Personally, I’m a very simple guy who believes Dickey & his “trick” pitch is totally underrated for these reasons. #1) a knuckleball is a singularity whereby like snowflakes each is a bit different from any other making it historically difficult to be on the receiving end of, be it batter or catcher. #2) there has NOT been a NL knuckleball SP since Tom Candiottie retired in 2000. #3) the premere hitters in the NL(PUJOLS,HOWARD,UTLEY,ROLLINS,FIELDER,UGGLA,ETC) all have debuted post 2000 & none of whom have any prolonged AL exposure where they may have encounterd a knuckleball pitcher with any regularity $4) Video study has become a central preparation tool for most ALL pro hitters & the unrepeatable flight of the pitch negates video as a means of predicting what a batter will be facing. #5) historically the most renowned knuckleball pitchers have experienced their highest effectiveness from age 35 through mid to late 40s, negating the Dickey age consideration. #6)of the 6 pitchers being considered their 2010 ERA/WHIP acheivements reflect Dickey’s are certainly lowest.(2.84 ERA, 1.19 WHIP)
Contrary to conventional wisdom; but for all of these aforementioned reasons I would choose Dickey as my #1 slotted starter until Santana returns because I believe ALL of those reasons support his liklihood of being the most likely candidate to match zeroes with the Halladays,Johnsons,Hudsons, the #1 is likely to be opposing early in the season Aptil 1 thru Johan’s guessed return of June 15.
While I an aware my suggestion is shockingly out of the box, I welcome anyone to counter my 6 points dilineated above. My preferred rotation order to commence this season would be
DICKEY
PELFREY
NIESE
YOUNG
CAPUANO
Divkey is equally effective with his ‘butterfly’ against both LHH & RHH.
Pelfrey through Cappy is a R/L a sequencing

So are you telling me that only having 3 losing teams in 12 years is not a significant achievement considering an average payroll of OVER $100m LESS than the only other 2 teams to do it? Do you hate stats so much that you cannot acknowledge that?

Also, I’m not sure when people started getting credit for a team’s success based on their status as Asst. GM? That’s the first time I have ever heard somebody give an Asst. GM credit over a GM with proven success.

The fact is in inherited a team that was already built to win a championship. There’s no denying it unless you’d like to mold information to fit your insane argument.

Has he made some good moves? Yeah, grabbing Lee from out from under everybody was big… but to say he’s had a greater impact on the sport than Bill James or Billy Beane is very, very dumb.

Sorry

“It’s hard to criticize him (Amaro) right now.
Lee, Oswalt, Halladay, Hamels, Blanton.
..and that lineup.”

So Amaro who has been with the Phillies as an asst GM since 1998. Who inherited a W.S. team when he bace the GM in Nov of 1998.
Is hard to criticize now because after 12 years in the Phillies Front Office he has Lee, Oswalt, Halladay, Hamels, Blanton.

But Alderson who has been at the job as the Mets GM for all of what 4 months? Is easy to criticize?

You can’t make this stuff up folks.

Real easy to criticize Amaro. Real hard to criticize Sandy, with no results to critize or praise.

Lee, Oswalt, Halladay, Hamels, Blanton.

..and that lineup.

Go ahead, criticize him and praise Sandy.

This is the guy that, in order to pay a 32-year-old who already averages one DL stint per year around $25 mil till he’s 39, might have to trade Hamels away, a young lef-handed stud still under team control.

Yep, great GM.

If Gillick said it it must be true.

Go ask every other GM to ever win a W.S. I’m sure they will agree as well that it’s more about Character than ability.

“One thing that I think is very important is character,” Gillick said. “When I started out in this game, I thought it was 70 percent ability and 30 percent character, and the longer I’ve been in it, I think it’s 60 percent character and 40 percent ability. Because if you’re going to be out there through spring training and 162 games, you need people with character.”

nytimes.com/2010/12/07/sports/baseball/07hall.html