SBNation.com - R.A. Dickey Collects 13 Strikeouts, Throws Second Straight 1-Hitterhttps://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/46737/sbn-fave.png2012-06-26T10:00:36-04:00http://www.sbnation.com/rss/stream/28483682012-06-26T10:00:36-04:002012-06-26T10:00:36-04:00R.A. Dickey: As Rootable As Rootable Gets
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<p>Even after R.A. Dickey ran into some problems Sunday night, he's still all plenty of people want to talk about. And there's a reason for that -- R.A. Dickey couldn't be more of a universal fan favorite. </p> <p>This is a feature that began as another feature. It took about 45 minutes for me to realize the other feature idea was a dead end, and there are few things more discouraging than that. I guess if I were to take a step back, there are countless things more discouraging than that, but there are few things more discouraging than that for a writer. I guess if I were to take a step back, there are -- well you see where this is going. I have folded some of the original feature's research into this feature, hopefully for this feature's benefit.</p>
<p>I, like so many others, have spent more time than ever of late thinking about R.A. Dickey. Dickey did just Sunday struggle a bit against the <a href="https://www.pinstripealley.com/" class="sbn-auto-link">Yankees</a>, but that was the first time he'd allowed more than three earned runs in a start since April 18. Dickey could be forgiven for his figurative pothole, and still he's among the most effective pitchers on the planet. People have been talking Dickey up for weeks upon weeks, and it occurred to me that there haven't been critics. Maybe there have, but there haven't been critics that I've noticed. Nobody raining on any parades. By and large, people have embraced R.A. Dickey, and he seems to be getting more widespread support than most players who get so much attention.</p>
<p>That's unusual, and it got me thinking about what makes R.A. Dickey so likable. <i>That</i> got me thinking that what makes R.A. Dickey so likable is everything. R.A. Dickey is wholly, consummately likable, or "rootable", as I used in the headline. I am fully aware of how that might be interpreted in Australia, but I'm not going to change it, because, who knows? Maybe he's that, too.</p>
<p>Is R.A. Dickey the most likable player in baseball? If Dickey wanted to be more likable, would that even be possible? Allow me to try to quickly explain Dickey's rootability via the following scientific category breakdown.</p>
<p><b>Underdog<br></b>At one point, Dickey was the opposite of an underdog, as he was drafted by the <a href="https://www.lonestarball.com/" class="sbn-auto-link">Rangers</a> in the first round in 1996. First-round draft picks aren't supposed to be eligible for underdog consideration; they're just supposed to be successes or disappointments. But then the Rangers found out that Dickey didn't have an ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow, and then after reaching the majors, Dickey was bad. He had to completely reinvent himself, and you know the rest of this story by heart. R.A. Dickey is just now teetering on the edge of being a household name, and he's 37.</p>
<p><b>Unusual or unique<br></b>Say, did you know that R.A. Dickey throws a knuckleball? Or, more accurately, an assortment of knuckleballs, and only very few fastballs? Did you know that <a href="http://mlb.sbnation.com/2012/6/24/3112079/ra-dickey-knuckleball-fast-power-mets" target="_blank">R.A. Dickey might throw the fastest knuckleball ever</a>? Here's a knuckleball that Dickey threw this season:</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/1205175/Dickey54.gif.opt.gif"><img src="http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/1205175/Dickey54.gif.opt_medium.gif" class="photo" alt="Dickey54"></a></p>
<p>That knuckleball clocked in at 54 miles per hour. Here's another knuckleball that Dickey threw this season:</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/1205176/Dickey82.gif.opt.gif"><img src="http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/1205176/Dickey82.gif.opt_medium.gif" class="photo" alt="Dickey82"></a></p>
<p>That knuckleball clocked in at 82 miles per hour. While he doesn't often visit the lower extreme, Dickey has established a knuckleball velocity range of 28 miles per hour. There just aren't pitchers like R.A. Dickey now, and there haven't been pitchers like R.A. Dickey before. Not exactly.</p>
<p><b>Inspiring story<br></b>Dickey, of course, has overcome plenty of baseball adversity, and that might be enough. But then you recall the stories of past sexual abuse, and you remember that not too long ago Dickey entertained thoughts of committing suicide. We're getting deep here, and further discussion goes beyond my limited abilities as a writer, but suffice to say that Dickey has a hell of a personal story to tell, along with his professional story that's already beyond belief.</p>
<p><b>Personality<br></b>Dickey is insightful, eloquent, funny, and he named his baseball bats after fictional swords. He of course wrote his memoir, and this past offseason jeopardized his baseball contract to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro to raise awareness of human trafficking. Dickey is almost the complete opposite of the ordinary baseball-jock stereotype, and while nobody's personality appeals to everyone, Dickey's personality appeals to most. If you don't appreciate <span>R.A. Dickey's</span> personality, you're probably kind of a douche.</p>
<p><b>Talent<br></b>Getting back to baseball, Dickey's been all over the headlines because he's been one of the best players in the world. Right now, seven starting pitchers have a lower ERA. Eight starting pitchers have a lower FIP. Two starting pitchers have a lower xFIP. Three starting pitchers have a higher strikeout rate. Already good, Dickey's only gotten better, such that there's a legitimate argument to be made that he ought to start the All-Star Game. Dickey's numbers aren't that different from <span>Stephen Strasburg's</span>. Think about that. No, think about it more, I didn't tell you to stop.</p>
<p><b>Intangibles</b></p>
<p><a href="http://cdn1.sbnation.com/imported_assets/1107560/20120607_ajl_au3_193_extra_large.jpg"><img width="270" height="196" src="http://cdn0.sbnation.com/imported_assets/1107560/20120607_ajl_au3_193_extra_large_medium.jpg" class="photo" alt="20120607_ajl_au3_193_extra_large_medium"></a></p>
<p>There isn't a better Pitch Face in baseball. I've done the research. Dickey throws fast knuckleballs and looks like he's going to eat you, and those are two very overwhelming things to think about as a hitter.</p>
<p><b>Tempo<br></b>This is something I just noticed recently, and it's an underrated component of what can make a pitcher likable. No matter what <span>Daisuke Matsuzaka</span> ever did, even if he lived up to the highest expectations, he would've achieved limited popularity, because in between every pitch, he takes the time to sketch a drawing of the pitch he just threw. Baseball fans don't mind a long game, but they have little tolerance for wasted time. Daisuke Matsuzaka wasted time. In between his pitches, there was nothing. There's nothing in between R.A. Dickey's pitches, either, but the time between Dickey's pitches is much much shorter.</p>
<p>This is a .gif I prepared:</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/1205187/DickeyFast2.gif.opt.gif"><img src="http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/1205187/DickeyFast2.gif.opt_medium.gif" class="photo" alt="Dickeyfast2"></a></p>
<p>That's a .gif of R.A. Dickey throwing two pitches. Both were taken, and, okay, this isn't a .gif I prepared because of the action it shows. Watch the first pitch, and then note how quickly Dickey throws a second pitch. He's like a regular <span>Mark Buehrle</span>. In fact, Dickey's pace is the fourth-lowest in baseball this year, at an average of 18 seconds between pitches. That's within one second of Buehrle, who's the perennial champion. Dickey's gotten better this year, and he's also gotten faster, making him more watchable. A player who's more watchable is a player who's more likable.</p>
<p>I think that covers the bulk of it. One thing Dickey might not have going for him is his team, since his team is the <a href="https://www.amazinavenue.com/" class="sbn-auto-link">New York Mets</a>, but at least this edition of the Mets is an underdog edition, and better the Mets than the Yankees. The Mets are an organization that in recent years you could've felt sorry for. And if Dickey didn't pitch in a major market like New York, who knows if he'd be getting all the attention? Who knows how many people would've heard of Dickey if he pitched in San Diego?</p>
<p>I'm having trouble imagining a player more rootable than R.A. Dickey is right now. The only ways I can think of a player to be more likable are completely unrealistic, and Dickey has achieved the unthinkable, where he's both a star player and an underdog at the same time. Maybe it won't last forever, because nothing ever does, but R.A. Dickey is a blessing for all of us, and did you know that <span>David Wright</span> has a four-digit OPS? There's a chance that you didn't, and maybe there's no better evidence of how much people would rather talk about R.A. Dickey than anything else.</p>
https://www.sbnation.com/2012/6/26/3117293/ra-dickey-stats-knuckleball-metsJeff Sullivan2012-06-24T09:00:04-04:002012-06-24T09:00:04-04:00R.A. Dickey's Angry Knuckleball
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<p>Just when you think you've seen everything, along comes R.A. Dickey, whose 80-mile-an-hour knuckleballs are probably the first in the game's long history.</p> <p>I have been fairly obsessed with baseball for a long time. For almost as long, I've been crazy about the knuckleball. How many people do you know who own a videotape of <a target="_blank" href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/DET/DET200009150.shtml">a game</a> that featured <span>Tim Wakefield</span> vs. <span>Steve Sparks</span>?</p>
<p>But after a few decades of watching every knuckleball pitcher whenever I could, I thought I had seen it all. I thought there was nothing left to see, except a worthy successor to Tim Wakefield as the game's premier practitioner of the magical art.</p>
<p>That successor did, of course, arrive: <span>Robert Allen Dickey</span>.</p>
<p>What I never guessed was that The Successor would also be a Revolutionary; that after more than a century, the slow dancing knuckleball -- the<i> butterfly</i>, they called it -- could become an utterly different pitch. An utterly devastating pitch.</p>
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<p>Everyone's been talking about the numbers. Dickey has thrown consecutive one-hitters. In his last six starts, he's given up two runs, and struck out 63 batters while walking only five. He's the first pitcher in major-league history to make five straight starts without allowing a run and striking out at least eight batters in each start. Et cetera.</p>
<p>I love numbers, but in this case the numbers are less interesting than the physical creation of those numbers.</p>
<p>Here is <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.amazinavenue.com/">Mets</a> broadcaster Gary Cohen, one of the very best in the business, during a recent game:</p>
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<p>The numbers are just phenomenal, they're off the charts at this point ... But I think what also needs to be said is that R.A. Dickey is redefining what it means to be a knuckleball pitcher, both in terms of his control, but maybe also -- and we don't talk about this enough -- in terms of the velocity of his knuckleball. Nobody's ever thrown a knuckleball like this before.</p>
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<p><span>Keith Hernandez</span>, who faced a number of knuckleball pitchers during his career, agreed: "Well, no one's thrown the knuckleball as hard as he does."</p>
<p>Is that true, though? And I ask that with great respect, because Hernandez is a real student of the game's history. I just figure we should make sure.</p>
<p>Of course, for many years the best knuckleballer was Tim Wakefield. Wakefield's knuckleball averaged around 66 miles an hour in his last five seasons. While Wakefield could certainly throw it faster than 66 and occasionally did, it's probably safe to say he never threw his knuckleball 80 miles an hour. It just wasn't his style; in fact, Wakefield's "fastball" barely topped 70.</p>
<p>I checked in with Tom Candiotti, who reached the majors in 1983 and threw mostly knuckleballs from 1986 through the end of his career in 1999.</p>
<p>"I threw a medium one 66 miles an hour," Candiotti told me, "the hard one 75, and the soft one 55. But the 66 was the one I needed to throw good; that was the one I needed to throw for strikes."</p>
<p>I also spoke to Jim Bouton, the one-time power pitcher who famously resurrected his career as a knuckleball pitcher, first with the Seattle Pilots in 1969 and later with the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.talkingchop.com/">Braves</a> in ‘78.</p>
<p>"People said I threw the hardest knuckleball," Bouton says. "I wound up and got my whole body into it. In <a target="_blank" href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/HOU/HOU196908290.shtml">a game against the Pirates in 1970</a>, I threw the knuckleball very hard, at least 70 miles an hour, and I struck out 11 <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.bucsdugout.com/">Pirates</a> in 10 innings. But that was just one night."</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/baneed01.shtml">Eddie Bane</a>'s been around the game for nearly 40 years, debuting with the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.twinkietown.com/">Twins</a> in 1973 -- after skipping the minor leagues completely -- and later working for a number of teams in the front office. These days, he's scouting for the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.blessyouboys.com/">Tigers</a>.</p>
<p>"Nobody I have seen throws the knuckler as hard as Dickey," Bane wrote in an e-mail message. "I was in spring training with <a target="_blank" href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/woodwi01.shtml">Wilbur Wood</a> during his big years with the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.southsidesox.com/">White Sox</a>. Wood's knuckleball was really slow. His warmup routine was to play catch with some unsuspecting sap and drill the guy with the ball.</p>
<p>"I was with some awfully good scouts in Pittsburgh the other day," Bane continues, "and almost to a man they said they had never seen anything like Dickey's knuckleball."</p>
<p>Hoyt Wilhelm, Charlie Hough, Phil Niekro ... all of those guys also threw the slow dancing knuckleball, generally in the 60s somewhere. Joe Niekro, who threw his secondary pitches more than those other guys, probably threw his knuckler a little harder, maybe in the low 70s. But not 80. Probably not close to 80. Perhaps the hardest knuckleball that anyone saw before Dickey's was thrown by <span>Jared Fernandez</span>, who toiled for a few teams in the last decade; Fernandez got his knuckler up to 76 with some regularity, or five miles an hour slower than Dickey's best.</p>
<p>R.A. Dickey is probably throwing a pitch that no professional batter had ever seen before he started throwing it.</p>
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<p>People wonder how he's doing this, and if he can keep doing it.</p>
<p>Over the last month, he's doing it by throwing knuckleballs faster than anyone's ever thrown them.</p>
<p>No. Scratch that. Dickey had thrown those knuckleballs before this recent run. What's changed is that he's now throwing <i>more</i> of those fast knuckleballs. According to <a target="_blank" href="http://espn.go.com/blog/statsinfo/post/_/id/45363/r-a-dickey-etches-name-in-baseball-history">ESPN.com's Mark Simon</a>, in Dickey's second one-hitter last week, he "threw 35 knuckleballs at 80 mph or faster, the third straight start in which he's thrown at least 30 knuckleballs at that speed. Before those three starts, his previous high in a start was 17 such pitches."</p>
<p>And those fast knuckleballs might be among the most effective pitches ever thrown, period.</p>
<p>"I call it a <i>power knuckleball</i>," Candiotti says. "It doesn't dance all over the place. But it's got one hard movement."</p>
<p>Which is plenty. As Bouton notes, "If you're throwing it 80 miles an hour, it only needs to break two inches."</p>
<p>Remember, what sets the knuckleball apart is that when thrown correctly it's got no spin, and thus isn't subject to the same physical rules that govern every pitch from the four-seam fastball to the slow curve. Every conventional pitch -- that is, every pitch aside from the knuckleball -- describes a perfectly predictable path from the pitcher's hand until it's either hit or caught or somehow eludes the catcher.</p>
<p>But the well-thrown, non-spinning knuckleball is unpredictable, which of course is why it's so hard to hit, despite coming in 25-30 miles an hour slower than an average fastball. It's also hard to catch. It's also hard to throw for strikes. It's also hard to throw, period. Which is why there have been so few good knuckleball pitchers since it was invented.</p>
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<p>After the 2008 season -- during which he posted a 5.21 ERA for the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.lookoutlanding.com/">Mariners</a>, and after which he got released by the Mariners -- Dickey arranged for a tutoring session with Phil Niekro. From Dickey's book, just published this spring:</p>
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<p>You have an angry knuckleball, Phil says. It comes in so much harder than the way guys have historically thrown the pitch. That's a tremendous asset if you can harness it.</p>
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<p>It took four years, but Dickey's finally harnessed that <i>angry knuckleball</i>. Like nobody else ever has. He's quite probably the first of his kind.</p>
<p>Is he also the last, though? It's not like guys with R.A. Dickey's talents are all over the place, who just need a nudge in the right direction. Remember, Dickey was a first-round draft choice. Even at 37, Dickey can muscle up and throw a baseball 85 miles an hour, probably more if he wanted to work more on his fastball. He's not just some guy out there.</p>
<p>Tom Candiotti says, "R.A. must have one really good arm."</p>
<p>Jim Bouton says, "If you try to throw it too hard, it will just spin out of your hand. So Dickey must have a tremendous grip on the ball."</p>
<p>Eddie Bane says, "A really smart, athletic pitcher throwing a freak pitch is a great combination. Reminds me more of Bruce Sutter then other knuckleball pitchers."</p>
<p>He's also got the emotional attributes necessary to keep on working on a pitch, for year after year after year, despite receiving little positive reinforcement from either his employers or his performance. Most guys would have given up.</p>
<p>But there are a lot of stubborn professional athletes. <span>Ryan Vogelsong</span>. <span>Jerome Williams</span>. <span>Jamie Moyer</span>, for God's sake.</p>
<p>If you were 29 years old and threw 85-90 miles an hour but your career seemed to be stalled in the high minors, what would you do? Keep plugging along and hope for a miracle? Hey, miracles do happen. Vogelsong.</p>
<p>There might be another way, though. Lots of guys have tried to reinvent themselves as knuckleballers, and very few of them have succeeded. Maybe they <a target="_blank" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKkZhubwt04">were doing it wrong</a>. Maybe instead of learning to throw it 65 miles an hour like Wilbur Wood and Phil Niekro and Tim Wakefield, they should have been learning to throw it like R.A. Dickey.</p>
<p>Except until this season, nobody knew that was even possible, let alone how well it could work. Until this season, nobody knew that a <i>power knuckleball</i> could be, at least for a few weeks, the single most unhittable pitch on earth.</p>
<p>Now, everybody knows. Robert Allen Dickey is one of a kind. But it's at least possible that in 10 years, he'll be viewed as the father of an entire generation of angry knuckleballers.</p>
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https://www.sbnation.com/2012/6/24/3112079/ra-dickey-knuckleball-fast-power-metsRob Neyer2012-06-20T15:22:36-04:002012-06-20T15:22:36-04:00Baseball Prospectus: R.A. Dickey And Knuckleballing To The Count
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<p>You know who's a fantastic pitcher? R.A. Dickey. So we should talk about him a lot, because it's more fun to talk about fantastic players than it is to talk about terrible players. I mean, when you're talking about terrible players, everything's so negative. It can be comical, but with fantastic players, we're reminded that these are the best talents in the universe. That we know of.</p>
<p>Anyway, I'm a sucker for PITCHf/x analysis, so we turn to PITCHf/x genius <a target="_blank" href="http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=17414">Dan Brooks at Baseball Prospectus</a>. He was curious to see how much Dickey varies his knuckleball speed and movement depending on the count. He could compare Dickey only to Tim Wakefield, since it's not like we have a giant sample of knuckleballer data from recent years, but his findings are of interest. Click through and see neat graphs! And also see the words that I've copied below.</p>
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<p>According to the man himself, <span class="playerdef">R.A. Dickey</span> varies the speed on his knuckleball according to the situation. But how much, and in what way? Is this a common feature of knuckleballers, or relatively unique to Dickey?</p>
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<p>[information]</p>
<p>[information]</p>
<p>[information]</p>
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<p>You can see that both pitchers actually varied the speed of their knuckleballs by the count, with more speed variability when the count was more pitcher friendly (such as on 0-2 or 1-2) than when the count was hitter friendly (such as on 3-1 or 3-0). But, you can also see that <span class="statdef">R</span>.A. Dickey is varying the speed of his knuckleball over a much bigger range, with mph variability of ~4.5, whereas Tim Wakefield’s variability was closer to ~3mph.</p>
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<p>Wakefield’s function is actually noisier than Dickey’s, and the trend is less clear. Still, there’s evidence that Wakefield too got more knuckleball movement when he could chance it.</p>
<p>What have we learned? Well, knuckleballs are not <em>totally</em> out of the pitcher’s control. When pitchers are ahead in counts, the knuckleball has both greater movement variability and greater speed variability— and more variability means it’s harder to hit.</p>
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<p>So simple, so interesting. Even when a pitcher says something like "I vary my speed and movement more when I'm ahead in the count," it's great to see such statements confirmed by data. Helps to drive the significance home.</p>
https://www.sbnation.com/2012/6/20/3102551/baseball-prospectus-ra-dickey-knuckleballJeff Sullivan2012-06-19T12:29:52-04:002012-06-19T12:29:52-04:00Temporarily Ending The Search For The Perfect Pitcher
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<img alt="NEW YORK - R.A Dickey of the New York Mets pitches against the Philadelphia Phillies. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/mPopniYeMDbzbXgqGOxCnTb1_Uw=/0x0:600x400/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/photo_images/725044/GYI0060561401.jpg" />
<figcaption>NEW YORK - R.A Dickey of the New York Mets pitches against the Philadelphia Phillies. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images) | Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>R.A. Dickey and his hard knuckleball is making us all rethink what makes a the perfect pitcher. </p> <p>I picture a Manhattan Project-style gathering of the minds. The greatest scouts and analysts, hunkered and bunkered somewhere in New Mexico, trying to figure out how to make the perfect pitcher.</p>
<p>They had the 103-m.p.h. fastball. They all agreed upon that much, at least.</p>
<p>But what would the secondary pitch be? What would be the strikeout pitch? Curve-ball partisans would rage against slider partisans, and the change-up partisans would think they were all idiots. There would be no consensus. There would be no agreement. Nothing would get done.</p>
<p>So everyone would need to calm down. Maybe there'd need to be some sort of corporate retreat -- go away for a while, and forget what they thought they knew. Rediscover what went into a good pitcher.</p>
<p>There'd be a roundtable. Philosophical debates. Intellectual discourse. And everyone would agree that the perfect pitcher would combine a) last-minute deception with b) advanced control. The ability to put a ball where you want it, and then at the last second, make the ball jump in a completely unexpected direction.</p>
<p>The perfect pitcher, they'd conclude, would be a guy who threw 103, could place the ball where he wanted to, and made it move at the last second. That pitcher doesn't exist right now, though <span>Aroldis Chapman</span> is working on the control part. Until then, <span>R.A. Dickey</span> is temporarily the perfect pitcher, the best possible pitch is an 80-m.p.h. knuckleball, and the best secondary pitch in the land is an 83-m.p.h. fastball.</p>
<p>Right now, the perfect pitcher is a 38-year-old guy without an ulnar collateral ligament who throws an 80-m.p.h. knuckleball and an 83-m.p.h. fastball. Maybe in the future, it will be a guy who throws an 87-m.p.h. knuckleball with a 90-m.p.h. fastball. Maybe Dickey has kicked off a knuckleball craze that isn't going to stop, and this is like the four-minute mile, or the land-speed record, and we'll have to keep adjusting what to expect. We will celebrate those pitchers then.</p>
<p>In the future, this might seem quaint. Maybe after someone introduces the 85-m.p.h. knuckleball, we'll look back, and think, "D'awwww. An 80-m.p.h. knuckleball. So cute," as if we were retroactively judging people for getting excited about Pong. But for right now, Dickey is the one:</p>
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<p><br> That's the perfect GIF of the perfect pitcher. A knuckleball dancing hither and thither, but much faster than the knucklers we're used to. Buck Showalter shaking his head in abject disgust. A catcher's mitt highlighting just how weird the last-second movement is.</p>
<p>In Dickey's last six starts, he's thrown 48⅔ innings, allowing 21 hits and two runs. One of those runs was unearned, which puts his ERA at 0.18 over that stretch. He's walked five and struck out 63. <i>Walked five and struck out 63</i>. This is a knuckleballer -- he isn't supposed to know where the ball is going. That's kind of the point of the knuckleball. So even the best knuckleballers in history were expected to give up a few walks and a few wild pitches, and their catchers were expected to get pummeled with passed balls. Dickey has better command than anyone could have expected. And it's turned him into something freaky.</p>
<p>A fastball can move at the last second, but in a predictable direction. The speed of the fastball and the quickness and depth of its last-second break might make it a superlative, hard-to-hit pitch. But until someone figures out how to make a fastball that moves in an unpredictable fashion at the last second, it can't compete with an 83-m.p.h. knuckleball thrown with precision. The idea of the perfect pitcher has to be rejiggered.</p>
<p>Can he keep it up? Certainly not at this level -- no one can keep <i>this</i> up -- and the knuckleball is a famously finicky pitch that can flit in and out of effectiveness. But if the idea behind pitching is deception -- making a hitter swing too late and/or where the ball isn't -- then for right now, we've found the perfect pitcher. Dickey throwing his best knuckleball with impeccable command is it.</p>
<p>And he's a 37-year-old with a busted arm and an 83-m.p.h. fastball who still needs 150 major-league innings to have more innings in the majors than in triple-A. Back to the bunker in New Mexico, folks. That doesn't make sense at all.</p>
https://www.sbnation.com/2012/6/19/3096965/r-a-dickey-new-york-mets-knuckleballGrant Brisbee2012-06-19T12:17:55-04:002012-06-19T12:17:55-04:00Orioles: We Wuz Robbed.
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/DZVeAriPWccCRFErxceBxV0sPWY=/0x27:400x294/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/47828145/large_sb_nation_final.0.png" />
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<p>Monday night, <span>R.A. Dickey</span> pitched his second straight one-hitter.</p>
<p>Monday night, R.A. Dickey struck out 13 <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.camdenchat.com/">Baltimore Orioles</a>.</p>
<p>Afterward, some of those Orioles weren't willing to give Dickey <i>all </i>the credit. As Newsday's Tom Pedulla reports, some of them thought Dickey had some help from plate-umpire Eric Cooper. And <a target="_blank" href="http://mobile.newsday.com/inf/infomo;JSESSIONID=EB79B3BE08F47DB3E89F043085372F25?site=newsday&view=mets_item&feed:a=newsday_5min&feed:c=mets&feed:i=1.3790972">they weren't real shy about it</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"There were some questionable calls," said centerfielder and cleanup hitter <span>Adam Jones</span> after he came up empty in three at-bats. "It's human error."<br><br>Rightfielder <span>Chris Davis</span> thought he and Dickey were only partly responsible for his 0-for-4 futility with three strikeouts.<br><br>"When you go up there looking for a ball in the strike zone and you are not getting it . . . ," he said.<br><br>Asked to complete the thought, the Orioles' No. 3 hitter declined. But he also said of some of the 81 strikes called during Dickey's 114-pitch evening, "This is our job. This is our living. When it affects the outcome, it's tough."<br><br>Shortstop <span>J.J. Hardy</span> , who batted just ahead of Davis and took the same 0-for-4 collar with one strikeout, all but clamped his hand onto his wallet when asked to comment.<br><br>"I can't say what I want to say," he said. "What I want to say, I get fined."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Buck Showalter wasn't having the best time of his life, either. Near the end, I thought he might pop out of the dugout and get ejected when Cooper rang up J.J. Hardy. Afterward, though, he didn't say enough to get fined. There was this, though: "I think they were a little frustrated by the liberalness of some of the pitches."</p>
<p>Also, they were frustrated by the movement of the pitches. And by their inability to hit the pitches.</p>
<p>We can actually look at these things now. Via Brooks Baseball.net, we've got <a target="_blank" href="http://www.brooksbaseball.net/pfxVB/szoneCDB.php?pitchSel=all&game=gid_2012_06_18_balmlb_nynmlb_1/&innings=yyyyyyyyy&s_type=&sp_type=1&h_size=700&v_size=500&reParsed=0&extraStr=%7C6/18/2012%7CBaltimore%20Orioles%20@%20New%20York%20Mets">every pitch plotted against a strike zone</a>. And while it does seem that Dickey got seven or eight called strikes on pitches that were actually just outside the zone, it also seems that Orioles pitchers got almost exactly the same number of questionable called strikes.</p>
<p>Dickey's second one-hitter probably wasn't the result of human error any more than the first one was. Or the four outstanding performances before that.</p>
https://www.sbnation.com/2012/6/19/3097039/orioles-we-wuz-robbedRob Neyer2012-06-19T10:59:10-04:002012-06-19T10:59:10-04:00R.A. Dickey Sets Major League Record
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/DZVeAriPWccCRFErxceBxV0sPWY=/0x27:400x294/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/47828145/large_sb_nation_final.0.png" />
</figure>
<p>In all the kerfuffle about the Mets’ <span>R.A. Dickey</span> throwing his second consecutive one-hitter, you might have missed this little tidbit:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p>R.A. Dickey: Has 5 straight starts of 0 ER and 8 or more strikeouts — the longest streak in <span class="caps">MLB</span> history. <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%2523Elias">#Elias</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%2523WOW">#<span class="caps">WOW</span></a>.</p>
<p>— <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.amazinavenue.com/">New York Mets</a> (@Mets) <a href="https://twitter.com/Mets/status/214903404642828289" data-datetime="2012-06-19T02:12:19+00:00">June 19, 2012</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>With all the great pitchers in past and recent history -- men like Sandy Koufax, Tom Seaver, <span>Pedro Martinez</span> and others who both allowed few runs and struck out many hitters -- no one has ever done what Dickey has over his last five starts.</p>
<p>Dickey now leads the National League in wins, winning percentage, <span class="caps">ERA</span>, complete games, shutouts, strikeouts and <span class="caps">WHIP</span>. He’s the logical choice for NL All-Star Game starter, and now the leading candidate for the Cy Young Award. Raise your hand if you had him on your preseason list for that. Yeah, me either.</p>
<p>Dickey is doing this at what would normally be considered a pretty advanced age -- he’ll be 38 in October -- but top knuckleballers have typically pitched effectively well into their 40s.</p>
<p><i>
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<p>For more on the Mets, please visit <a href="http://www.amazinavenue.com" target="_blank">Amazin’ Avenue</a> and <a href="http://newyork.sbnation.com" target="_blank">SB Nation New York</a>.</p>
https://www.sbnation.com/2012/6/19/3096926/r-a-dickey-sets-major-league-recordAl Yellon2012-06-19T10:00:32-04:002012-06-19T10:00:32-04:00The Progression Of R.A. Dickey's Knuckleball
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<img alt="Flushing, NY, USA; New York Mets starting pitcher R.A. Dickey (43) pitches against the Baltimore Orioles during the first inning at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Debby Wong-US PRESSWIRE" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/e6czUKRCQlkUdvUqYaJ1rPsh0fI=/0x0:1000x667/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/photo_images/7500414/20120618_kkt_aw8_042.jpg" />
<figcaption>Flushing, NY, USA; New York Mets starting pitcher R.A. Dickey (43) pitches against the Baltimore Orioles during the first inning at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Debby Wong-US PRESSWIRE</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>R.A. Dickey used to be a not-very-good knuckleball pitcher. Now he is a very good knuckleball pitcher. Unsurprisingly, his improvement can be traced by looking at the results of pitched knuckleballs. </p> <p>You're going to be reading a lot about R.A. Dickey. Maybe you already have. Monday night, Dickey threw a complete-game one-hitter against the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.camdenchat.com/">Baltimore Orioles</a>, a start after throwing a complete-game one-hitter against the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.draysbay.com/">Tampa Bay Rays</a>. The Orioles' one hit was legitimate, the Rays' one hit was questionable, and more important than the legitimacy of the two hits is that there have been only the two hits. And even before the consecutive one-hitters, Dickey was flipping out. That's "flipping out", and not "flapping out", and there are no Dickeys flapping out, and now we have made our joke about <span>R.A. Dickey's</span> name.</p>
<p>Everybody's familiar with R.A. Dickey now, because he's performing like maybe the best pitcher in baseball, and because his primary pitch is a knuckleball. Very few guys perform like maybe the best pitcher in baseball. Very few guys throw knuckleballs. In the Venn diagram in which the two circles overlap, R.A. Dickey is the emperor and sole citizen of the middle area, which he would probably name something better than Dickeyville. He generates attention.</p>
<p>Dickey was already a wonderful story when he first made the majors. He was already an inspiring story when he re-invented himself as a knuckleballer. Now, as <i>this</i> knuckleballer, at 37, he might be the best story, although the competition is admittedly difficult. <span>Albert Pujols</span>' last name is pronounced "poo holes" and I don't know how that ever isn't being talked about. In a game not too long ago the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.halosheaven.com/">Angels</a>' whole sellout crowd was chanting "Pu-jols", and, I mean, come on, that's amazing. So Dickey doesn't win best story hands-down. But he's firmly in the mix.</p>
<p>What I want to show you here is very simple, and probably very obvious. I'm not going to recap Dickey's latest performance or try to analyze his chances of keeping this up. I just want to show you the improvement of Dickey's knuckleball over time, because we have data on it going back to 2008, when he re-appeared in the majors with Seattle. Since 2008, Dickey has been primarily a knuckleball pitcher, but of course he hasn't always been as good as he is now. So of course his knuckleball numbers have improved. But it's eye-opening when you see them together, so I'm showing you a table.</p>
<p>Oh, but first, you probably expected me to include some .gifs, so here's a .gif. It's the last pitch Dickey threw Monday night, to strike out <span>Chris Davis</span>. It looks a little high, and maybe it was, but Gameday liked it, and this is the only .gif you're getting from me. Savor it.</p>
<p><a href="http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/1193322/DickeyDavis.gif.opt.gif" target="_blank"><img alt="Dickeydavis" class="photo" src="http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/1193322/DickeyDavis.gif.opt_medium.gif"></a></p>
<p>Now for the table:</p>
<p><i>R.A. Dickey's knuckleball</i></p>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="256">
<colgroup><col style="width: 48pt;" span="4" width="64"></colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20">
<td class="xl63" style="height: 15pt; width: 48pt;" height="20" width="64"><b>Year</b></td>
<td class="xl63" style="width: 48pt;" width="64"><b>Strike%</b></td>
<td class="xl63" style="width: 48pt;" width="64"><b>Contact%</b></td>
<td class="xl63" style="width: 48pt;" width="64"><b>GB%</b></td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20">
<td class="xl64" style="height: 15pt;" height="20">2008</td>
<td class="xl65">57%</td>
<td class="xl65">82%</td>
<td class="xl65">47%</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20">
<td class="xl64" style="height: 15pt;" height="20">2009</td>
<td class="xl65">57%</td>
<td class="xl65">80%</td>
<td class="xl65">49%</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20">
<td class="xl63" style="height: 15pt;" height="20">2010</td>
<td class="xl65">65%</td>
<td class="xl65">79%</td>
<td class="xl65">55%</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20">
<td class="xl63" style="height: 15pt;" height="20">2011</td>
<td class="xl65">66%</td>
<td class="xl65">80%</td>
<td class="xl65">53%</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20">
<td class="xl63" style="height: 15pt;" height="20">2012</td>
<td class="xl65">69%</td>
<td class="xl65">71%</td>
<td class="xl65">54%</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>In seven starts in the minors in 2008, Dickey walked just eight of 211 batters. He couldn't carry that control over to the majors, though, as he struggled to throw strikes with his knuckler with the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.lookoutlanding.com/">Mariners</a> and <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.twinkietown.com/">Twins</a>. Then everything went insane when Dickey shifted to New York. He figured out how to throw his knuckleball for strikes. He started generating some more grounders. And now, in 2012, he's missing more bats, too. Along with throwing more strikes.</p>
<p>Compare Dickey's knuckleball in 2012 to his knuckleball in 2008. His strike rate is up 12 percentage points, his contact rate is down 11 percentage points, and his ground-ball rate is up seven percentage points. R.A. Dickey has very clearly figured out this pitch, and now one wonders if he could get even better still. Not that he needs to, but he's got improvement momentum.</p>
<p>Presumably as a neat side-effect, we also see a trend in Dickey's fastball numbers. Another table:</p>
<p><i>R.A. Dickey's fastball</i></p>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="192">
<colgroup><col style="width: 48pt;" span="3" width="64"></colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20">
<td class="xl65" style="height: 15pt; width: 48pt;" height="20" width="64"><b>Year</b></td>
<td class="xl65" style="width: 48pt;" width="64"><b>Strike%</b></td>
<td class="xl65" style="width: 48pt;" width="64"><b>Swing%</b></td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20">
<td class="xl66" style="height: 15pt;" height="20">2008</td>
<td class="xl67">72%</td>
<td class="xl67">40%</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20">
<td class="xl66" style="height: 15pt;" height="20">2009</td>
<td class="xl67">76%</td>
<td class="xl67">43%</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20">
<td class="xl65" style="height: 15pt;" height="20">2010</td>
<td class="xl67">75%</td>
<td class="xl67">33%</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20">
<td class="xl65" style="height: 15pt;" height="20">2011</td>
<td class="xl67">74%</td>
<td class="xl67">36%</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20">
<td class="xl65" style="height: 15pt;" height="20">2012</td>
<td class="xl67">78%</td>
<td class="xl67">34%</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Dickey's always been able to throw strikes with his fastball, but it used to be that batters would swing at it more often, as the knuckleball was less of a threat. Now that he's established the knuckleball as a consistent weapon with the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.amazinavenue.com/">Mets</a>, his fastball is catching more batters off guard, just as you'd expect that it would. It isn't perfect, but as an alternate pitch, Dickey's fastball stays in the hitters' heads, making both that and the knuckleball more effective.</p>
<p>It's the first table that's insane, though. As Dickey's numbers are insane, of course his knuckleball numbers are insane, but when you see them, and when you consider that this is a knuckleball we're talking about, it's almost beyond belief. Dickey has developed a lethal primary weapon on the job. Overall now, thanks to the knuckler, R.A. Dickey has a higher strike rate than <span>Tim Wakefield</span> ever had. R.A. Dickey has a lower contact rate than Tim Wakefield ever had. R.A. Dickey has a lower contact rate than <span>Justin Verlander</span> has ever had, barely. Yes, Verlander has pitched in the American League, while Dickey pitches in the National League. That isn't really the thing to focus on.</p>
https://www.sbnation.com/2012/6/19/3096049/ra-dickey-stats-knuckleball-metsJeff Sullivan2012-06-19T09:39:14-04:002012-06-19T09:39:14-04:00R.A. Dickey's 13 Strikeouts In 90 Seconds
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/DZVeAriPWccCRFErxceBxV0sPWY=/0x27:400x294/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/47828145/large_sb_nation_final.0.png" />
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<p>Includes Buck Showalter shaking his head ruefully about 30 seconds in.</p>↵<p><iframe src="http://mlb.mlb.com/shared/video/embed/embed.html?content_id=22397883&width=300&height=169&property=mlb" width="300" height="169" frameborder="0">Your browser does not support iframes.</iframe></p>
https://www.sbnation.com/2012/6/19/3096733/r-a-dickeys-13-strikeouts-in-90-secondsAl Yellon