RA Deserves His Own Thread

[metsmarathon]

his lips are superimposed over the beard. it's just creepy as all get out. make it stop.

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, I salute the initiative, but not the execution.

[Edgy MD]

The man himself and our new catching candidate:

[youtube:2gogykd5]5d1x-oE2RKU[/youtube:2gogykd5]

[Frayed Knot]

There's usually some sort of connection to whatever intro music Paul's band plays during the guest's walk-on although I didn't recognize their selection for Dickey.
That they played 'Crystal Blue Persuasion' for earlier guest Bryan Cranston was hysterical.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

Doug Glanville on Dickey.

[Vic Sage]

he's gotten pounded for 5 runs in 3 of his last 4 games.
Quick, we need Lunchbucket to belittle him and get Routinely Amazing back on track.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

I hate to bring this up, but with the bloom starting to fall off of Dickey's rose and the Mets falling out of contention for a playoff spot, maybe it's time to start thinking about the Mets being sellers at the trade deadline. Odds are that at 37, Dickey isn't going to have many more seasons like this one (if any) and some playoff-bound team might give up some young talent in return. I know it's ruthless but Sandy's supposed to be all about "buy low, sell high", right?

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Even if you leave aside the off-field/marketing benefits he brings to the table-- which are, of course, considerable-- he's having a GREAT year this year, but he's posting his third good year in a row. And 37 is like 28 for a knuckleballer. AND he's under contract for $5M next year. Even if he never has another year that sniffs his results this first half-- and that's not nearly as unlikely for him as for, say, Chris Capuano-- he's worth a LOT. Unless some team's willing to give up Mike Trout, Jr., they're likely best served holding on Ripe Asset.

[TransMonk]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: And 37 is like 28 for a knuckleballer. AND he's under contract for $5M next year.

This.

And I can think of worse veteran back-ends to mop up every fifth day while Harvey, Wheeler, Niese and whoever go through their growing pains on their way to being the most dominant staff in the NL over the next couple of years.

[batmagadanleadoff]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: And 37 is like 28 for a knuckleballer.

I don't know that this is as true for Dickey as it was for other MLB knuckleballers. If it ever was true. Dickey's knuckler comes in 15-20 MPH faster than, say, Wakefield's. And Dickey was throwing his all out fast ball in the majors for longer than most of the well-known knucklers of the past.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: And 37 is like 28 for a knuckleballer. I don't know that this is as true for Dickey as it was for other MLB knuckleballers. If it ever was true. Dickey's knuckler comes in 15-20 MPH faster than, say, Wakefield's. And Dickey was throwing his all out fast ball in the majors for longer than most of the well-known knucklers of the past.

Would you stipulate that 37, in this case, is something like 30-32?

[batmagadanleadoff]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: And 37 is like 28 for a knuckleballer. I don't know that this is as true for Dickey as it was for other MLB knuckleballers. If it ever was true. Dickey's knuckler comes in 15-20 MPH faster than, say, Wakefield's. And Dickey was throwing his all out fast ball in the majors for longer than most of the well-known knucklers of the past. Would you stipulate that 37, in this case, is something like 30-32?

For you? Sure. Why not. But it's not as if me and you can do anything about the Dickey and his age in knuckleball years other than to enjoy the show he's puttin' on until it's no longer enjoyable.

[ashie62]

37 is 37 in that you can pull a hammy fielding your position, running, hitting etc.

Less wear on the arm for sure.

[TransMonk]

I would have no problem locking him up through age 40.

[ashie62]

Did Mr. Dickey sign off on this? http://lookatmeshirts.com/lookatme/ra-dickey-shirt-knuckle-deep.html Probably not. That's why I bought this one

Thats the guy from "The Deadliest Catch"

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: And 37 is like 28 for a knuckleballer. I don't know that this is as true for Dickey as it was for other MLB knuckleballers. If it ever was true. Dickey's knuckler comes in 15-20 MPH faster than, say, Wakefield's. And Dickey was throwing his all out fast ball in the majors for longer than most of the well-known knucklers of the past. Would you stipulate that 37, in this case, is something like 30-32? For you? Sure. Why not. But it's not as if me and you can do anything about the Dickey and his age in knuckleball years other than to enjoy the show he's puttin' on until it's no longer enjoyable.

So, what you're saying is, 33 1/2, and we should trade Dickey and Murphy for Huston Street?

[batmagadanleadoff]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: And 37 is like 28 for a knuckleballer. I don't know that this is as true for Dickey as it was for other MLB knuckleballers. If it ever was true. Dickey's knuckler comes in 15-20 MPH faster than, say, Wakefield's. And Dickey was throwing his all out fast ball in the majors for longer than most of the well-known knucklers of the past. Would you stipulate that 37, in this case, is something like 30-32? For you? Sure. Why not. But it's not as if me and you can do anything about the Dickey and his age in knuckleball years other than to enjoy the show he's puttin' on until it's no longer enjoyable. So, what you're saying is, 33 1/2, and we should trade Dickey and Murphy for Huston Street?

I didn't say any of that. But I'd trade Jason Bay for Huston Street.

[batmagadanleadoff]

This thread sure died down in the past month or so. Still, it's R.A. by a wide margin, according to ESPN's Cy Young Predictor.

OE - The gap between Dickey and runner-up Cueto is larger than the gap between any other two consecutively ranked top 10 Cy Predictor pitchers.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Here's another category Dickey leads the league in:

http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/pitching/_/league/nl/sort/avgGameScore/type/expanded-2

Average Game Score

[batmagadanleadoff]

Dickey Nearing Gooden and Seaver Territory
By MICHAEL SALFINO

With another masterful performance on Thursday night against the Marlins, R.A. Dickey (15-3) joined an elite fraternity of great Mets starters. He recorded his sixth double-digit strikeout game of the season, a feat no other Met has done in 20 years. Dickey becomes just the fifth Mets pitcher to reach double-digit strikeouts six different starts in a season. Three others combined to do it 10 times�Tom Seaver (1970, 1971, 1972 and 1973), Dwight Gooden (1984, 1985 and 1990) and David Cone (1988, 1990 and 1992). Sid Fernandez also reached that milestone in 1988. Mets Hall of Famer Jerry Koosman never did it. Neither did Nolan Ryan. More-recent strikeout aces Johan Santana and Pedro Martinez also fell short. Few would have wagered this achievement from Dickey, a 37-year-old knuckleballer, before the season. Before this year, Dickey registered that many whiffs just once in his career�in a 2011 Memorial Day loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates. His strikeout rate per nine innings entering 2012 was a pedestrian 5.5 per nine innings. This year, though, it has spiked to 9.2 per nine innings�eighth best in baseball. Even more impressively, he's striking out 26% of batters faced�fourth most in the majors. Dickey has seven more weeks to add to his already impressive total, plus some promised extra starts from manager Terry Collins. But he'll have to nearly run the table to catch all-time team leader Dwight Gooden in the category, who achieved the feat 15 times as a 19-year-old rookie.

Strikeout Mavens

Mets pitchers with the most 10-strikeout games:
Pitcher Year 10-K Games

Dwight Gooden 1984 15

Tom Seaver 1971 13

Tom Seaver 1970 12

Dwight Gooden 1985 11

David Cone 1990 9

David Cone 1991 8

David Cone 1988 7

R.A. Dickey 2012 6

Dwight Gooden 1990 6

Sid Fernandez 1988 6

Tom Seaver 1973 6

Tom Seaver 1972 6

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443537404577581301879755624.html

[batmagadanleadoff]

Slowly, Dickey Approaches Rare Feat
By BENJAMIN HOFFMAN
Published: August 13, 2012

With 47 games to go in a Mets season that has come undone, R. A. Dickey has probably become the primary reason to keep following the team.* With a 15-3 record, he has a decent chance to win 20 games, and he is a legitimate candidate for the National League Cy Young award. He also, remarkably enough, has a chance to lead the National League in strikeouts, something more commonly associated with someone who throws overpowering fastballs rather than much slower knucklers. With 166 strikeouts through 24 games, Dickey was tied for the National League lead through Sunday and is on pace to finish with 234. The pitcher he was tied with, Stephen Strasburg of the Washington Nationals, is expected to have his innings limited as the season moves into its final month, making Dickey�s path to the strikeout crown even simpler. (The major league leader, Justin Verlander of Detroit, has 174 strikeouts.) Of course, Strasburg is a more typical strikeout pitcher than Dickey is. His fastball, according to FanGraphs, averages 95.8 miles per hour, a far cry from Dickey�s knuckleball, which dances in at 77.1. But Dickey has held tough, striking out 10 or more batters in a game six times this season, including 10 in a complete-game victory over the Miami Marlins last Thursday. And should Dickey outlast Strasburg and Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers, he would join Phil Niekro as the only knuckleball pitchers to lead a league in strikeouts. Niekro had seasons with more wins and a lower earned run average, but in 1977, he was at his best in fanning hitters, totaling 262 for the Atlanta Braves and easily outdistancing J. R. Richard, the flame-throwing Houston Astros right-hander, for the league title. As for Dickey, the striking (no pun intended) thing about his strikeout total is the efficiency that he has shown in acquiring it. He may be on pace for 28 fewer strikeouts than Niekro had in 1977, but he has averaged 9.2 per 9 innings pitched, a far superior ratio to Niekro�s 7.1. Dickey has also averaged 4.61 strikeouts for every walk, compared with Niekro�s 1.6 ratio. Niekro had a number of great seasons, but his best, when accounting for his performance relative to his competition, were probably 1969 and 1974. In 1969 he went 23-13 with a 2.56 earned run average, finishing second in the Cy Young voting and ninth in the balloting for most valuable player. In 1974, he went 20-13 with a 2.38 E.R.A., finishing third in the Cy Young voting. Dickey, should he maintain his current numbers, would have a season to rival Niekro�s two best. He is on pace for a record of 21-4 with a 2.72 E.R.A., and perhaps most impressively given the volatile nature of a knuckleball, he was leading the league in WHIP (walks plus hits divided by innings pitched), with a figure of 1.004. Dickey will have stiff competition in the Cy Young voting from Strasburg, Kershaw, Johnny Cueto of Cincinnati and Jordan Zimmermann of the Nationals, but the fact that a knuckleballer is even in the conversation is a testament to the amazing season he has put together.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/14/sports/baseball/r-a-dickey-is-one-reason-to-keep-following-mets.html

*The writer could've quoted me verbatim for this sentence.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

The Atlantic sez he's something to root for.

(Anyone heard the rumor of Dickey going to the pen before?)

[G-Fafif]

R.A. joins a club that now includes 10 Met pitchers and encompasses 21 individual Met seasons.

MUST BE 17 OR OVER TO BE ADMITTED

25
Seaver (25-7) 1969

24
Gooden (24-4) 1985

22
Seaver (22-9) 1975

21
Seaver (21-12) 1972
Koosman (21-10) 1976

20
Seaver (20-10) 1971
Cone (20-3) 1988
Viola (20-12) 1990

19
Koosman (19-12) 1968
Seaver (19-10) 1973
Gooden (19-7) 1990

18
Seaver (18-12) 1970
Ojeda (18-5) 1986
Gooden (18-9) 1988

17
Koosman (17-9) 1969
Matlack (17-10) 1976
Gooden (17-9) 1984
Gooden (17-6) 1986
Darling (17-9) 1988
Leiter (17-6) 1998
DICKEY (17-4) 2012

[Benjamin Grimm]

And it looks like, what, he'll get another five or six starts?

[Guest Swan Swan H]

Newsday said it would be six.

[Frayed Knot]

MUST BE 17 OR OVER TO BE ADMITTED -- aka: RATED RA

[Ceetar]

Grain of salt because it was a Francesa question, but Collins said he'd consider using him in relief in a key spot the last week if he could get him a relief win somehow.

[Frayed Knot]

If the right situation comes up, why not.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

MUST BE 17 OR OVER TO BE ADMITTED -- aka: RATED RA

Nice!!!

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

Oh wow, now I want to see him get at least 22 wins and join the Seaver-Gooden-Dickey club. My mind is also blown that Gooden achieved a 20+ win season only once. In my sepia-toned memories he had several consecutive 20-win seasons.