GIF: Dickey’s Slow Flow is Remarkable
R.A. Dickey doesn’t always throw his slow knuckleball. But when he does, he chooses to make an impression.
Update: This pitch was called a ball. It left his hand at 60.7 mph, and crossed the plate at 55.5 mph. It was classified a curveball. It’s possible it was a curveball, but it had six inches of ‘rise,’ which isn’t usual for a curve. This is what Dickey does to classification systems. And viewers, apparently.
Eno Sarris manages the RotoGraphs blog when he's not asking players about stats. Follow his misadventures in writing on Twitter @enosarris or www.enosarris.com. You can chat with him here about baseball (real and fantasy) and beer at FanGraphs most Thursdays at noon eastern time, if you like.
Ridiculous. Everyone — catcher, hitter, umpire — lean into the pitch expectedly as it dances in. That is an unhittable pitch.
Another brilliant complete game performance from Dickey. It’d be pretty awesome to see a 38 year old knuckleball pitcher win the Cy Young award…
R.A. has overcome so much ~ an amazing guy. His recent book,
“Whenever I Wind Up” documents his life, rough spots as well as the
highlights. It’s inspiring to see him surmount all this and continue
to pitch so well – the best baseball of his career.
For those who don’t know, it was called a ball
@Juan B – Incorrect. That pitch is clearly a strike on the inside corner.
@ Juan B – sorry, just realized what you meant. Thought you were trolling.
What Eno didn’t tell us was that this GIF is showing the pitch at full speed.
Then Ruggiano needs to hit the cages. At that rate, it’ll take about six seconds to get his bat through the zone.
I wonder if it’s harder for catchers to “frame” knuckleballs? Seems like if he’d been waiting for the pitch at the corner, instead of stabbing at it, it might have been called a strike…
I’ll show you six inches of rise. LOL!
At first I was like, big deal. Then, I noticed the delay between the drop of his foot and the start of his hands to swing.
That is the pitching equivalent of bunting for a hit.
IIRC, he then struck out with a fastball almost down the middle. All of 85mph and Ruggiano couldnt even flinch to start his swing. Nasty.