Ross Ohlendorf

Curtis Ross Ohlendorf (born August 8, 1982) is an American former professional baseball pitcher.

He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres, Washington Nationals, Texas Rangers, and Cincinnati Reds, and in the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows.

Ohlendorf was born in Austin, Texas.

His family owns a Texas Longhorn ranch that Ohlendorf helps maintain.

As a student, he penned a 140-page senior thesis entitled Investing in Prospects: A Look at the Financial Successes of Major League Baseball Rule IV Drafts from 1989 to 1993.

He graduated from St. Stephen's Episcopal High School in Austin in 2001 where he was a two-sport athlete, playing basketball and baseball.

Ohlendorf attended Princeton University, where he majored in Operations Research and Financial Engineering.

He also played college baseball for the Princeton Tigers baseball team.

In 2002, as a freshman pitcher, he was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Year.

Ohlendorf, a second-team All-Ivy selection, was 3rd in the League with a 3.02 ERA.

He finished with a 6–2 record.

In 2003, he played collegiate summer baseball for the Chatham A's of the Cape Cod Baseball League.

Ohlendorf was selected in the fourth round (116th overall) of 2004 Major League Baseball Draft by the Diamondbacks.

In 2004, Ohlendorf was chosen by Baseball America as one of the Northwest League's Top 20 prospects.

In 2005, he was named to the Midwest League All-Star team.

He finished the season tied for the team lead with 11 victories, and second in the league with 144 strikeouts.

Ohlendorf completed his degree at Princeton in 2006 while in the Arizona Diamondbacks' farm system.

He received the George Mueller Award from the university for combining "high scholarly achievement in the study of engineering with quality performance in intercollegiate athletics".

In his senior thesis, Ohlendorf used sabermetrics to demonstrate the return on investment from the Major League Baseball Draft.

In 2006, playing for the Diamondbacks AA affiliate, the Tennessee Smokies, Ohlendorf went 10–8 with a 3.29 ERA and led the Southern League with four complete games, earning a promotion to AAA Tucson for one playoff start.

Before the 2007 season, the Diamondbacks traded Ohlendorf, Luis Viscaino, Alberto Gonzalez, and Steven Jackson to the New York Yankees for Randy Johnson.

Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman said of Ohlendorf: "He's big, physical, eats innings and he's competitive. He's a workhorse."

Ohlendorf pitched mostly for the AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees in 2007.

Ohlendorf struggled with injuries and inconsistency as a starter with Scranton and was moved to the bullpen.

Ohlendorf embraced his new role and pitched extremely effectively, able to maintain a higher velocity and precision on his pitches due to shorter outings.

On September 9, when Scranton was eliminated from the playoffs, Ohlendorf was promoted to the Major Leagues.

On September 11, he pitched in his first Major League game against the Toronto Blue Jays for the Yankees.

He pitched one inning without allowing a baserunner while striking out one.

On September 15, he pitched 11⁄3 innings against the Boston Red Sox, allowing a walk and a home run, but recording all four outs on strikeouts.

Ohlendorf impressed the Yankees enough in September to earn a spot on the ALDS roster, but struggled in his lone appearance in the series, allowing three runs on four hits and one walk in one inning.

On July 26, 2008, Ohlendorf was acquired by the Pittsburgh Pirates from the New York Yankees in a deal with José Tábata, Jeff Karstens, and Daniel McCutchen for Xavier Nady and Dámaso Marte.

Ohlendorf spent the first month pitching for the AAA Indianapolis Indians and was called up to Pittsburgh on September 2 when the rosters expanded.

He was added to the starting rotation and made his first appearance on September 3 against the Cincinnati Reds where he pitched six innings and allowed four runs (three earned) in a 6–5 Pirates victory.

When Ohlendorf faced Will Venable who batted leadoff on September 28, 2008 for San Diego, he became the first Princeton pitcher to oppose a Princeton batter.

Ohlendorf was a stamina pitcher, often lasting late into games.

In all, he threw 176 innings, 45 more than his previous year total.

The Pirates would shut him down for the remainder of the season following his September 19 start to rest him for next year.

Pirates General Manager Neal Huntington would say, "We're looking forward to working with him to put him in position to where he can be a 200-plus inning starter for many, many years to come."

On September 5, 2009, Ohlendorf became the 40th major-league pitcher to throw an immaculate inning, striking out all three St. Louis Cardinals batters in the seventh inning on nine total pitches.

Ohlendorf would pitch his first full season in the majors for the Pirates in 2009.