The Knuckleball

I just added Tim Wakefield on my AL-only Yahoo league. He's a knuckleball pitcher and he's pretty awesome at it. But how do you throw a knuckleball? Simple. You google "how to throw a knuckleball" and you get an answer from ehow.com.

How to Throw a Knuckleball

By eHow Sports & Fitness Editor

Dig the index and middle finger into the ball when throwing a knuckleball

Rate: (229 Ratings)

When you've got this pitch under control, hitters have no idea when to swing. When it's out of control, though, even the pitcher doesn't know where the ball is going! Here are a few easy steps to fool your hitters.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Baseballs

Step1

Grip the baseball by clenching the top of the ball with the tips of your index, middle and ring fingers just below the seams. Dig the tips of your fingers deep into the ball.

Step2

Place your thumb below the ball to give it support. Keep your pinkie off to the side.

Step3

Go into your windup. Remember to pivot and shift your body weight from the back foot forward toward home plate.

Step4

Throw the ball toward home, but don't snap your wrist - keep it stable, eliminating as much spin as possible.

Step5

Follow through. Extend all fingers toward home plate as you release the pitch. Your feet should be parallel at the end of the pitch, and your throwing arm should come across the front of your body.

Cool, huh!
I personally first learned about the knuckleball because the Marlins had a pitcher named Dennis Springer who threw one. That was in like 1999 or 2000. I don't recall the Marlins having a knuckleball pitcher since, but I could be wrong. They had a screwball pitcher for a couple years, though.

E-mail Fun

Ken Tremendous (Michael Schur) of FJM and Keith Law of ESPN.com are both awesome in my book. So why not try and coax a personal e-mail from both of them. I'll start with KT:

I love how in your latest post u misspelled "pitching" as "picthing" when trying to imitate Joe Morgan. Brilliant! (even if not on purpose) not concetrate, but hey you tried.

Also, you responded to my friend Andrew Walker, and now he is the cock on the block (should have said walk, but w/e) as he stated, so if it's not too much trouble to ask and I won't ever again (ok don't remember that for next time) could you respond with a "hi" or something so I could show my friends I got an e-mail from the writer for "The Office" (oh and of course the firejoemorgan.com genius)
Thanks!

Go Florida Marlins!

-Alex

And here is the response I got in my e-mail from none other than KT himself:

I'm not sure being the "cock on the block" is something to brag about.

Also: hi.

And thanks for reading.

KT

So not exactly what I was hoping for, but a response is a response. From Ken Tremendous!

The next one is from Keith Law, writer for ESPN.com and apparent FJM fan on Facebook. This is of course a Facebook message both to and from:

A Fan of Yours

Between Keith Law and You

Today at 1:01am

I was going through the FJM Fan List and saw "Kieth Law" and your pic and was pleasantly surprised. You don't of course know me, but I just wanted to let you know that in a world of insane and unreasonable journalists, you are by far my favorite (Rob Neyer being a close second.) I just think it's so cool that you are actually on Facebook and apparently read FJM.
Your Fan
- Alex (Go Marlins!)

Keith Law

Add as Friend

Today at 11:15pm

Report Message

Alex:
Yes, that's me, and I'm a big FJM fan. I hate fatuous, ignorant baseball writing, and I love the way they dismantle it.
Thanks for the kind words.
Keith




WHO IS GOOD?!?!? ME, THAT'S WHO!!!

Blackouts

There has been recent talk about changing the boundaries for blackouts or getting rid of them altogether. I read an interesting article on Yahoo the today talking about the subject. My response as I sit watching a Tampa Bay Rays vs. New York Yankees game in Tallahassee, Florida... GET RID OF THE DANG STUPID BLACKOUTS!!! Tonight's Marlins-Nationals game cannot be seen on Sun Sports in Tallahassee because the stupid cable company doesn't show 55 Marlins games a year. I don't care about the Rays. I don't really like them or hate them, just don't care to watch them. The team I like are the Florida Marlins, and I want to watch them!!!

Opening Day

Well now that the season has begun, life is back to normal. They teach in elementary school that the Earth has four seasons: Summer, Spring, Autumn and Winter. That is false. There is baseball season and not baseball season. Simple as that.

Now to look at how my fantasy team did on Opening Day.
Studs:
David Riske: 1IP no hits or walks or Ks - got the save after Eric Gagne blew a 3-run lead and had trouble throwing strikes. Looks like I hit gold on guessing who will be a closer by May.
Gary Sheffield: 1-5, 4BB and 1 RBI - seeing we use OBP, this was awesome. Include him with Miguel Cabrera who also hit a home run
Brian Roberts: 2-2 2BB 1SB/1CS and Run scored - I didn't get to watch any of this game, but it's great to see my 2B off to a great start and being "aggressive" on the basepaths, even if it counts as 0 NSB on the scoreboard.
Josh Willingham: 1-4 with a 2run HR - it was off Johann Santana, nuff said.

Duds:
Rafael Betancourt: 1.2IP 3H, 1BB, 1K, 0ER and the win - the win was lucky, but that doesn't help the WHIP at all
Matt Diaz: 1-9 1 RBI - there is a reason he was a 27th round pick for my bench. Hopefully he can turn it around, seeing as it is only 9 ABs.
David Ortiz: 0-7 2BB 1run - Yes, it was in Japan a week earlier, but it was still on openers and not good at all
Peter Moylan: 1.2IP 1H 1ER 1HR 2K - He has pitched better than his ERA would show, but gave up the game-winning HR to Ryan Zimmerman. I'm not too worried.

In other news, I'll give a shout out to my Marlins, who got 4 great bullpen innings from Ricky Nolasco and Matt Lindstrom. Too bad the Marlins signed pitching dud Mark Hendrickson. The innings eater pitched only 5 innings. Isn't that his only purpose? Can't wait to see Chris Volstad in the rotation come June or July. Marlins lost 7-2 to the Mets if you haven't heard already.

And with the 1st pick overall: Matt Lindstrom

Ok, not really. But that's how lost I am right now until I figure out where the heck I draft. 1st? 5th? 12th? If I pick first, it's A-Rod. But if I pick 2nd, should I really pick Hanley? I'm a huge Marlins fan, but I think he just might be overvalued. Do I care? Yeah, cause it's the difference between my sorry ass having a Philly as my stud in Utley, or going high with a Marlins on a pretty crappy team, according to ESPN. Marlins are probably a lot better than the "experts" give them credit for.

Lindstrom is gonna get me a bunch of holds, plus he's a Marlin, plus he's a Mormon, and he is next in line to be closer if Gregg struggles or gets hurt. Let's see, I'd take him in round... 19, missionary age, why not? Upside and everything. and he's a Marlin. and a Mormon. and he throws 100mph. triple bonus! :)

seriously, I could be drafting a Philly first in Utley. What it takes to win a fantasy league is killing me, and there isn't even money involved. At least I'm not taking a Yankee other than A-Rod. Jeter is the most overrated player of this decade. He sucks!!!! He, NOT A-ROD, is more a reason for the Yankee failures than any one else in their line up. Oh, and of course, the Yankee pitching has been crap for a long while.

More food for thought, though Id rather eat some on my college budget. I'm hungry. Chips, soda, and... class. LATER!

I'm starting with the Brewers???

My response to the ESPN fantasy predictions for the Milwaukee Brewers

As for Brewers players, I love Fielder and Braun, not super high on Hart, though he did have the 6th best OPS among NL OF last year and 4th best SLG among NL OF, so maybe I really am. Gallardo over Sheets? by 5 rounds!?!?! umm... no.

I think Weeks can be good, but not so much as a fantasy player. His OBP last year was .374, (compared to .326 by Dan Uggla, whom I still love only cuz im a huge Marlins fan) which means he might score you a few more runs than your avg player, but I'll try getting Utley or Phillips instead a little sooner in my drafts.

In addition, my reasoning for Sheets over Gallardo is that, since assuming injuries is just stupid (I haven't studied which ones linger and which one's don't yet, but I don't really care, either.) that Sheets is, well, the better pitcher and has better numbers. It's value, and Gallardo's value is too high and Sheets is nice and low after a couple of injury riddled years.