04/25/24
June 18, 2012
R.A. Dickey-ulous!:
Mets pitcher throws back-to-back one-hitters.
INFO!
(culled from posters on Baseball Think Factory, Wikipedia, and Baseball Reference)
- He's the first pitcher to throw back-to-back complete game one-hitters (or better) since Dave Stieb did it during his last two starts of 1988.
- He's the first pitcher to ever have consecutive game scores of 95 or more.
- His last six starts have had 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and (now) 13 strikeouts (not in that order).
- He has 11 wins, which ties his career high for wins in a season.
- He's missing the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbows. He wasn't born with one.
- He potentially sacrificed his 2012 salary (over $4million) by climbing Kilimanjaro. If he had injured himself while doing so, his Mets contract would have been voided.
- He released an autobiography during spring training that revealed he's overcome suicidal thoughts as an adult as a result of sexual abuse as a child.
- He's the only remaining knuckleball pitcher in the major leagues at this time. He differs from Tim Wakefield because he throws a "hard knuckleball", that only breaks once (randomly), instead of Wakefield's "floater" that dips and dives multiple times.
- He's the co-holder for the major league record for home runs given up by one pitcher in a game (6) and wild pitches in an inning (4).
- He holds the Mets consecutive scoreless innings record (32.2)
posted by grum@work at 12:31 AM on June 19, 2012
He's the only remaining knuckleball pitcher in the major leagues at this time. He differs from Tim Wakefield because he throws a "hard knuckleball", that only breaks once (randomly), instead of Wakefield's "floater" that dips and dives multiple times.This is interesting, as I didn't know this. I know he throws harder than Wakefield did, and Wakefield had the more traditional knuckler that would float and dance like crazy, but I always thought the conventional wisdom is that at Dickey's speed, it breaks less and thus is less effective.
However, if it is breaking randomly and by a good 3-4", then he's basically got the perfect pitch in baseball. It travels straight enough the pitcher has some control, fast enough (75-78mph) to keeps the hitters marginally honest, but breaks enough in the last few feet to be near-unhittable. Considering how effective (all things considered) Moyer could be at that same speed just by changing up locations and velocities, having even decent control and a wicked late break... wow.
Really, that explains the strikeouts, too: with Wakefield, the ball would either way out of the strike zone, or right in the middle but dancing- so hitters would swing away at the ones that were clearly going to be somewhere over the plate, and get mis-hits on it leading to popups and groundouts when he was cruising. But with Dickey, he's not only getting the mis-hits, but the 75-78mph "change-up/knuckler" means they're teeing up on a seeming batting-practice pitch that darts 3" in some random direction in the last fraction of a second- not enough that they can ignore it and hope for a ball, but enough that they can potentially completely miss it by the width of a bat's barrel.
posted by hincandenza at 01:28 AM on June 19, 2012
From fangraphs, here is a brief article, include .gif images, of three especially breaking knucklers. To my eyes, that no. 3 against Wilson Betemit is especially lethal: it looks like a nice, juicy, flat "fastball" of I think 77mph, and in the last 10 feet it just drops. Had he swung, he'd have had no chance at it anyway.
posted by hincandenza at 01:43 AM on June 19, 2012
Guess he read my post in yesterday's huddle and wanted to make sure he was top man in this department.
posted by beaverboard at 07:43 AM on June 19, 2012
He's missing the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbows. He wasn't born with one.
Two less things to tear. MLB should look into this unfair advantage.
posted by yerfatma at 09:52 AM on June 19, 2012
I always love when knucklers do well- and Dickey's been good to great at times over the last couple of seasons. These last two games- and this season- what really stands out are the Ks. That a knuckled can be on a great run s unsurprising; to do so having batters completely miss your pitches says his knuckled must REALLY be dancing.