Although the knuckleball takes some getting used to, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Michael Cunningham, Braves manager Brian Snitker is figuring it out with the help of Braves newcomer R.A. Dickey. When Dickey is on the mound managers, opposing batters and catchers accustomed to things going a certain way have to adjust their systems to process this […]
Kurt Suzuki had never before worked with a knuckleball pitcher when he joined the Atlanta Braves as a catcher around the same time that knuckleball catcher R.A. Dickey was also signing on. But Suzuki tells the Macon Telegraph’s Ron Siebel that he’s getting the hang of it. During spring training, Suzuki worked with Dickey, going […]
Atlanta Braves catcher Tyler Flowers isn’t too worried about embarrassing himself as a knuckleball catcher, even though he and Kurt Suzuki now have knuckleball pitcher R.A. Dickey to contend with. MLB.com’s Mark Bowman says both are “adapting to knuckleball,” and Braves manager Brian Snitker is ready to split knuckleball-catching duty between both men. Dickey has repeatedly […]
R.A. Dickey isn’t worried that his performance during an early March spring-practice game was “not sharp” (according to the Atlanta-Constitution’s David O’Brien). He feels good that despite feeling bad he got in a decent day’s work. “As far as my knuckleball is concerned, really the only hard-hit ball on that pitch came on, Dee Gordon […]
Veteran knuckleball pitcher Phil Niekro—one of the few former pro baseball pitchers able to share firsthand insights about throwing the knuckleball with the few current pro knuckleball pitchers—is especially satisfied by the news that R.A. Dickey has joined the Atlanta Braves. Steve Hummer of the Tribune News Service reports: “It’s kind of special for me. […]
One of the baseball players who has made the switch to full-time knuckleball pitcher in recent years is Eddie Gamboa. He pitched seven games in the MLB last year for Tampa and is now being picked up by the Texas Rangers. The transaction-a-day Rangers are right on their game as spring training begins. On Tuesday, […]
The big news has been that Eddie Gamboa, who signed a minor league contract with the Tampa Bay Rays in January of this year, early this month got promoted to the MLB. The Baltimore Sun reports: Former Orioles farmhand Eddie Gamboa, who extended his career—and his dream of making the majors—by becoming a knuckleball pitcher, […]
The Toronto Blue Jays are holding onto Josh Thole, the catcher that R. A. Dickey loves to throw to. According to the Kelown Daily Courier: The club announced Thursday that the knuckleball specialist has been signed to a major-league contract. Thole elected to become a free agent on Tuesday night after clearing waivers. The 29-year-old […]
One reason Steven Wright is doing well with the Boston Red Sox is that the Sox have given him the chance to do well. As Sam Galanis reminds us, not every team or manager is equally hospitable to the knuckleball, the pitch with the paths less traveled by. “Knuckleball pitchers don’t come around very often, […]
The extent to which Russell Martin has managed to conquer the knuckleball as a Blue Jays/Dickey catcher in 2015 is not the main topic of eeliott29’s post for BlueBirdBanter (“Russell Martin, worth every last penny”), but neither is it marginal. In 2015, Martin brought the tools that summoned him his lucrative contract and in turn saved the […]