Ross Ohlendorf

Curtis Ross Ohlendorf (born August 8, 1982, in Austin, Texas) is a Major League Baseball starting pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He is known for his hard-biting sinker. He can hit 97 mph with a two-seam sinking fastball, and he's working to improve his developing changeup, slider, and breaking ball.

Ohlendorf was born in Austin, Texas. His family owns a Texas Longhorn ranch that Ohlendorf helps maintain. 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 when 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. Ohlendorf was one of six Ivy Leaguers on major league rosters at the beginning of the 2009 season.

Ohlendorf majored in Operations Research and Financial Engineering at Princeton. In his senior thesis, Ohlendorf used sabermetrics to demonstrate the return on investment from the Major League Baseball Draft.

MLB

Ohlendorf was selected in the fourth round of 2004 Major League Baseball Draft by the Arizona Diamondbacks. He completed his degree at Princeton in 2006 while in the 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". Ohlendorf wrote a highly praised thesis on the Major League Baseball Amateur Draft and the actual value of signing bonuses.

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.


2006

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.

He was traded to the New York Yankees as the key prospect in the Randy Johnson deal.

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


2007

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 1 1/3 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.


2008

On July 26, he was acquired by the Pittsburgh Pirates from the New York Yankees in a deal with Jose Tabata, Jeff Karstens, and Daniel McCutchen for Xavier Nady and Damaso 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 6 innings and allowed 3 earned runs in a 6-5 Pirates victory.

His brother Chad is also attending Princeton and pitching for the school.

He has gained the nickname "Mr. Wonderful" because of the similarity of his last name to the former professional wrestler known as "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff.