Knuckleballers

[Habsfan18]

Speaking from my own personal experiences with OOTP since version 13, I have yet to see a game-generated knuckleball pitcher. I've seen a few guys have a knuckle-curve along with 2-3 other pitchers, but never a good old fashioned knuckleball.

I was pretty excited to see the Chicago White Sox draft Hank Pratt 2nd overall in the 2035 MLB draft. At the start of the 2036 season, he's considered the #1 prospect in all of baseball and he's starting the season in their bullpen at only 21 years of age. Here's hoping he finds a way into the rotation before the year is over.

What are your experiences with game-generated knuckleballers?

[RchW]

This guy is the career W leader and 10 time Cy Young award winner.

[Habsfan18]

Wow, over 5,000 strikeouts! That guy was incredible.

[Griever20]

They usually come with a very highly rated knuckleball, like 18-20 on a 1-20 scale, AND they usually have high stamina.

What I like about them is that a pitcher with one pitch rated that highly CAN break out and pitch an absolute beauty here and there.

Of course, if you are lucky... you get a game-generated knuckleballer like this:


The guy has 355 career starts, 169-111 3.87ERA, 37.5 career WAR, 61 complete games and 17 shutouts... Yes, his last years have been a bit tough, but for some reason he has never made more than $11.1M per year in a standard financial enviroment...

PS: OK, RchW beat mine big time XD

[Bluenoser]

Here's the best game generated I ever saw - OOTP16


http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...l-pitcher.html

[Griever20]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

Here's the best game generated I ever saw - OOTP16


http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...l-pitcher.html

aaahh yes, I forgot about this one... never had one that good tho...

[24Rocks]

Ya they come around here and there this guy is currently playing

[Habsfan18]

I'm hoping Pratt is as good as the examples posted here. My fictional MLB could use a dominant knuckleballer.

[Ron.]

My favorite is seeing them in the IFA pool. A lot of 16-year-old Dominicans have already decided that they're going to be a knuckleballer, apparently.

[oriolesmeep]

I had a few in 16, including one that went first overall and another one that pitched for me a number of years. Neither were much better than average MLB pitchers, though both have earned more than their fair share of money.

[nutt]

Originally Posted by Habsfan18

Speaking from my own personal experiences with OOTP since version 13, I have yet to see a game-generated knuckleball pitcher. I've seen a few guys have a knuckle-curve along with 2-3 other pitchers, but never a good old fashioned knuckleball.

I was pretty excited to see the Chicago White Sox draft Hank Pratt 2nd overall in the 2035 MLB draft. At the start of the 2036 season, he's considered the #1 prospect in all of baseball and he's starting the season in their bullpen at only 21 years of age. Here's hoping he finds a way into the rotation before the year is over.

What are your experiences with game-generated knuckleballers?

21 years old and 33 starts between College, Rookie, Short-A, and Low-A and I assume he made the team out of ST as a long-man? Wow. Did he get drafted out of a US or Canadian college?

Those numbers:

Averaged 6.2 IP/GS in College, just under 5 IP/GS at Short-A in three starts and 5.2 IP/GS at Low-A. Almost logical in not burning his arm out even for a knuckler at 21.

The raw numbers:

His professional numbers are great; 3-2 in 15 starts over 79.2 innings and 86 strikeouts with a 2.49 ERA. Combine his college stats and he went 14-4 in 33 starts over 203.1 innings, 255 strikeouts and a 2.08 ERA while averaging 6.1 IP/GS.

[awick]

Here's the best I've seen, still going strong at 42.

[Habsfan18]

Originally Posted by nutt

21 years old and 33 starts between College, Rookie, Short-A, and Low-A and I assume he made the team out of ST as a long-man? Wow. Did he get drafted out of a US or Canadian college?

Those numbers:

Averaged 6.2 IP/GS in College, just under 5 IP/GS at Short-A in three starts and 5.2 IP/GS at Low-A. Almost logical in not burning his arm out even for a knuckler at 21.

The raw numbers:

His professional numbers are great; 3-2 in 15 starts over 79.2 innings and 86 strikeouts with a 2.49 ERA. Combine his college stats and he went 14-4 in 33 starts over 203.1 innings, 255 strikeouts and a 2.08 ERA while averaging 6.1 IP/GS.

Pratt was drafted out of Arizona State.

He had a rough initiation into the big leagues, but in his 2nd season he was named a starter and hasn't looked back since. Named an all-star in year 3 and lead the AL in strikeouts as a 23 year old.

2039 Spring Training, and it's just been announced that he's to miss the next 2-3 months with elbow inflammation. Hoping it's not a sign of things to come..

[Habsfan18]

Remember that elbow inflammation post? Well, over a year later and..

Out 14 months with elbow ligament reconstruction surgery. Ooof.. No wonder he's been struggling lately..

[NoOne]

i had one that was really good once. one of the best pitchers in 60 years of data. i've seen some middling ones too.

they don't get a ton of K's due to the knuckleball pitch being in their repertoire, but their BABIP is consistently lower than league average. WAR is likely to be low relative to amount of success a knuckleballer has compared to say a power pitcher, in my experience. war simply doesnt value or account for the benefits a knuckleball provides, relative to success.

e.g. more than a few season this guy was having a cy young-caliber season but only a 4 to 5 WAR, while a power pitcher having a cy young-caliber year would have a WAR 7+ gauranteed in my league. this guy's career WAR was undeniably 40% too low, lol.

WAR is dandy, and i do use it, but read each player's season WAR calculation as a +/- 50% of the WAR. it's just not accurate nor precise. not unlike overall/potential ratings in game..

i'm sure with the right secondary pitches and a power arm they can have a high k/9.. the knuckle alone added to a non-power pitcher won't turn him into a K-machine, but if a power pitcher has a knuckle, he'll still get his elevated k/9. having the knuckle to use likely lowers k/9 of a prototypical power pitcher, slightly to very slightly.

i think they are workhorses, relative to other players with similar stamina. cg% and # of pitches per start was really good with this guy relative to other top-end pitchers in my league. more data needed to know if they are head and shoulders above other pitch selections or just due to the small sample size i experienced.

* i did use pitch counts so that he could pitch every 4-days and not be more than a couple ticks below 100%. so, his CG% could have been higher, but he would have gotten fewer cg overall, if that makes sense

most pitchers do 32-35gs in my league, i had this guy going 40-44gs once he was the ace of the staff and when he was healthy to do it. ~300IP average during these years. (low pitch stamina setting / 5day rotation normally, but 156g with 5 extra days off compared to 162g mlb season. so, 40-44 starts possible with default low SP stamina setting)

[kingcharlesxii]

The best player in our online league's long history was a knuckleballer.

Player Report for #3 Richard 'Barney' Stinson

We're using older league settings so strikeouts are much less common than a modern day league. He holds basically all the career records for our league. His 395 wins are far more than second place (321).