Comments on: Suck it, Jayson Stark (All praise the wobbley knuckler)

By: Odds and sods: Murray the moron; BP agrees with me at The Feeding the Monster Blog — In which the author discusses Boston, the Red Sox, the media, and very occasionally popular music.

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:42:20 +0000

[...] « Suck it, Jayson Stark (All praise the wobbley knuckler) Mathematical proof of what we’ve always known: the Sox really are the nicer team » [...]

By: The Feeding the Monster Blog — In which the author discusses Boston, the Red Sox, the media, and very occasionally popular music. » No, the Red Sox did not pound me in to an euphoric stupor (And: thoughts on the Yankees)

Wed, 30 May 2007 21:09:33 +0000

[...] 1. I moved this weekend. 2. The place I moved into came with all of the previous owner’s crap. 3. I can be superstitious. (Look what happened to Wake in his next two starts after I posted this piece.) [...]

By: MSGiro

MSGiro — Mon, 21 May 2007 16:28:11 +0000

I put this totally unscientific theory together 4 years ago after attending so many games started by Wakefield the previous 5 or so seasons when I would be in Fenway 20 or more times a season. Has anybody noticed that during the part of the season, Spring and Fall, where the air is crisp and cool he is a lights out pitcher? Have you also noticed that when Summer rolls in and we get our first humid day/night that Wakefield gets absolutely shelled? This continues until we get a decent and dry day out of Mother Nature. I believe the knuckler dances and dives quite well when there is little resistance in the air, but factor in some serious water vapor and the dance looks more like the white guy wedding two-step. It’s useless.

Every season we get all hopped up on Waker’s April/May then forget about him by mid-June/July/August and then fall back in love with him in September and October. I’d really like to see if he can put one more full season together where he gets himself 14-16 wins before he goes all Charlie Hough on us and turns into batting practice for two years too many.

By: the_cutty_sark

the_cutty_sark — Tue, 15 May 2007 17:24:02 +0000

Expanding a bit on the knuckler theme…

The Sox need a spot starter while Beckett heals. Could it be Charlie Zink time?

By: schiraldi

schiraldi — Sat, 12 May 2007 04:34:35 +0000

Well, the only problem is that Wakefield’s 82-78 since 1999. Let’s give him one more win and one more loss to get him to 83-79 for a 162 game comparison. In that time, the Red Sox have averaged 91-71. So, for the last seven years his winning percentage is significantly lower than the team’s. Perhaps you can chalk one season of win deficiency up to poor run support, but over eight plus seasons the numbers don’t lie: Wakefield is a solidly durable #4 starter and a good clubhouse guy, but not someone anyone is going to put on a ‘must see’ list. Unless you’re a Red Sox fan. He’s like the ‘King of Queens’ of baseball. Nothing special, but all of sudden you’re like ‘holy crap this show has been on forever; Kevin James must be making good coin from syndication.’ And you say ‘That’s nice, he seems like a good guy.’ But are you ever clicking over from Larry Sanders or Jerry Seinfeld? Nope.

By: wired1

wired1 — Sat, 12 May 2007 02:42:16 +0000

I have noticed the lack of respect Wake gets. For some reason, there seems to be an assumption that all knucklers are equal; at least five times I have heard Michael Kay ask one of his broadcast mates ‘would you want a knuckleballer on your staff, because they’ll either be great or terrible, but will ultimately be 500′.

Well, a good knuckleballer is better than a bad pitcher obviously, and because Tim Wakefield and Charlie Zink both throw the same pitch it does not make them the same pitcher.

Finally Wakefield has become very consistent, particularly since ‘02. The pundits would have one believe that for every excellent outing, a knuckleballer will have an equally terrible showing. Wake should have stood apart from the stereotype by now.

By: schiraldi

schiraldi — Sat, 12 May 2007 02:27:34 +0000

I’m guessing one of the reasons Wakefield wasn’t on the list is because he’s been 39-36 over the past four seasons. Or maybe it’s the fact that he has a playoff ERA of 6.12, which is well over seven once his starts for Pittsburgh are subtracted. He’s a great guy and an innings eater, but man, if he’s starting one of your first three playoff games, you are in trouble. I guess if the question is which pitcher would be most like watching Oasis in concert–could be good, could be 90 minutes of Liam spitting into the audience–than Tim Wakefield is your man. He has three speeds; great–like right now, mediocre–which is why the Red Sox keep re-signing him on the cheap, or crappy, one of his 142 pitch 13 hits in six innings outings that makes you ponder whether you will ever watch another American league game again.