When switch-pitcher Pat Venditte is trying to make his decision on where to sign as a free agent, he likes to fall back on one principle.
"I always kinda tended to go with the place where I felt I was wanted the most," Venditte said on KNBR 680 on Friday. "And right from the get-go, I felt that San Francisco would be that place and sure enough, it was."
The 33-year-old Venditte agreed to a one-year deal worth $585,000 with the Giants on Friday, and he's sure new president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi's familiarity with him had something to do with why they reunited with San Francisco.
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But, Zaidi isn't the only person Venditte is teaming up with again.
"You know, it's not only [Zaidi], but [Giants pitching coach] Curt Young is there too and he was my first pitching coach in the big leagues," Venditte said. "And I can't say enough about the kind of man that he is and I'm looking forward to working with him again as well."
Venditte knows Young from their time with the A's in 2015.
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Venditte has been pitching with both arms since he was three years old, but he admitted it wasn't always smooth sailing.
"There were some trying times there, just because it was so difficult to throw left-handed at the time' Venditte said. "And even when I got to college at Creighton, it was not something that just came easy, it wasn't like I had great results right off the bat. But for some reason, when I moved from over the top to sidearm, it just kind of clicked for me. It was one of those things where it felt super comfortable for me, I was able to spin a slider from there. It almost came a lot easy once that happened. But the first 15 years, there was a lot of trying times."
If you assumed Venditte throws exactly the same from both sides, you would be wrong.
"It's completely different armslots at times," Venditte said. "I would say I'm sidearm right-handed 70 percent of the time and over the top 30 [percent] and 95 percent sidearm lefty with five percent over the top. Maybe not even that much. But I do utilize changes a little bit more from the right side and that's kind of been a new thing for me last year that I will continue to work on this offseason going into spring training and the regular season."
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Venditte's pitches aren't even the same from both sides.
"It really is two completely different mindsets switching back from left to right," Venditte said. "I have different trigger points, and my breaking balls, I throw differently compared to left to right. Even the changes are a little bit different. I don't know if that comes from me being naturally right-handed. It's just one of those things where certain things come easy one way and that left side sometimes takes a little more time. None of the things are really the same other than usually the arm slot and you know I'm going sidearm.
Venditte joins a deep Giants bullpen that currently includes Will Smith, Tony Watson, Mark Melancon, Reyes Moronta, Sam Dyson, Ty Blach, Steven Okert, Ray Black and Travis Bergen.
Venditte could see his role increase even more if Smith or Watson gets traded, as people such as Duane Kuiper are speculating.