Back in April, I wrote about Eddie Gamboa and Zach Staniewicz, aspiring knuckleballers in the Orioles’ farm system. Well, there’s a third: Zach Clark. Today in the Times, Hillel Kutler writes about GM Dan Duquette’s noble experiment:
About that flock of Baltimore flutterballers
Joy R. Absalon-US PRESSWIRE
Although the Orioles did not put a manicurist on the payroll, they did sign a consultant for 2013, Phil Niekro, who won 318 games in a 24-year career, riding the knuckleball from the moment the Milwaukee Braves signed him in 1958.
Niekro’s assignment is to help the Orioles transform three pitchers into full-time knuckleballers: Clark, 30, now with Class A Frederick, Md.; Zach Staniewicz, 27, in the rookie Gulf Coast League; and Eddie Gamboa, 28, of Class AAA Norfolk, Va.
--snip--
Sitting in his office at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Duquette made a case for developing more knuckleballers.
“I’m not sure why there aren’t more out there, because every time you throw the pitch, you have a chance to get an out,” he said. “Look at the money the industry spends on conventional pitchers, and most of them end up on the disabled list, not even working. You’re not putting as much stress on your shoulder because you’re trying to get the ball to float, not throw it past the backstop.”
He added: "About half our players are pitchers on a given team. Why not knuckleballers — why not? Our goal is to have them pitch until they collect Social Security, or at least their major league pension."
It's great to see a club actually trying this. After all, why not? Assuming the forbearance of the affected managers and catchers, there's no obvious reason why a franchise shouldn't find room for three or four aspiring knuckleball pitchers in the whole organization.
It might not happen much, though, until some organization actually meets with real success doing this. Gamboa's struggling in Triple-A, while Clark and Staniewicz have hardly pitched this season at all. I think the strategy might work better if you grabbed some guys in their early-to-middle 20s who throw 90, and get Niekro working with them while they're still young enough to learn some new tricks. Granted, there's the R.A. Dickey example, but Dickey was already a replacement-level major leaguer before he started throwing the knuckleball.
My guess is that none of the Orioles' knuckleballers pitches in the majors, unless Gamboa gets a cup of coffee or something. It'll probably take years before we see if they're really committed to this particular innovation.
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