Remember Pat Venditte, the ambidextrous reliever who became a YouTube sensation last summer?

If you don't, you may want to keep his name in the back of your mind.

Venditte, a reliever in the New York Yankees organization, is proving to be more than just a novelty act. Rick Reilly penned a column about the switch-pitching prospect's success on the mound featured on ESPN.com this afternoon.

His name is Pat Venditte, he's 23, and he's pro baseball's only ambidextrous pitcher. This living piece of history is more than a YouTube star; he's throwing almost daily for the Charleston RiverDogs, the Yankees' Single-A club. And he's not just throwing: He's blowing through hitters like a Cub Scout through Skittles. At one point in April, the closer's ERA was 0.00 in 6 1/3 innings, and he hadn't blown a save in five games.

Last season, he had 23 saves for the Staten Island Yankees, with a 0.83 ERA. And best of all, the kid can relieve himself!

He wears a specially made six-fingered Mizuno glove with two thumbs. (His Dominican teammates call him Pulpo, Spanish for "octopus.") When he warms up, he throws four pitches righty and four lefty. You should see the opposition when he does it. It's as if they had seen a ghost. Wait--did you just see that? If a righty is up, he throws righty, and vice versa. Whenever Venditte switches sides, everybody in the Charleston ballpark is encouraged to switch seats.

Venditte, a 20th-round selection of the Yankees out of Creighton, made a nice debut in the New York Penn League in 2008. He posted a 0.83 ERA and 2.34 FIP in 30 appearances for the Staten Island Yankees, striking out 42 against only 10 walks in 32.2 innings pitched. His rates of 11.57 K/9, 2.76 BB/9 and 0.55 HR/9 were excellent, and he ranked among circuit leaders with 23 saves in as many chances.

Granted, Venditte was 22 years old pitching against much younger competition. Although he was also selected by the Yankees in 2007 as well, he opted to go back to his school for his senior year and was one of the older players chosen in the draft. Still, he did what was asked of him in his professional debut.

While the sample size is small, Venditte has continued to reinforce his status as a prospect thus far in 2009 while pitching for the Charleston RiverDogs in the South Atlantic League. He has struck out 21 in only 11.2 innings pitched, giving him a ridiculous 16.20 K/9 rate. Most impressive, the 23-year-old hurler has produced a 0.00 ERA and -0.40 FIP; of the 42 batters to face him, only seven have reached base. The RiverDogs' closer is a perfect 7-for-7 in save chances as well.

Reilly feels that Venditte could be up with the Yankees at some point early in the next decade:

But Venditte, a four-year letterman at Creighton, has a chance to be the best. If the Yankees bring him up--and at this pace it could happen within three years--they won't need a pitch count. Venditte can throw every day! And when manager Joe Girardi needs to call the bullpen, he can say, "Okay, get a righty and lefty throwing. In other words, get Pat." Of course, how would Girardi signal the bullpen? Touch both arms? Either way, it's a steal for the Yankees. As one scout says, "This could be an economical two-for-one." (Hey, Pat, ask for two salaries.)

Jokes and hyperbole aside, a scenario in which Venditte emerges in the New York bullpen is not all that improbable. With that said, it might be wise for the Yankees to handle him aggressively, seeing how he performs against more advanced competition. Many scouts still doubt his pure stuff and remain skeptical about his future prospects as a big-league pitcher. From the right side, he sits in the low-90s and has good command of a curve ball. He throws in the mid-80s as a lefty, relying on deception mostly; he comes from a side-armed delivery while mixing in a slider. Being able to switch sides before each at-bat also gives him a nice advantage, but his fastball is anything but overpowering and his overall repertoire of pitches is not exactly worth writing home about. If he can indeed remain this effective at the higher levels, though, he could easily establish himself as the next unconventional reliever to achieve success where it counts--a more interesting version of Chad Bradford, if you will, in the sense that he will likely be overlooked due to his scouting reports.

Time will tell, but it would definitely make for a great story if Venditte indeed reaches the show one day. Either way, he will remain a YouTube legend for a long time and will always be remembered for forcing the Professional Baseball Umpire Corporation to establish the Venditte Rule for how to deal with ambidextrous pitchers. We should all hope--seriously, how cool would it be to have a switch pitcher in the majors?--he does enough on the field to be remembered for more than that.

Tyler Hissey is editor of Around the Majors. To reach him, send an email to TylerHissey@gmail.com.