Prediction comes true: Pat Venditte is on a schedule
Three days after his last appearance, Pat Venditte pitched two innings for Tampa tonight. He struck out four and allowed one hit. While its only two appearances, I willing to bet that this is a permanent shift for Venditte. He will pitch multiple-inning appearances to a pitch count every three days. The Yankees have him on a prospect track, which means there is a very good chance that at some point we will be seeing Pat Venditte in the major leagues. Prepare for a show.
Greg Fertel at Pending Pinstripes says that we’ll really know what the Yankees think if they promote Venditte to Double-A quickly. I’m willing to go one step further. I’m positive that the Yankees, because this is how they do things in the minors, have an absolute minimum number of innings required for a relief pitcher to be promoted to the next level. They set the bar at 40 innings for starting pitchers, but it took Mark Melancon only 25 innings to get out of High-A. I’m willing to bet that Venditte, who spent time at High-A last season, will earn a promotion in the same time frame. Pitching at 2.25 innings per appearance every 3 days, that means that Venditte should be up for promotion as early as May 16th at the earliest. Don’t start clamoring for his quick promotion before that.
David Adams starts off hot
2nd baseman David Adams is hitting .500/.500/.792 on the young season, with 4 doubles and 1 home run. Its easy to forget that Adams was a 3rd round pick, and of the slight high risk / high reward variety. Adams put up a compensation-round caliber .372/.454/.522 sophomore year at UVA, but slumped to a pedestrian .286/.384/.411 in his draft-eligible junior year. Had he repeated his sophomore year, Adams would have been taken in the late supplemental first round. The Yankees noticed that his K/BB dramatically improved to 39/41 that season, and he may just have been suffering from bad luck.
Adams is a legitimate second baseman, and appears to be showing some stick. He’s being pushed very quickly through the farm system, hitting .286/.373/.443 with a fantastic 88/61 K/BB in 132 games. His only other defensive experience is at 3rd base. He’s trade bait, but could really entice a few teams. This is just a quick start to the season, but Adams could quickly become a much better prospect than fellow 3rd-round pick Brett Gardner was if he keeps it up.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
3 Responses to Minor League Notes, April 13, 2010
Leave a Reply
TIQ IQ
Venditte pitched 36.2 innings at Tampa last season, so he already is over the 40-mark that you are suggesting for starters. For a reliever, that’s plenty of innings and I’m just not sure what else Venditte has to prove in A ball. I think he’ll be in Trenton by early May, unless he suddenly starts struggling in Tampa.
I’m not sure the Yankees will change their innings minimum because a guy has played at the level before. I’ve only really nailed them down with starting pitching, but they’ve stayed pretty strictly to starting pitching innings numbers before. Joba Chamberlain is the best example, but Alfredo Aceves followed the pattern too.
I still am not sure where that point is yet though. Some research finds that in 2007, Edwar needed only 15 innings in Double-A before promotion.
I’m a huge fan of David Adams. I know his ceiling isn’t all that high, but I think he could be a useful player to the Yankees in the future.