A little Dickey history

[Frayed Knot]

John Sickels uses the hindsight mirror to look back at RA Dickey's run through the minors and on up to this year.
An unusual path to say the least.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I hadn't realized that he adopted the knuckler so late. It really is altogether possible that that this season is dawn for him.

Of course, it's also possilbe that his arm is about to explode.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Almost all knucklers develop late; teams don't have the patience or the staff to develop knucklers in the system, and throwing it properly means doing the exact opposite of what the majority of pitchers are trying to do, so it's not selected for.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Wakefield had his first breakthrough in 1992 (four years post-knuckler), lost his control, then resurfaced after working with the Niekros and increasing the frequency with which he throws the pitch in 1995 (about seven years post-knuckler).

Of course, he was also learning to pitch, wasn't he? Dickey's kind of come through the control issues (over the last 3-4 years), and his game management skills have to be at least where Wake's were at a similar stage P-K.

I'm just trying not to get excited here. But if we get half of what they've gotten out of Wake-- and that doesn't look so wildly unrealistic anymore-- we've got a rotation staple for the better part of a decade.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Well, we don't really control him, do we?

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

'Zounds!

[Frayed Knot]

Edgy DC wrote: Well, we don't really control him, do we?

4 years + 41 days of ML service coming into this year.
That means barely 5 years at the end of this season and therefore under NYM control - via arbitration - for one season.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Phew!

Plus, he sounds like Sam Elliott's younger brother in the postgame interviews. I half-expect him to lead post-loss conferences with, "Sometimes, you eat the b'ar..."