SB Nation User Blog: ortonius

Derek Holland makes Deadspin

ortonius — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 23:35:30 -0000

Derek Holland makes Deadspin

Not the best picture to be in buddy. Not his fault, but wrong place, wrong time.

Any interest in Billy the Kid?

ortonius — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:32:28 -0000

Any interest in Billy the Kid?

He hasn't even pitched this year...but worth a look? :/

C.J. makes Deadspin...

ortonius — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:38:44 -0000

http://deadspin.com/5316174/do-not-make-cj-wilson-your-espy-wingman

Texas Rangers reliever C.J. Wilson was at the ESPYs for some reason, but since he wasn't nominated for anything (one would assume) he decided to spend the evening busting horny dudes with his Twitter—including a certain noted sportscaster-lothario.

His last update from the ceremony:

I've seen 30 different dudes try flirting with the trophy girls, making trophy wives? hahaha

Come on, guy! Flirting with award show trophy girls is the only moment of fun most of these fellas get in a year. (Besides playing children's games for million-dollar salaries, of course.) Why do you gotta call them out on interweb blog sites? That's not being very "bro-like." But one guest in particular received special attention from Wilson.

Those messages were later deleted from Wilson's feed, but helpfully preserved by this website that refuses to let your most embarrassing online moments die a noble death. If you can't even make small talk with a statuesque statue holder without getting called on it, then what's the point of being a superstar?

Why C.J. Wilson drives me nuts!

ortonius — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:45:31 -0000

Probably one of the most debated guys on the roster, C.J. Wilson blew his third game of the season last night. He's been "excellent" for the last 3-4 weeks though, right?

This is why he drives me nuts as a reliever. C.J.'s BAA with no outs and no one on is .345. Wow... With an 0-0 count, he has a BAA of .375. With a 1-0 count his BAA is also .375. With a 2-0 count his BAA is .600. On the road, C.J.'s BAA is .294

C.J. typically gets himself in trouble, and then gets himself out. His BAA's after 1 or 2 outs...or with RISP are pretty damn good.

In 2008: BAA with none on, none out: .311; BAA with 1 or 2 outs: .182. The reason he sucked last year is that he had a BAA of .328 with RISP.

In the last 20 games, when C.J either comes into the game in the middle of an inning OR when he leads off an inning, he has walked / HBP / given up a hit....to the first batter he faces 14 times.

Even though this year C.J. typically works out of the jam he puts himself in, watching him start off by putting a runner on is maddening.

I think this is the root of why people get frustrated with C.J....and that ends up magnifying his big mistakes like the one last night.

Pettitte mystery contract for 3/$36?

ortonius — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 21:20:45 -0000

Could it be that the Rangers are the mystery team? Another option for an old grizzly vet that could come in and teach the young pitchers a thing or two?

-------------------------

http://www.nj.com/yankees/index.ssf/2008/12/rumors_suggest_andy_pettitte_o.html

Now rumors suggest Andy may have upwards of a three-year, $36 million contract waiting for him...somewhere.

Where exactly this contract is exists remains a mystery. According to SI.com's Jon Heyman, "Pettitte's people" are spreading rumors of an alleged deal with a mystery team:

It isn't believed that this $36-million claim has moved the Yankees to change their offer by even one dollar, which could indicate they question whether such an offer exists.

WTF is up with all of the ads on SBNation?

ortonius — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:42:14 -0000

Holy crap! I come to LSB today and there are pop-up ads freaking everywhere. Ads by SBNation that are covering up posts and fanshots and pretty much everything else. They are long or wide...and there is NO way to close them. WTF???

This sucks!

Your FanPost must be at least 75 words long.

Temperatures and blackouts

ortonius — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 13:35:27 -0000

Temperatures and blackouts

I'm scared that we are going to have blackouts or rolling blackouts over the next three or four days. We lost power twice this morning for a total of about 45 minutes. High temps: Today- 105 Sunday - 106 Monday - 107 F*&K!!!!!

More trade rumors...

ortonius — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:50:01 -0000

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2008/07/heymans-lates-6.html

The Twins, Giants, and Dodgers have interest in Hank Blalock, who has a $6.2MM option for '09.

Your FanPost must be at least 75 words long. Right now it's only 28 words long. If you just have a quote, link, video or photo you'd like to share with the community, try creating a FanShot instead.

Switch Pitcher???

ortonius — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 15:45:58 -0000

We need to trade for this guy... :)

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,369826,00.html

NEW YORK — Ambidextrous pitcher Pat Venditte can confound hitters — and umpires — when he's on the mound.

The umps working a game Thursday night between the Class-A Staten Island Yankees and the Brooklyn Cyclones had nothing to go by when Venditte made his professional debut, less than two weeks after getting drafted in the 20th round by the Yankees.

He pitched the ninth, and after retiring two batters and allowing a single, a switch hitter stepped to the plate for Brooklyn. That's hardly unusual. But it becomes intriguing against Venditte, a switch pitcher.

Things got a tad dizzying when designated hitter Ralph Henriquez, who had taken his on-deck circle swings as a lefty, entered the batter's box from the right side.

Venditte put his specially made glove (it has six fingers, two webs and fits on both hands) on his left hand, and got ready to pitch right-handed.

Henriquez then changed his mind and switched sides of the plate, because a batter sees the ball sooner when it is thrown by a pitcher using the opposite hand.

So Venditte shifted his glove to the other hand.

Then it happened again.

And again.

Apparently unsure of how the rules handle such an oddity, the umpires didn't stop the cat-and-mouse game until Venditte walked toward the plate and said something while pointing at Henriquez. Umpires and both managers then huddled and the umps decided the batter and pitcher can both change sides one time per at-bat, and that the batter must declare first.

The ruling favored the pitcher, since he gets to declare last.

About seven minutes after he first stepped in, Henriquez struck out on four pitches as a righty against a right-handed Venditte and slammed his bat in frustration. Staten Island won, 7-2.

"It's probably been a long, long time since he's seen a right-hander as a righty," Venditte said. "I think in that situation, I had the upper hand because he wasn't used to that. It's been a long time since he'd come in the game as a switch hitter and faced a righty as a righty."

It wasn't completely new to Venditte, who went 9-3 with a 3.34 ERA and seven saves as a senior at Creighton.

"That same thing happened my sophomore year against Nebraska," he said. "But in that situation he got to hit off me right-handed, and I faced him lefty. He hit a line drive to center but it got caught, so I lucked out."

It's unclear what the MLB rule book says on the matter. While it's clear that both a batter and a pitcher are allowed to change sides once, the umpire's decision that the batter must declare first remains debatable.

"We're waiting on an official ruling on it," Staten Island media relations director John Davison said.

Pat Venditte Sr., who raised his son as ambidextrous from the age of 3, said the Missouri Valley Conference had rules in place for such a situation. There, the pitcher had to show which arm he was going to pitch with.

"My first thought was, isn't there a rule to cover that?" asked Venditte Sr., by phone from Nebraska.

Justin Klemm, executive director of the Professional Baseball Umpire Corporation, said his organization was working with major league baseball to remedy the lack of a clear rule.

"We don't want to rush to any interpretation beyond what is in our manual," Klemm said, referring to the minor league umpire manual. "Obviously what's in our manual doesn't cover every situation. We want to be as fair as possible, but we're going to do that in a timely manner."

It's all happening because Venditte Sr. decided to experiment with his son at age 3, having him first kick footballs with both feet, then punting with both, and finally throwing with both hands. He and his 3-year-old son played long toss — pitchers mound to plate — with each arm.

Because his son was home-schooled, Pat Jr. wasn't dissuaded from doing something that might have been seen as "unnatural," his father said. By the time he started playing organized baseball, his son was already better with both hands than most kids were with either.

"By the time he played at 7, people were in awe," Venditte Sr. said. "It spurred us on. He was doing things that people found unique and different."

Some scouts have noticed that Venditte throws harder from the right side — near 90 mph as opposed to about 80 from the left side — and have decided that means he's naturally a righty.

Not so fast, his father said.

"The reason he's not as fast from the left is he drops his arm from the left side to get more movement, he throws a sweeping slider," he said. "The coach at Creighton thought it was more difficult to hit. He has equal arm strength. He can stand at home plate and throw it out of the ballpark from both sides."

The Yankees have enough faith that Venditte can bring his ambidextrous pitching game to the majors to draft him not once, but twice. They drafted him in the 45th round after his junior year as well, but Venditte chose to return to Creighton.

Venditte is not the first professional pitcher to throw with both hands, although he may be the first in the modern era with the potential to regularly switch arms.

Greg A. Harris, who pitched for Cincinnati, Montreal, San Diego, Texas, Philadelphia, Boston and the Yankees from 1981-95, was a righty throughout his career. He pitched from the left side for two batters in the second-to-last game of his career.

Gregg "The Hammer" Williams on The Ticket and Drug Abuse

ortonius — Tue, 20 May 2008 02:38:24 -0000

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=6575356&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1

Gregg "The Hammer" Williams on The Ticket and Drug Abuse