Robert Alan Dickey

[Fman99]

This rotation is just silly. Ollie Perez, John Maine, go away.

[metirish]

Frayed Knot wrote: John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Deserves ASG consideration. Considering that the hype started today for Strasburg to the ASG, Dickey would be a better story - particularly since even those promoting the Strasburg angle pretty much admit that it's mostly for pr reasons.

Never thought about this, it would be a great story ...he'd end up getting the Jimmy Roberts treatment form whoever FOX has doing that.

[Ceetar]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: All that said... he's pitched 40-something ML innings this year. There are something like 15 NL starters with sub-3 ERAs and 5 wins... each of those guys having pitched 12-15 starts. It'll take some doing.

Sure, if it was solely based on performance.

If he was 23 he'd get in. But people don't respect older players finding it or knuckleballers really. People are legitimately talking about 6 start Strasburg..Dontrelle Willis made the team after something like 10 starts right?

[Guest Edgy DC]

Fman99 wrote: This rotation is just silly. Ollie Perez, John Maine, go away.

Not at all. These guys are in the rotation because other parts broke down. That can happen again and again and again. Keep all options ready.

[Guest Edgy DC]

People still talk --- and not all that fondly --- about the All-Star game where Charlie Hough's knuckler was on fire. All-Star hitters couldn't touch it but an All-Star catcher couldn't either.

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: Fman99 wrote: This rotation is just silly. Ollie Perez, John Maine, go away. Not at all. These guys are in the rotation because other parts broke down. That can happen again and again and again. Keep all options ready.

And it could flip flop and Maine and Perez could be the one's that come in step up. It's not so much that those two guys left, it's that the guys that stepped in were good. Dickey particularly, helps make this team fairly scary. And all five guys throw somewhat differently. Niese you gotta look out for the Curve, Pelfrey's got the Sink, Takahashi's Hitch, the Knuckle, Santana's Change.

[Guest Edgy DC]

H.R. Houghnstuff.

[seawolf17]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Deserves ASG consideration.

I was thinking about that last night too. He probably has three more starts before the game... even if he gets lit up in one of those starts, he'd have to be in the discussion. He won't make the cut, because there are too many guys on his own team ahead of him. Hell, even too many guys in his own rotation. But he's an interesting case.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Actually, Batmags said it first and I was just repeating him.

[Fman99]

Edgy DC wrote: Fman99 wrote: This rotation is just silly. Ollie Perez, John Maine, go away. Not at all. These guys are in the rotation because other parts broke down. That can happen again and again and again. Keep all options ready.

Well, then, go away to Port St. Lucie then. Don't call us, we'll call you.

[MFS62]

Fman99 wrote: Well, then, go away to Port St. Lucie then. Don't call us, we'll call you.

You just like a guy named Dickey.

Later

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Those of you who like whys and wherefores should love this piece on AA by user garik16, looking at Dickey's "fast" and "slow" knuckleballs, and how he's been so effective, in excruciating detail.

... the (middling) run value of Dickey's slow knuckleball does not necessarily mean that he should be throwing less of them. One reason is that Dickey throws it in almost always in hitter's counts. This means that if he misses with the slow knuckleball, it's going to result in a worse value for Dickey than if he misses with the fast knuckleball because with the slow knuckleball a miss will result in a walk or a three-ball count fairly frequently. By contrast, a miss with the fast knuckleball is more likely to result in a 1-2 or 2-2 count, which isn't that bad of a change for a pitcher. This results in the fast knuckleball's run value being inflated while the slow knuckleball's value takes a hit. Another reason for the weakness of Dickey's slower knuckler is quite simply that the very existence of such a pitch makes his fast knuckleball more effective. The fast knuckleball gets to home plate .050 seconds faster than the slow knuckleball, so a hitter expecting the latter (because he's seen it early in the count) is likely to swing late on the faster knuckleball, resulting in either a swing and a miss or just bad contact. So if Dickey threw the slow knuckleball less often, his fast knuckleball's performance might fall off. STILL, despite the last two paragraphs, it is pretty clear from the table that the fast knuckleball has been VERY effective this year and is certainly a better pitch than the slow knuckleball. Dickey's Whiff % (the amount of times Batters miss when they swing at a pitch) for the fast knuckleball is very good, making it perfect for an out pitch. Moreover, Batters swing at the pitch pretty frequently, though that might just be because Dickey throws the pitch most often in 2 strike counts, where batters are more likely to swing. Moreover, the pitch gets a really good ground ball rate of 58.2%, which is not just better than his slow knuckleball by quite a bit but is just really really good in general. The end result is that Dickey is able to use the pitch so that even if batters DO make contact, they aren't able to get extra base hits.

Overall verdict (and I can't say I disagree): Dickey's success seems eminently sustainable. Lock this shit up now, O.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Got to agree.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

According to a friend's husband who's FDNY, Reachingout Admirably stopped by their Bronx house a few weeks ago after one of the guys wrote RAD to come visit because of their engine company number (Ladder 59... Engine 43). He ended up spending a few hours over there, breaking bread with 'em, signing some hats and balls, and playing some catch... including (unsuccessfully) showing them how to chuck the knuckler.

Friend and hubby-- both diehard Sawx people from Maine-- have now "officially" made the Mets their NL team.

(Will post pic as soon as I can figure how to yank one from a Facebook page to whichI don't technically have access.)

[Guest Edgy DC]

That's Really Awesome.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Man of letters... and future published author.

Dickey described the book as a combination of �The Glass Castle,� Jeannette Walls�s best-selling 2005 memoir, and �Ball Four,� Jim Bouton�s groundbreaking baseball tell-all. Dickey promised he would not be �throwing everyone under the bus,� the way some of Bouton�s critics accused him of doing... �My past is littered with such narratives,� he said. �I started to unpack some things from the past that made me who I was, both good and bad.� An English literature major at Tennessee, Dickey said he began keeping a journal about five years ago and wrote mostly in small notebooks, often in hotel rooms before and after games. Putting it all together in a book was on his mind for some time, but after the success he finally had with the Mets last year, going 11-9 with a 2.84 earned run average, he said the time was right. Always nimble with words, Dickey used the Greek term kairos, meaning an opportune moment, to describe the timing of the book.

"Kairos." Of course he did.

[Guest Edgy DC]

One of our posters here has to get the job partnering on a Metmoir. I was hoping R.A. would be the one.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

He's Terry Leach all over again. Lightly regarded guy from the South with a trick pitch (or delivery), late bloomer, shocking success, and a book deal.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Brand new copy of Leach's book -- one buck.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Things-Happen-Reason-True-Story-Itiner-/310296515101?pt=US_Nonfiction_Book&hash=item483f1d121d

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Both wore 43!!!!

[Benjamin Grimm]

I have a copy of Terry Leach's book. (Came in the mail, unrequested.) If I never get around to reading it, it will be because of the title.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I also had an issue with the religious-sounding title, but it's really not about that at all. I think maybe it was a ploy to get Christian bookstores to buy mass quantities of it.

[metirish]

First Dickey face of Spring courtesy of Amazin Avenue





http://www.amazinavenue.com/2011/2/21/2007139/the-first-r-a-dickey-face-of-2011

[Guest Edgy DC]

The first Dickeyface is the deepest.

[Benjamin Grimm]

He should use an extreme closeup photo of that face as the cover of his book.

[G-Fafif]

Overheard a conversation yesterday in which the vocabulary was SAT-level and thought, "wow, sounds like R.A. Dickey talking."

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

G-Fafif wrote: Overheard a conversation yesterday in which the vocabulary was SAT-level and thought, "wow, sounds like R.A. Dickey talking."

I think I'd chip in, say, 20 dollars to make a 20-30 minute interview between Clyde Frazier and our hero happen.

[G-Fafif]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: G-Fafif wrote: Overheard a conversation yesterday in which the vocabulary was SAT-level and thought, "wow, sounds like R.A. Dickey talking." I think I'd chip in, say, 20 dollars to make a 20-30 minute interview between Clyde Frazier and our hero happen.

It would be quintessential and consequential.

[metirish]

Not sure if you guys can see this ,a full shot of Dickey , great picture

1) - it's on Chrome and it's an USA Today specific app

http://optimus.usatoday.com/#sports

look at the left for the day in images