It really is a fun pitch. Also messes with batters big time. Sometimes causing slumps for days.
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Ted Lyons to Hoyt Wilhelm to Phil Niekro to Wilbur Wood to Charlie Hough to Tim Wakefield to RA Dickey…man, we need another generational dominant knuckleballer…
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Just by coincidence, Walden from the Padres is pitching tonight. I believe he’s the only guy left that still throws a true knuckle ball.
He only throws it about 40% of the time, but it’s crazy how bad he is making some really good hitters for the Dodgers look really bad.
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Not sure we will see it again in this analytic era.
UCL friendly though…
Funny how the knuckleballers played in HR friendly parks. Coors aside, making the batters supply all the power seems smart, though IIRC Niekro was a HR prone guy…ahhh research time.
Edit- HR rate/9 Niekro was OK just pitched a lot of innings so it looked worse. Wood also. Wood really only started 5 full seasons but averaged 45 starts! 21 wins and 340 innings.
Wakefield and Dickey were HR/9 prone. Wilhelm is a bad comp as a reliever and Hough is tough as he was a starter/reliever, but not closer. Both come in low HR/9
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