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MrCrowesGarden wrote:It is illegal in the major leagues to "switch-pitch".

Phyrkrakr wrote:I believe the rule is that a pitcher has to pitch an entire at bat with whichever hand he starts with. The batter can change at any time.

Will Carroll wrote:He’s Amphibian

Lots of questions about Alan Schwarz’s great article on the ambidextrous pitcher. (Nobody does personality pieces better than Schwarz. Also be sure to check out his farewell article at Baseball America.) I’ll try to answer in bullets:

* Yes, he gets a new pitch count on each arm.

* No, I have no idea how he keeps one warm while he’s using the other arm.

* His mechanics are ok with the right, lousy with the left. His elbow really drops in the short clip that accompanies the story.

* Yes, I think it’s worth trying.

* Yes, I think he should try being a knuckleballer with one of the arms.

* No, he does not throw the gyroball.

Rob Neyer wrote:In the New York Times today, Alan Schwarz writes about Pat Venditte, the only switch-pitcher in Division I college baseball (RR, with video). As a right-hander, the Creighton junior throws hard, with an overhand curveball. As a left-hander, he throws a lot of sidearm sliders.

Venditte has improved so much in the past year that major league scouts are starting to consider him a possible late-round pick in this June's amateur draft because of his versatility. "He could be an economical two-for-one," Jerry Lafferty, a longtime scout for the Philadelphia Phillies, said last Friday while assessing the 21-year-old Venditte from behind the backstop.

Might we be seeing Venditte displaying his considerable skills in the majors at some point in the next few years? Aside from Venditte and his family, nobody would be happier than me. But it's highly unlikely.

Venditte's mound versatility could become an interesting test of baseball's trend toward specialization. Major league teams have long forced college stars who both pitch and hit -- players like Dave Stieb, John Olerud and Brad Wilkerson -- to focus on either pitching or hitting as professionals, claiming that one is difficult enough. But as bullpens become ever more segmented, with left-handed and right-handed specialists entering games for only one or two batters apiece, a pitcher who can do both for one salary would certainly be intriguing.

Intriguing, yes. Likely, no. The list of good two-way college players is instructive, but I think Schwarz might be learning the wrong lesson. It's true that teams won't allow players to attempt both serious hitting and serious pitching, but I think it's simply because the teams realize that few (if any) players are talented enough to do both well enough in the majors to justify the at-bats or the innings. Stieb might have been a great hitter in college, but the minor leagues are full of great college hitters, and of course most of them will never win a regular job in the majors.

If teams are considering Venditte as a late-round draft pick, that means they don't think much of either of his arms. If he's a Double-A lefty and a Class A righty, he's a wonderful story. But he's no major leaguer. Darn it.