quote:
Originally posted by TPM:
Just had this discussion over in General Forum.
http://hsbaseballweb.com/eve/f...781/m/1361001951/p/1Read carefully Bum's post. Pitchers need to learn to compete with their fastball if they want to go to the next level.
Dickey is an exception. He reinvented himself to fit into the game, you have to be exceptional to be good at it.
Coaches want decent FB, there is a reason for it, he doesn't need to throw 90+, but he needs to compete with a FB, a change up and a curveball. He doesn't need a knuckleball and he doesn't need a slider (at this age) and I can tell you that he won't go very far if he continues using it and not developing his other pitches.
Parents who encourage their young pitchers to throw more than they need are doing them a big injustice.
You may have ruled that coach out, but reality is more coaches will rule your son out than make him a consideration.
For additional context, look at what R.A. Dickey accomplished before being allowed to be a professional knuckle ball pitcher. He was a hard-throwing All American in high school and drafted in the tenth round out of high school. Then he was a hard-throwing All American in college, drafted in the first round out of college and selected for the U.S. Olympic Team. Also, he first reached the majors as a "normal" pitcher.
Your son could do much worse than choosing to make R.A. Dickey his role model--from all reports he's a wonderful man. However, if your son is going to follow R.A. Dickey, tell him to go out and do what R.A. Dickey did: prove he can compete with his fastball at the highest levels of the game first. Develop this specialty pitch only later if it becomes necessary.
For even more context, look at the history of other knuckleball pitchers. Several trends predominate:
They first became pros as normal pitchers (Phil Niekro is an exception, but his brother Joe was a standard 3-pitch guy when he came up) or position players (e.g., Tim Wakefield).
They turned to the knuckleball to salvage struggling careers, either after an injury (e.g., Jim Bouton), after languishing in the minors (e.g., Charlie Hough), or while doing so-so at the MLB level (e.g., Wilbur Wood).
They spent a lot of time in the minors mastering the pitch and proving they can compete with it (e.g., Rich Sauveur, who pitched in 34 MLB games over a 14-year span, and R.A. Dickey who spent at least part of 14 seasons in the minors).
Very few have prolonged success with the pitch.
Aside from the Hall of Famers Phil Niekro and Hoyt Wilhelm, it's nearly impossible to find examples of successful players who entered the pro ranks as knuckleballers. The exceptions, like Tom Candiotti and Charlie Zink (who had 1 MLB appearance), snuck in as undrafted free agents from small colleges.
All of which is a long winded way of saying I agree with Bum and TPM.
Best wishes,
