Toronto Blue Jays switch-pitcher Pat Venditte forced Major League Baseball to create a new rule. And now he’s forcing the new MLB The Show video game to do the same.
When Venditte made his MLB debut last year with the Oakland Athletics, a rule was developed that says before each at-bat Venditte has to declare which hand he will use to pitch. In the game, the choice will only be given to players when facing a switch-hitter. Otherwise, Venditte will automatically throw from the same side as the batter, according to the video game news website Polygon.
“It was definitely not easy,” said Ramone Russell of Sony’s San Diego Studio, in an interview with Polygon. “When this happened with him last year, we all said, ‘Hey, this is really cool, so lets see how hard it is to implement.”
This feature will be exclusive to Venditte, meaning fans won’t be able to create their own switch-pitchers in the game. According to Polygon, it took two months for Sony to decide how to include his skill set in the game.
Venditte isn’t guaranteed to make the Blue Jays opening day roster, yet. With left-handed pitcher Aaron Loup likely starting the season on the disabled list, a bullpen spot could be open for either Venditte or veteran left-hander Randy Choate.
“Those are the two,” said manager John Gibbons recently. “We haven’t seen Choate a lot, we’re going to try to give him some work this week. Venditte has pitched very good for us. We’ll see where that goes but (a second lefty) not something we have to have.”
MLB The Show 16 with Josh Donaldson on the cover comes out Tuesday for both Playstation 3 and Playstation 4.
