R.A. Dickey Collects 13 Strikeouts, Throws Second Straight 1-Hitter

This is a feature that began as another feature. It took about 45 minutes for me to realize the other feature idea was a dead end, and there are few things more discouraging than that. I guess if I were to take a step back, there are countless things more discouraging than that, but there are few things more discouraging than that for a writer. I guess if I were to take a step back, there are -- well you see where this is going. I have folded some of the original feature’s research into this feature, hopefully for this feature’s benefit.

That’s unusual, and it got me thinking about what makes R.A. Dickey so likable. That got me thinking that what makes R.A. Dickey so likable is everything. R.A. Dickey is wholly, consummately likable, or “rootable”, as I used in the headline. I am fully aware of how that might be interpreted in Australia, but I’m not going to change it, because, who knows? Maybe he’s that, too.

You know who’s a fantastic pitcher? R.A. Dickey. So we should talk about him a lot, because it’s more fun to talk about fantastic players than it is to talk about terrible players. I mean, when you’re talking about terrible players, everything’s so negative. It can be comical, but with fantastic players, we’re reminded that these are the best talents in the universe. That we know of.

Anyway, I’m a sucker for PITCHf/x analysis, so we turn to PITCHf/x genius Dan Brooks at Baseball Prospectus. He was curious to see how much Dickey varies his knuckleball speed and movement depending on the count. He could compare Dickey only to Tim Wakefield, since it’s not like we have a giant sample of knuckleballer data from recent years, but his findings are of interest. Click through and see neat graphs! And also see the words that I’ve copied below.

I picture a Manhattan Project-style gathering of the minds. The greatest scouts and analysts, hunkered and bunkered somewhere in New Mexico, trying to figure out how to make the perfect pitcher.

They had the 103-m.p.h. fastball. They all agreed upon that much, at least.

Afterward, some of those Orioles weren’t willing to give Dickey all the credit. As Newsday’s Tom Pedulla reports, some of them thought Dickey had some help from plate-umpire Eric Cooper. And they weren’t real shy about it:

Buck Showalter wasn’t having the best time of his life, either. Near the end, I thought he might pop out of the dugout and get ejected when Cooper rang up J.J. Hardy. Afterward, though, he didn’t say enough to get fined. There was this, though: “I think they were a little frustrated by the liberalness of some of the pitches.”

Dickey is doing this at what would normally be considered a pretty advanced age -- he’ll be 38 in October -- but top knuckleballers have typically pitched effectively well into their 40s.

For more on the Mets, please visit Amazin’ Avenue and SB Nation New York.

Everybody’s familiar with R.A. Dickey now, because he’s performing like maybe the best pitcher in baseball, and because his primary pitch is a knuckleball. Very few guys perform like maybe the best pitcher in baseball. Very few guys throw knuckleballs. In the Venn diagram in which the two circles overlap, R.A. Dickey is the emperor and sole citizen of the middle area, which he would probably name something better than Dickeyville. He generates attention.

What I want to show you here is very simple, and probably very obvious. I’m not going to recap Dickey’s latest performance or try to analyze his chances of keeping this up. I just want to show you the improvement of Dickey’s knuckleball over time, because we have data on it going back to 2008, when he re-appeared in the majors with Seattle. Since 2008, Dickey has been primarily a knuckleball pitcher, but of course he hasn’t always been as good as he is now. So of course his knuckleball numbers have improved. But it’s eye-opening when you see them together, so I’m showing you a table.

Includes Buck Showalter shaking his head ruefully about 30 seconds in.

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It just goes on from there. Before his last couple of starts, it made perfect sense to compare Dickey’s hot stretch to those of other knuckleball pitchers. Well, he’s now transcended such comparisons. Now he’s obviously pitched better over his last six or seven starts than any knuckleballer’s ever pitched over six or seven starts.

Now we get to start comparing his run to the best stretches, period.

But, as expected, the appeal was denied.

It would have been an amazing, spectacular firestorm of debate and controversy if MLB had changed the official scorer’s ruling. But it also would have been quite silly. It’s easy to argue either side of the error/hit controversy, which means there was no chance it was going to be overturned.

Here, you can see for yourself what happened. Don’t feel like you have to watch too closely the first time; we’ve got this thing running in an infinity loop ...

That was ruled a base hit by the official scorer. There would not be another.

That’s real interesting and everything, but it’s just the Mets, right? How impressive is a Mets pitching record, really?*

* Tom Seaver, Dwight Gooden, Jerry Koosman, David Cone, Nolan Ryan, etc.

New Record! 32⅔ innings!*

* The way consecutive scoreless innings are computed is a bit arcane, if not downright counter-intuitive. The count was 31⅔ when Dickey completed the seventh. But the streak wouldn’t officially continue until Dickey either completed the eighth or was removed from the game without allowing a run.

In his last four starts, Dickey’s earned four wins while giving up just one run. Perhaps just as stunningly, he’s issued only three walks while striking out 38 batters. Knuckleball pitchers don’t do that.

Which got me to wondering if there’s ever been another run like this from a knuckleballer. After all, knuckleball pitchers are a rare breed, and generally considered plow horses rather than staff aces. There are only two knuckleballers in the Hall of Fame, and one of them spent most of his career in the bullpen. No knuckleballer has won a Cy Young Award or a Rookie of the Year Award. Only one knuckleball pitcher has started an All-Star Game.