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Originally Posted by fleury
Re: Manoah body comparisons to Wells and Sabathia, totally fair but I’d say there are exceptions to the rule. Granted you have to take care of your shoulder and arm more than anything as a pitcher, you still have to take care of your body as you get older as the hips and knees take their toll. Those guys may have been exceptions. Not the best to replicate as most will have aging issues where self care will become more important as a person ages.
Not relating to this but I was just thinking. Why don’t more teams have knuckleball relievers? Could really throw the timing off to bring in a guy for an inning or two.
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As an avid knuckleball enthusiast, it doesn’t work because
a) it’s very difficult to throw a knuckleball at all
b) it’s even harder to throw a knuckleball AND throw other MLB level pitches - even RA Dickey could only mix in an 80 mph fastball here and there. Knuckleball = no breaking pitches
C) catchers can’t catch it. A knuckle balling starter requires a personal catcher. Josh Thole, Doug Mirabelli - you can’t just tell the everyday starter “go catch knuckleballs”.
Arencibia basically got drummed out of the league after he was unable to catch Dickey, but the next year with Martin, they made a big deal about how beat up he was getting behind the dish because he couldn’t get a handle on it, and Russell
Martin is Johnny Bench compared to JP Arencibia.
To me, the ultimate pitch mix for durability would be something like four-seam (92-95), circle change (84-87) splitter (81-83), knuckleball (64-68). But I don’t believe it’s possible in real life.