A gimmick is defined as a device or scheme which is designed to increase appeal. At this point, the knuckleball is being used by pitchers as a last ditch effort to remain in the MLB, because their skills have eroded to the point where that may no longer be able to keep a job. That would mean a knuckleball is a gimmick. It’s being used to increase the appeal of the pitcher that may be on his last leg in order to remain relevant. That doesn’t mean it isn’t an effective pitch – it certainly is. But nobody will ever be drafted as a knuckleballer. The way the knuckleball is thrown is mechanically unsound – so it is not a pitch that any pitchers would be taught to throw unless it was a last resort.

The Knuckleball isn’t a Gimmick it is the quintisential pitch in that it is one where theb Pitcher knows where he is trying to throw it and the batter does not!

Thats pretty much what a fastball Curve pitcher tries to do only he does it vis pitch spection as opposed to pitch location.

A good Knucklballer has some idea where that pitch is going (Dickey does!) and the fact the pitch disguises it’s path until the last minute is no different than a backdoor slider, late breaking Sinker or Curveball that looks like a ball right up until it crosses the plate as a strike!

That is the REAL essence of pitching, getting a batter to think it’s going one place only to have it goes someplace else!
Thats how you get guys out not by throwing it faster than he can swing because if the batter is ready for a 98 MPH fastball he will crush it, Expects a curve in the zone and if it’s in the strike zone it’s a hanger to him.

The Art of pitching is as much about setting up and fooling the batter than it is about how good your fatball hops, Curve Curves,or Sinker Sinks!

It is an art of FOOLING the batter!

And the Knuckleball does that as well as any pitch that exists!

Unfortunatly the scouts, coaches and GMs don’t look for the ability to win the MENTAL battle and rely too much on Radar guns and pitch arsenal.

Well you could be able to throw every pitch ever invented that is not a fastball but if you can’t fool the batter and use your pitches to set him up and fool him you won’t succeed!

Not all Knucklballers have the ability Dickey has to locate and set up batters. And truth is neither do many of the coventional pitchers you see these days.

Which is why a guy with 3 or 4 Pitches like McHugh and Hefner get beat up on!
Because being able to thorw a pitch isn’t as important as knowing how and when to throw it and fool the batter so he doesn’t know it’s coming and getting him to swing badly at it!

Pitching is a mental art as much as a physical one!
Too bad the scouts haven’t figured that out yet!

Dickey is a complete baseball player: he fields, he hits, his in game savvy is amaziing, and he gets guys out. No, he aint no one D football kicker.

I read a book a couple of years ago, the title and the author skip my mind, but basically similar story for a kid with the Angels who pitched in an Ivy league school. It was an incredible read on what a young prospect who doesn’t quite make it goes through.

Look at AJ Burnett for one. Success the year before he joined the Yankees and the year he was traded from the Yankees. I know some write off that ‘NY mentality’ idea, but I think there is something to that for some players.

My Dad was approached by the Brooklyn Dodgers organization when he was a senior in HS playing SS for the school team in the early 50s. They wanted him to come try out. As much as he loved baseball and would like to have dreamed, he said he knew he didn’t have the bat to ever be successful in the majors. Think Buddy Harrelson. Back then Dad was barely a 5′ 9″ wiry shortstop with a lot of speed, great defense and a very light bat.