The Oakland Athletics have always been an innovative team when it comes to finding players that best fit the mold for GM Billy Beane’s plans. Nathan Patterson, a fan from Nashville who was attending a game at Coors Field had no idea his life was about to change. Believe it or not, Patterson registered 96 MPH at his highest while throwing at the speed pitch booth at the Colorado Rockies game which seemed to be the tipping point for the Athletics to pursue him.
And 2 weeks later…he’s now a professional athlete. @Athletics @MLB pic.twitter.com/zLnwQKMcRH
— Christian Patterson (@cpatterson_7) August 2, 2019
Patterson had caught the Athletics attention at a previous game when he hit 96 MPH as well while throwing on the speed pitch at a Triple-A Nashville Sounds game. The background of Patterson is not some glorious high school/college star who never panned out to be drafted, quite different from that. He played high school baseball, however, he did not pursue the sport in college. It was actually last August (2018) when Patterson finally started to take baseball seriously again which was a great decision on his part.
2019 Draft Eligable
-Fastball 92-95
-Changeup 81-84
-Slider 79-82Cast comes off in 2 weeks and will start getting the upper body back in shape. You can count on upper 90’s very soon. Any feedback is appreciated!@FlatgroundApp pic.twitter.com/FWxq2rQuE7
— Nathan Patterson (@npatterson_12) January 20, 2019
The twenty-three-year-old is a right-handed pitcher, who did not get the attention of big-league teams on his own, Twitter’s very own, “PitchingNinja”, Rob Friedman was involved by shouting out Patterson’s tweets on his account. With the help of Friedman’s account as well as his “Flatground App” brand, Patterson got the exposure that seemingly peaked the interest of the Athletics front office resulting in the offer that made Patterson’s dreams come true. Only time will tell if Patterson shall pay off, but the Athletics are willing to take a chance on this one.
