The Weekly Rant: Orioles, Blue Jays, and Red Sox Monopolizing Knuckleballers

"There are two theories on catching the knuckleball... unfortunately, neither of the theories work."          -Charlie Lau

I have always found the knuckleball fascinating, in more than just a gimmicky way.  I think having a one or two knuckleballers in the majors is great, because upper 90's fastballs can get boring when everyone has one.

There's currently one "established" Major League knuckleballer, Cy Young winner and Toronto Blue Jay R.A. Dickey.  There's also a scattering of minor league knuckleballers, that range from fringe major leaguers to basically out-of-baseball hanger-ons. 

I tried to find a list of all active professional knuckleballers, and through an assortment of internet pages I was able to scrap together 12 names.  So here it is, (I hope) a list of all the knuckleballers in American professional baseball, with their 2014 organization and 2013 highest level in parenthesis:

Eddie Gamboa (Orioles, AAA)
Zach Clark (Orioles, MLB)
Zach Staniewicz (Orioles, Rk)
Tomo Ohka (Blue Jays, Ohka received an invitation to Spring Training after pitching in an independent league in Japan last season.)
Josh Banks (Blue Jays, Banks hasn't pitched professionally since 2011.  He also received an invitation to Spring Training.)
R.A. Dickey (Blue Jays, MLB)
Steven Wright (Red Sox, MLB)
Charlie Haeger (Red Sox, AAA)
Eddie Bonine (Padres, AAA)
Blaine Sims (Braves, A+)
Joe Zeller (Unknown, Ind)
Joe Gannon (Unknown, Ind)

The thing you may notice is that the Baltimore Orioles, Toronto Blue Jays, and Boston Red Sox all have multiple knuckleball pitchers in their organizations. This is probably nothing, but it seems noteworthy enough to at least examine.

It's a little odd that these teams are all in the same division.  But when you consider that the Red Sox and Blue Jays have also employed the only successful pitchers to have thrown the flutterball this millennium, it's not so weird.

Indeed, the Blue Jays surplus of knucklers really isn't extraordinary at all. We all know about R.A. Dickey.  Banks seems like just a spring training invite that will help the Jays new catching core practice receiving the pitch.  Ohka probably is there for the same reason, although his pedigree and initial success could make him a little less of a long shot.

The Red Sox may be in a similar situation.  Steven Wright may or not make it as a big leaguer, but as long as he's around, it won't hurt to have another veteran knuckleballer in Charlie Haeger.  The fact that Tim Wakefield is still relatively fresh in everyone's minds probably has something to do with it as well.

Really, the only interesting club is the Orioles.  Perhaps after being dazzled by Wakefield and Dickey for so long, they thought they would like their own version.  They even went out and got Hall of Fame knuckleball specialist Phil Neikro to work with their stable of inexperienced knucklers.

Gamboa and Clark are both recent converts who stalled out after climbing up the organizational ladder throwing traditional stuff.  Stainiewicz, meanwhile, used to pitch in Indy ball, but more recently was a member of the Air Force Reserve, pitching for All-Star teams in the armed services.

Really, the odds are stacked against any of these pitchers being effective in the Majors (besides Dickey, obviously).  But it's worth keeping your eye on teams who stockpile certain types of pitchers.  Knuckleballers just happen to stand out.  Also, it would be difficult for more than a couple teams to employ this strategy.  There are a limited number of ex-knuckleballers willing to teach, current pitchers willing and capable of giving it a try, and expendable rotation spots in the high minors.

But just for the sake of variety, I hope some of these guys can break out. Who knows, maybe there will be an organization that becomes the next "Knuckleball U".