tons of groundballs and has below-average velocity. There’s tons of guys like this who have had careers in the majors – Luke Gregerson is a current example but he has much better velocity. Tyler Lyons of St. Louis is a sinker/slider guy…there’s lots of other ones. Often lefthanders. But anyway, Venditte has probably added a few years to his career because of his uniqueness, and he’s managed to at least have a little bit of a taste of major league baseball, which the vast majority of prospects never get to do.
The “Pat Venditte rule”, which allows a switch-hitter to choose the matchup side, was very unfortunate. If the pitcher, Venditte, had been allowed to choose the matchup side, he would have been dearth to switch hitters. Professional switch hitters have essentially zero experience batting against a pitcher “the wrong way”; though Venditte may “only” throw in the 86-88 mph range, it’s nearly impossible for even the most gifted hitter to hit those if he’s never seen those pitches from that angle. Venditte may only be replacement level against LH and RH batters, but switchers would have hit close to .000 against him. Oh well.
Venditte picks the way he wants to throw to switch hitters
Venditte chooses first, so the switch-hitter would always have the advantage still, unless he was one of those switch hitters who is terrible from one side.
Correct, when facing a switch hitter, Venditte must first choose, and indicate to the umpire, which arm he is going to pitch with. Which is ultimately decided when Venditte takes the rubber.
Venditte, then has to throw at least one pitch, before being able to switch. However, he is only allowed to switch arms once per at bat, per hitter.
The ONLY exception to this rule is if Venditte suffers an injury to whatever arm he is currently pitching with. If that’s the case, and he makes the switch again, within the same at-bat, due to injury, then Venditte is no longer allowed to pitch with that injured arm for the remainder of the game…
What I’m curious about is say Venditte is facing a switch hitter. Well, again each player is only allowed one switch per at-bat. So, say Venditte starts out pitching LH, so the switch hitter chooses to hit RH. Venditte throws a pitch, and decides to change, to throwing RH. Then, because of Venditte’s change, the batter switches to batting LH. Okay, so now each player has used up their legal number of changes per at-bat..
So, now we have a RH pitcher facing a LH batter. Well, what if Venditte then throws a pitch, and “injures” his RIGHT arm. He’s allowed to swap back to pitching with his LEFT arm, but he can no longer use his right arm…
My question is, if Venditte then sacrifices his right arm to solely pitch LH, is that batter allowed to switch back again as well?? I’ve seen no exception to the rule allowing that SECOND switch for the batter, but would they allow him to switch back??
If not, and if Venditte is only in for that one player, it could be a huge advantage for Venditte for that at-bat…Although, I’d imagine he’d only get away with it maybe once or twice in a season…lol
Before the rule was implemented, a hilarious cat and mouse game was going on during a game Venditte pitched in…Venditte would switch arms, the hitter would switch boxes..That went on for about 3 or 4 times before the umpire made the hitter stay in the right handed batters box…Venditte then switched his glove to his left hand, and pitched RH.. ultimately striking the hitter out on four pitches..lol..That’s what initially caused MLB to create “The Venditte Rule.”
good explanation of the “Venditte rule”
“Correct, when facing a switch hitter, Venditte must first choose, and indicate to the umpire, which arm he is going to pitch with. Which is ultimately decided when Venditte takes the rubber.”
His choice of throwing arm per plate appearance is determined when first touching the rubber before delivering the initial pitch.
He cannot switch arms *during* the at-bat. Injury is the only exception.
2015 Official Baseball Rule 5.07(f)
(formerly 2014 OBR 8.01(f))
(aka The Venditte Rule):
A pitcher must indicate visually to the umpire-in-chief, the batter and any runners the hand with which he intends to pitch, which may be done by wearing his glove on the other hand while touching the pitcher’s plate. The pitcher is not permitted to pitch with the other hand until the batter is retired, the batter becomes a runner, the inning ends, the batter is substituted for by a pinch-hitter or the pitcher incurs an injury. In the event a pitcher switches pitching hands during an at-bat because he has suffered an injury, the pitcher may not, for the remainder of the game, pitch with the hand from which he has switched. The pitcher shall not be given the opportunity to throw any preparatory pitches after switching pitching hands. Any change of pitching hands must be indicated clearly to the umpire-in-chief.
The angels signed Jared Hoying and Curt Casali to minor league deals. I don’t believe I saw either of these on here.
Bye bye Carlos Perez
Why do you say that? I believe he has one more option left
I don’t see much of a reason to keep him if he can’t make the team out of camp. Especially if Casali and Graterol out perform him. Taylor Ward is gonna be up in AAA sometime this season too.
It nice to keep Lloyd
It he works on location he could improve
Given that ERA, them’s some odd preferences.
I’m guessing one of those stats with Jarret Martin is supposed to be BB/9
Kyle Lloyd entrenched in Padres rotation moving forward