My new hero, Pat Venditte
I have a new personal hero.
And his name is Pat Venditte.
In addition to being a pitcher for Creighton University, he's also in the CICL summer baseball league and is a member of my hometown Quincy Gems. I tend to go to one or two of these games a season, usually when my soon-to-be father-in-law gets box tickets that include free soda and hot dogs.
The really cool thing about this reliever though, is that he is a switch-pitcher. In the game we saw, he got up to the mound against a righty, gave up a hit. Then two lefties came up, he took his glove off(which apparently is a special made glove), put it on his other hand, and retired the two lefties as a left-handed pitcher. On one of those plays, it was basically a swinging bunt, and he hopped off the mound and fired a strike over to first with his left hand, so he seems fully capable of fielding his position with either hand too. Of course, on the bunt, the guy still legged it out, but it was no fault of the Venditte's throw, but rather that he was slow off the mound.
Now, the other topic of the day is how much the NL Central sucks right now. Division-leading St. Louis has taken back to back sweeps at the hands of the White Sox and Tigers. The bottom-dwelling Cubs and Pirates are 2-8 and 0-10 in their last 10 respectively, and Pittsburgh has an extra loss on there for an 11-game losing streak. Houston in their last 3 series has lost 2 games to 1, including a series loss to the lowly Kansas City Royals. Only the Reds have really survived at a strong rate recently, going .500 in the chunk of interleague time.
So the question is: Is the AL really that much better? As a whole, I'd have to think no. However, the top teams in the AL do seem to be better than the top teams in the NL. Some of this is the situation of the big market teams in the AL holding up their end much better than their NL counter-parts. The Yankees, Red Sox and White Sox are all very strong teams. Only the Angels among the big market teams are under .500. Meanwhile, of their NL counterparts, we have the Mets, who are a very good team. Then we have the Cubs who are 18 games under .500. I know that they lost a lot of players to the DL, but a team with that much payroll should have some depth to at least remain competitive with a couple key losses. Lastly, the Dodgers: They're reasonably good. At 40-35, they're 5 games over and in first in what is still a weak(but much more balanced) NL West.
If you talk about the top teams in baseball, you're talking about AL teams with the exception of the Mets and POSSIBLY the Cardinals. The White Sox, Tigers, Yankees and Red Sox make the top five with the Mets in the minds of most baseball pundits who aren't being obvious homers right now. The Cardinals, Reds and Blue Jays are probably the second tier teams right now. Again though, does this mean the AL is the automatic favorite in the all-star game and fall classic? I'd like to say no, but it seems like for some reason the AL hitters do considerably better than NL hitters against their opposing All-Star pitching staff. There are always a couple of fluke people who seem to make the NL All-Star team, who are very deserving, but maybe don't have the star punch of a Jason Varitek at what is typically a weak position like catcher. So until the NL starts competing in the All-Star game, I'll still have to pick the AL team.
But, for the World Series? It's way too early, and anyone who says differently is speculating pointlessly. In 2004, if you picked at the halfway point, any pick but the Cardinals would have been a sucker bet, with the possible exception of the Yankees. Instead the Red Sox came back from down 3-0 to win 8 straight games to beat the Yankees and Cardinals, the two best teams at midway point, to win it all. Last year, perhaps you WOULD have picked the White Sox, but you wouldn't have guessed they would have almost missed the playoffs after a late collapse that might have actually worked in their favor.
Anyway, by Wednesday, I plan to start on the Babe Ruth vs. Barry Bonds hitting comparisons, so check back for that.
And his name is Pat Venditte.
In addition to being a pitcher for Creighton University, he's also in the CICL summer baseball league and is a member of my hometown Quincy Gems. I tend to go to one or two of these games a season, usually when my soon-to-be father-in-law gets box tickets that include free soda and hot dogs.
The really cool thing about this reliever though, is that he is a switch-pitcher. In the game we saw, he got up to the mound against a righty, gave up a hit. Then two lefties came up, he took his glove off(which apparently is a special made glove), put it on his other hand, and retired the two lefties as a left-handed pitcher. On one of those plays, it was basically a swinging bunt, and he hopped off the mound and fired a strike over to first with his left hand, so he seems fully capable of fielding his position with either hand too. Of course, on the bunt, the guy still legged it out, but it was no fault of the Venditte's throw, but rather that he was slow off the mound.
Now, the other topic of the day is how much the NL Central sucks right now. Division-leading St. Louis has taken back to back sweeps at the hands of the White Sox and Tigers. The bottom-dwelling Cubs and Pirates are 2-8 and 0-10 in their last 10 respectively, and Pittsburgh has an extra loss on there for an 11-game losing streak. Houston in their last 3 series has lost 2 games to 1, including a series loss to the lowly Kansas City Royals. Only the Reds have really survived at a strong rate recently, going .500 in the chunk of interleague time.
So the question is: Is the AL really that much better? As a whole, I'd have to think no. However, the top teams in the AL do seem to be better than the top teams in the NL. Some of this is the situation of the big market teams in the AL holding up their end much better than their NL counter-parts. The Yankees, Red Sox and White Sox are all very strong teams. Only the Angels among the big market teams are under .500. Meanwhile, of their NL counterparts, we have the Mets, who are a very good team. Then we have the Cubs who are 18 games under .500. I know that they lost a lot of players to the DL, but a team with that much payroll should have some depth to at least remain competitive with a couple key losses. Lastly, the Dodgers: They're reasonably good. At 40-35, they're 5 games over and in first in what is still a weak(but much more balanced) NL West.
If you talk about the top teams in baseball, you're talking about AL teams with the exception of the Mets and POSSIBLY the Cardinals. The White Sox, Tigers, Yankees and Red Sox make the top five with the Mets in the minds of most baseball pundits who aren't being obvious homers right now. The Cardinals, Reds and Blue Jays are probably the second tier teams right now. Again though, does this mean the AL is the automatic favorite in the all-star game and fall classic? I'd like to say no, but it seems like for some reason the AL hitters do considerably better than NL hitters against their opposing All-Star pitching staff. There are always a couple of fluke people who seem to make the NL All-Star team, who are very deserving, but maybe don't have the star punch of a Jason Varitek at what is typically a weak position like catcher. So until the NL starts competing in the All-Star game, I'll still have to pick the AL team.
But, for the World Series? It's way too early, and anyone who says differently is speculating pointlessly. In 2004, if you picked at the halfway point, any pick but the Cardinals would have been a sucker bet, with the possible exception of the Yankees. Instead the Red Sox came back from down 3-0 to win 8 straight games to beat the Yankees and Cardinals, the two best teams at midway point, to win it all. Last year, perhaps you WOULD have picked the White Sox, but you wouldn't have guessed they would have almost missed the playoffs after a late collapse that might have actually worked in their favor.
Anyway, by Wednesday, I plan to start on the Babe Ruth vs. Barry Bonds hitting comparisons, so check back for that.
posted by Matt at 9:37 AM
2 Comments:
whatever, when Lee gets better, the cubs will be back! we are only 14 games behind! thats nothing!
whatever, when Lee gets better, the cubs will be back! we are only 14 games behind! thats nothing!
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