RA Deserves His Own Thread

[Edgy MD]

batmagadanleadoff wrote:

Crazy about this cover. One of my favorite ever sports photos.

[MFS62]

If he keeps pitching like he has, he'll deserve his own edition.

Later

[G-Fafif]

Congratulations to the National League for naming R.A. Dickey to its All-Star team. That was quite wise of it.

[ashie62]

He may be assured of the start with Wright and all....

[TransMonk]

R.A. Dickey is the National League�s Pitcher of the Month

[Edgy MD]

More important is going to be the big Schaefer announcement.

[batmagadanleadoff]

La Russa said to be "pondering" giving RA the ASG start. It seems to me, though, that La Russa isn't pondering enough.

R.A. Dickey certainly has the credentials to start Tuesday�s All-Star Game for the NL. The Mets� 37-year-old knuckleballer is 12-1 with a 2.15 ERA and threw back-to-back one-hitters in June. Tony La Russa will be the first to admit that Dickey has had a marvelous season and deserves consideration, but there are other factors the manager of the NL squad must weigh. �I�ve given that a lot of thought, but there is an issue about catching him and what spot to use him,� La Russa said on a conference call with reporters Thursday. �His season has gotten everyone�s attention, including our staff�s and we�re talking about the best way to win the game with our personnel and how we use Dickey will be a part of that. But yes, that has been addressed and (pitching coach) Dave (Duncan) and I have talked quite a bit about it and we have a plan that we hope to implement.� �Dickey could certainly start the game, he�s got the credentials,� LaRussa later said. �but I look at the five guys that were selected, and each of those guys could make a claim, so as a manager, you have to keep your heart pure and do the best you can for the team over one individual.� La Russa may be hesitant to allow 25-year-old starter Buster Posey to catch Dickey. Veterans Yadier Molina (29) or Carlos Ruiz (33) could be better options. Other candidates to start for the NL include Stephen Strasburg, Matt Cain, Cole Hamels, Clayton Kershaw and Gio Gonzalez. Dickey and Hamels oppose one another on Thursday night in Queens.

[TransMonk]

Yeah, it seems to me like LaRussa is going to dick Dickey out of the start by claiming that Posey can't catch him or that they wanted to use him in a certain situation.

Retired managers managing and fans voting for players in a "game that counts" is really absurd, and the ASG has been a joke for years.

If neither Dickey nor Wright are starting, then I'm going to start boycotting this thing until they fix some of it's glaring problems.

[Edgy MD]

Fans are voting with hashtags. Hashtags!

[batmagadanleadoff]

If I ain't startin', I ain't departin'!

[bmfc1]

If his guy isn't starting at catcher, then he'll take the guy that should be the starting pitcher and pair that guy with his guy to make a point in the 3d inning. LaRussa's a friggin' genius... or he's drunk.

[bmfc1]

Dickey on Letterman, July 11:
http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/07/05/mlb-all-stars-to-present-top-ten-list-on-late-show-with-david-letterman/140566/

[Guest themetfairy]

batmagadanleadoff wrote:

Great idea interviewing a guy right in front of the showers....

[Frayed Knot]

Not that I think it's a huge firggin deal whether Dickey pitches first next Tuesday, or third, or wherever ... but I'm not totally sure where LaRussa is getting the idea that Molina & Ruiz ARE good knuckleball catchers while Posey is not - especially seeing as how none of them have ever caught any K-ballers.

[G-Fafif]

themetfairy wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: Great idea interviewing a guy right in front of the showers....

Knuckleballers get a whole different kind of interview room for their press availabilities.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

Frayed Knot wrote: Not that I think it's a huge firggin deal whether Dickey pitches first next Tuesday, or third, or wherever ... but I'm not totally sure where LaRussa is getting the idea that Molina & Ruiz ARE good knuckleball catchers while Posey is not - especially seeing as how none of them have ever caught any K-ballers.

He's Tony LaRussa, Boy Genius. He knows every fucking thing.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Jay Jaffe sez RA oughtta get the AS start.

On Monday, managers Ron Washington and Tony La Russa will announce their choices of starting pitchers for the All-Star Game. Both skippers have a handful of worthy candidates at their disposal, with no clear-cut favorite in either league. The National League features 16 starting pitchers with at least eight wins (a stat that means a whole lot more to these old-school managers than it should), 11 with ERAs below 3.00 and 26 with at least 8.0 strikeouts per nine. Those are all arbitrary cutoffs, of course, but the sheer number of pitchers who meet each criterion point to the bewildering array of options at La Russa�s disposal. Four NL pitchers satisfy all three criteria: the Mets� R.A. Dickey, the Nationals� Stephen Strasburg, the Giants� Matt Cain and the Dodgers� Chris Capuano. A quick look at the basic stat sheet, with the pitchers sorted alphabetically: Player IP W L ERA HR/9 UBB/9 SO/9 K/BB Cain 120.3 9 3 2.62 0.9 1.7 8.8 5.1 Capuano 106.3 9 3 2.62 0.9 2.9 8.0 2.8 Dickey 120.0 12 1 2.40 0.7 2.0 9.2 4.7 Strasburg 93.0 9 3 2.81 0.6 2.5 11.8 4.7 Though he�s been an excellent, economical addition to the Dodger rotation, Capuano wasn�t even selected for the NL roster, so he�s obviously out. That leaves the other three, all of whom add a bit of narrative juice to their basic stat lines. Here�s a breakdown of the cases for each: � Dickey is having an unprecedented season for a knuckleballer. He leads the league in wins, strikeouts, complete games (three) and shutouts (two) while running third in ERA; a five-run, seven inning effort on Thursday night against the Phillies knocked him out of the top spot. He�s also tied for the league lead in Baseball-Reference�s version of Wins Above Replacement, which attributes all of the responsibility for runs allowed to a pitcher; the Reds� Johnny Cueto, a controversial snub, has 3.5 as well. The 37-year-old Met has traveled a long and winding road to attain this unlikely peak, and he may never scale such heights again. He has a shot at becoming just the second or third knuckleballer ever to start an All-Star Game, depending upon how liberal a definition one uses for the term; Dutch Leonard of the Senators started for the AL in 1943, while Bob Purkey of the Reds did so for the NL in 1961, though the latter didn�t use the knuckler more than half the time. The downside of starting a knuckleball pitcher is the unfamiliarity that starting catcher Buster Posey may have with the fluttering pitch. � Strasburg is arguably the most dominant pitcher in the league, with the top strikeout rate by a wide margin; teammate Gio Gonzalez is second at 10.5, while Dickey is fourth. Furthermore, the 23-year-old is the ace of a team that has the league�s best record. The only real knock against his candidacy is that because he�s on an innings limit after returning from Tommy John surgery late last season, he has pitched roughly 27 fewer innings than either Dickey or Cain. Even so, a look at the advanced Wins Above Replacement Player metric, which unlike B-R�s WAR adjusts for defensive and bullpen support � he needs less of the former, because he strikes out so many hitters, but more of the latter, because he doesn�t pitch as deep into games � shows that even with fewer innings, he�s been the league�s most valuable pitcher at 3.2 WARP. Still, the Nationals might actually prefer he didn�t pitch or at least was limited to a single inning. One can make the case that his shot at starting an All-Star Game should wait until he�s able to shoulder a full workload. � Cain has a perfect game under his belt, and with Tim Lincecum struggling mightily, he has assumed the mantle of staff ace on a San Francisco team that�s in position for a Wild Card spot (the Giants and Mets are tied at 45-38). He has the best strikeout-to-unintentional walk rate of the bunch, but he�s also got the best defensive support, with a .254 batting average on balls in play. He has ranked among the league leaders in that category for years thanks to his ballpark and his penchant for generating popups, at least to the extent that he�s one of the few pitchers who clearly appears to have influence over such balls. Still, without an advantage in any of the traditional categories or the valuation metrics, his case appears to be the thinnest of the trio. Eliminating Cain, the choice comes down to the aged knuckleballer and the young fireballer. Even without considering the fact that he�ll have one fewer day of rest, the latter is on a shorter leash and could be of less help to the NL squad due to his innings limitation. In the end, the nod should go to Dickey.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Is it truly a National story without National magazine cover action?

[G-Fafif]

Is it truly a National story without National magazine cover action?

In this media age, would you settle for network news?

Person of the Week: Mets� R.A. Dickey Finds Success With Knuckleball The New York Mets� R.A. Dickey is defying the odds with a rarely used pitch. With a 10-game winning streak under his belt, Dickey � the only knuckleballer in Major League Baseball right now � is experiencing a dream season. �I�m just trying to be in the moment with it as much as possible,� said Dickey, who will play in his first All-Star Game next week. Just last month, he threw two consecutive one-hitters, but it has been a long journey for the husband and father. In his new book, �Whenever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball,� Dickey revealed that he was abused repeatedly as a young boy. He kept the abuse a secret, even from his wife, Anne, whom he met in the seventh grade. She was by his side when he signed a Major League Baseball contract for nearly $1 million. And she was there when the results of an MRI showed that he was missing a ligament in his arm. The contract was later rescinded. When the Texas Rangers reduced the bonus to $75,000, Dickey took it, determined to prove he was worth every cent and more. In Dickey�s career � in which he has pitched for the Mets, the Rangers, the Milwaukee Brewers, Seattle Mariners and Minnesota Twins � the family moved more than 30 times. In between major league teams, Dickey threw in the minors. In 2005, Dickey started throwing the knuckleball. That pitch, which he has perfected, has made him the most-talked-about pitcher in the league these days. Knuckleballs hardly spin. They rotate only up to 1.5 times before they reach home plate and that makes their motion unpredictable. Dickey shared a bit of his technique, though, with ABC News. �I take my fingernails and dig them in right behind the horseshoe, really trying to stabilize the baseball with [the fingers and] the thumb,� he said. �I release the ball at the opportune moment and it comes without spin.� Dickey, who will be featured in a film documentary called �Knuckleball,� due out in September, said that even as a young boy he had a big imagination. �I always had hope,� he said.

[G-Fafif]

Jay Jaffe sez RA oughtta get the AS start. On Monday, managers Ron Washington and Tony La Russa will announce their choices of starting pitchers for the All-Star Game. Both skippers have a handful of worthy candidates at their disposal, with no clear-cut favorite in either league. The National League features 16 starting pitchers with at least eight wins (a stat that means a whole lot more to these old-school managers than it should), 11 with ERAs below 3.00 and 26 with at least 8.0 strikeouts per nine. Those are all arbitrary cutoffs, of course, but the sheer number of pitchers who meet each criterion point to the bewildering array of options at La Russa�s disposal. Four NL pitchers satisfy all three criteria: the Mets� R.A. Dickey, the Nationals� Stephen Strasburg, the Giants� Matt Cain and the Dodgers� Chris Capuano. A quick look at the basic stat sheet, with the pitchers sorted alphabetically: Player IP W L ERA HR/9 UBB/9 SO/9 K/BB Cain 120.3 9 3 2.62 0.9 1.7 8.8 5.1 Capuano 106.3 9 3 2.62 0.9 2.9 8.0 2.8 Dickey 120.0 12 1 2.40 0.7 2.0 9.2 4.7 Strasburg 93.0 9 3 2.81 0.6 2.5 11.8 4.7 Though he�s been an excellent, economical addition to the Dodger rotation, Capuano wasn�t even selected for the NL roster, so he�s obviously out. That leaves the other three, all of whom add a bit of narrative juice to their basic stat lines. Here�s a breakdown of the cases for each: � Dickey is having an unprecedented season for a knuckleballer. He leads the league in wins, strikeouts, complete games (three) and shutouts (two) while running third in ERA; a five-run, seven inning effort on Thursday night against the Phillies knocked him out of the top spot. He�s also tied for the league lead in Baseball-Reference�s version of Wins Above Replacement, which attributes all of the responsibility for runs allowed to a pitcher; the Reds� Johnny Cueto, a controversial snub, has 3.5 as well. The 37-year-old Met has traveled a long and winding road to attain this unlikely peak, and he may never scale such heights again. He has a shot at becoming just the second or third knuckleballer ever to start an All-Star Game, depending upon how liberal a definition one uses for the term; Dutch Leonard of the Senators started for the AL in 1943, while Bob Purkey of the Reds did so for the NL in 1961, though the latter didn�t use the knuckler more than half the time. The downside of starting a knuckleball pitcher is the unfamiliarity that starting catcher Buster Posey may have with the fluttering pitch. � Strasburg is arguably the most dominant pitcher in the league, with the top strikeout rate by a wide margin; teammate Gio Gonzalez is second at 10.5, while Dickey is fourth. Furthermore, the 23-year-old is the ace of a team that has the league�s best record. The only real knock against his candidacy is that because he�s on an innings limit after returning from Tommy John surgery late last season, he has pitched roughly 27 fewer innings than either Dickey or Cain. Even so, a look at the advanced Wins Above Replacement Player metric, which unlike B-R�s WAR adjusts for defensive and bullpen support � he needs less of the former, because he strikes out so many hitters, but more of the latter, because he doesn�t pitch as deep into games � shows that even with fewer innings, he�s been the league�s most valuable pitcher at 3.2 WARP. Still, the Nationals might actually prefer he didn�t pitch or at least was limited to a single inning. One can make the case that his shot at starting an All-Star Game should wait until he�s able to shoulder a full workload. � Cain has a perfect game under his belt, and with Tim Lincecum struggling mightily, he has assumed the mantle of staff ace on a San Francisco team that�s in position for a Wild Card spot (the Giants and Mets are tied at 45-38). He has the best strikeout-to-unintentional walk rate of the bunch, but he�s also got the best defensive support, with a .254 batting average on balls in play. He has ranked among the league leaders in that category for years thanks to his ballpark and his penchant for generating popups, at least to the extent that he�s one of the few pitchers who clearly appears to have influence over such balls. Still, without an advantage in any of the traditional categories or the valuation metrics, his case appears to be the thinnest of the trio. Eliminating Cain, the choice comes down to the aged knuckleballer and the young fireballer. Even without considering the fact that he�ll have one fewer day of rest, the latter is on a shorter leash and could be of less help to the NL squad due to his innings limitation. In the end, the nod should go to Dickey.

Advantage to giving it to Strasburg: Two fewer inning for his regular-season limit.

But that's the only one.

[Fman99]

Tony LaRussa is a ****. How about you screw the Mets one more time, from beyond the grave? Thanks Tone.

This is a decision he should be able to make in his sleep, behind the wheel of a car, at a traffic light in Florida, drunk as fuck.

[Ceetar]

Strasburg and Cain can start next year, or 10 years from now. Their stories will be the same (likely). This could be R.A. Dickey's only shot at being the starter, even if he's great the next couple of years. It's all (imo) about baseball stories and Dickey's is just more fun.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Mets' Dickey wants ball to start All-Star Game

NEW YORK -- First-time All-Star R.A. Dickey is headed to Kansas City with the oversized catcher's glove -- really a softball mitt -- that teammate Josh Thole uses to catch knuckleballs during New York Mets games. But Dickey said he remains unsure whether Buster Posey or Carlos Ruiz will be assigned to catch him in Tuesday's Midsummer Classic. Dickey, who completed the first half tied for the National League lead in wins with 12 and fifth in ERA at 2.40, remains hopeful All-Star manager Tony La Russa will select him as the NL's starting pitcher. "Look, I want to start the game. Of course I do," said Dickey, who had a 42 2/3-inning scoreless streak during the first half. "I think any competitor would like to." Dickey said it "logically" would be beneficial for him to open the game with Posey so the San Francisco Giants catcher would have extra time to get acquainted with the knuckleball. With Yadier Molina withdrawing from the game due to a bereavement leave, and with only two catchers currently on the NL squad, Dickey's only other opportunity for extra work with the catcher who will receive his knuckleballs would be to simultaneously enter the game with the Philadelphia Phillies' Ruiz. "I think you have a better shot starting the game, because you get to go through the whole workout routine, the whole warm-up routine, the pregame bullpen -- all that -- before you ever go into the game," said Dickey, a first-time All-Star at age 37. "If I'm brought into the game -- because you only have two catchers now, and Buster Posey hasn't seen me at all -- and all of a sudden here he is with seven warm-up pitches, that's a whole different animal." Regardless, Dickey is thankful that it seems he will be used in the game. Past knuckleballers have gone unused out of concern for how an unfamiliar catcher might struggle with them. Tim Wakefield, the last knuckleballer selected to an All-Star Game, did not see any action in 2009. Similarly, in Phil Niekro's final two appearances, in 1982 and '84, he went unused. The time before that, in 1978, NL manager Tommy Lasorda only inserted Niekro to face the final batter of a 7-3 NL win. "Truthfully, I don't know really what to expect," Dickey said. "It seems like I'm being talked about early on at least. So the fear of going and not getting an inning doesn't seem to be there. And I'm thankful for that." Added teammate David Wright about La Russa: "He's going to do what he feels is best to win this game. And I'm a little biased. But I obviously think R.A. gives us a tremendous chance to win. He's done it the entire first half. "Now, who's going catch it obviously is a challenge. I've seen guys that have been catching this thing for years look foolish back there. And so you obviously don't want to get anybody back there hurt. But, on the other hand, he's earned it. Whether it's starting or not, I hope he gets a chance to go in there and show what he's done for us in the first half. And I'm sure he'll get his chance." Said Mets manager Terry Collins, who will serve on La Russa's staff: "R.A. has been the story of the league, for me." Wright, incidentally, is thankful to be returning to the All-Star Game. He was not chosen last year because he was injured and missed two months with a stress fracture in his lower back. That snapped a streak of six straight selections. "This one is really special because last year at this time I was rehabbing down in Florida and missed a few months," Wright said.

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/sports/pro/baseball&sa=MLB&eid=8141617

[batmagadanleadoff]

Hey, Tony La Russa, don�t be a knucklehead, just start R.A. Dickey

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/hey-tony-la-russa-a-knucklehead-start-a-dickey-article-1.1110207#ixzz205chcamm

[G-Fafif]

Word on the Tweet is it won't be R.A. tom-R.A., but rather that Cain in the ass.

[bmfc1]

Even in retirement, LaRussa is a jerk.

[Edgy MD]

I tell you though. By lobbying for this, we're almost kinda setting ourselves and Dickey up for egg on the face if he comes up poorly. He's gonna get to pitch one way or another, so we should probably root for success in whatever role he gets rather than demand greater honors up front.

[TransMonk]

Edgy DC wrote: He's gonna get to pitch one way or another...

Now that YFMolina isn't going to be there, I wouldn't be surprised if LaRussa uses it as an excuse not to get Dickey into the game at all.

I've never really disliked the SF Giants all that much until this season.

[bmfc1]

CPF note: since the NL won last year, shouldn't this year's IGT be started by the same person?

UPDATE: "What's that, G-Fafif? I started it? You're kidding? I had no idea."

[G-Fafif]

CPF note: since the NL won last year, shouldn't this year's IGT be started by the same person?

And that was...you!