The Blue Jays just got better. This is now a common weekly theme for the team. First it was Josh Johnson, Mark Buehrle, and Jose Reyes, then it was Melky Cabrera, and now R.A. Dickey is headed to Canada. They’ve lost a number of prospects to get to this point, but the organization is still full of young high-upside talent. I could go on about how the Blue Jays have rebuilt their team, but this post is about their newest knuckleballer.
Goodbye Tim Wakefield, hello R.A. Dickey.
If you’ve ever heard a baseball announcer talk about the knuckleball, you’ve probably heard that it’s random. They say it “dances” and “flutters” in different directions as it approaches the plate. They say the perfect knuckleball has no spin at all. They say that pockets of air and wind create the erratic movement. Not that wind or air pockets don’t exist inside a dome stadium, but the forces are definitely limited, even if the roof is opened. So why would the Blue Jays pay the Mets two top prospects to acquire a pitcher that will start half his games inside a dome?
I’ve read quite a bit of speculation on this topic, mostly from fans, and there are numbers to prove Dickey has both succeeded and failed inside domed ballparks. My real question is whether or not the physics are right. Does the knuckleball really rely on the environment to create it’s erratic movement?
The truth is, the knuckleball does not “flutter”, nor does it depend on wind or air pockets. When we talk about pitching, most of the physics that we discuss is centered around the Magnus Effect. Depending on the angle of spin, a low and high pressure force will surround opposite sides of a baseball, causing a fastball to fight the effects of gravity (“rising” action), and a curveball to have a “tumbling” action. Because there is little to no spin on a knuckleball, the Magnus Effect is nearly absent, and the science behind the knuckleball is fairly new.
Back in the 1970′s, a study by Robert G. Watts and Eric Swayer was done to better understand the effects on a knuckleball inside a wind tunnel. They found that the movement of the pitch was largely dependent on the angle of which the ball was thrown. The seams of the baseball could be oriented in such a way to create what’s called boundary layer separation. If you’re unfamiliar with the term or interested in the physics here, I recommend you read up on Freddy Garcia‘s “Swing” Ball and the accompanying links. Basically, the seams of a knuckleball create asymmetric flow separation. The air surrounding the sides of the baseball, where the seams are present, rapidly cuts the air surrounding it, creating a turbulent boundary layer. The sides of the baseball without the seam flow more smoothly around the air as it’s moving, this creates laminar air. The differences in pressure created by the laminar layer of air and the turbulent layer create the forces necessary to move the knuckleball in a certain direction.
When Watts and Sawyer completed their experiment, they believed that a knuckleball that had little spin would have the erratic “dancing” movement due to the seams changing directions while spinning slowly. Thanks to new PITCHf/x data, earlier this year, Professor Alan M. Nathan of the University of Illinois studied the knuckleball movement from both Tim Wakefield and R.A. Dickey. The data calculating pitch break showed that the knuckleball did not have the erratic “fluttering” movement that’s commonly associated with the pitches’ success. Instead, he attributed the myth to the randomness to which the pitch moves. In other words, the the idea that a knuckleball moves in different directions during it’s movement is a myth, the pitch has the same smoothness in trajectory of any other pitch. He surmised that the idea of fluttering movement was likely due to the random movement of different knuckleballs, as first found in work done by John Walsh of The Hardball Times.
Random Movement Of Dickey's Knuckleball
This isn’t to say that the environment plays no part in the movement of a pitch, but the movement of a knuckleball is nearly fully dependent on the orientation of the seam, the spin angle, and the rotation rate. In theory, the air inside a domed stadium should have no significant effect on R.A. Dickey’s knuckleball. Unfortunately, the Yankees now have to face a very difficult pitcher to hit.
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7 Responses to Will R.A. Dickey’s Knuckleball Succeed In A Domed Stadium?
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TIQ IQ
Wakefield had mentioned that he preferred pitching in domes because the weather could wreak havoc on his knuckler.
I fail to see how the Blue Jays have made themselves into the 2013 version of the 2012 Orioles with their moves. I admire their “go for it” activity, but I don’t see how it translates to the 18 or more wins than they collected last season they’ll most likely need to make the postseason.
For one Mark Buerhle is older not better and he better not grumble about playing in Toronto cuz if he does send him back to the Chi-Sox for whatever you can get cuz he has alot of years due him. He’s consistently mediocre. Josh Johnson posted a 3.81 ERA in the weaker hitting league, so all signs point to a 4+ ERA for him in 2013, and he will be strictly a one-year rental as no way the Blue Jays give him a big contract. Ricky Romero was dreadful in 2012 and must return to his previous form. Brandon Morrow was great but can he continue to be? R.A. Dickey is so overrated it’s ridiculous. Ok, he had a great 2012 and is a great story. However, the dude couldn’t hack it in the AL as a reliever. He has had the benefit of pitching in the DH-less, weakass bottom of the order, free out (the pitcher batting) league the past three years. He has pitched pressure-free in anonymity with the lowly/loser Mets. Let’s see how he does a year older on a much bigger stage which Toronto now is for the moves they’ve made. He will be have heavy doses of Jeter, Cano, Pedroia, Ortiz, Ellsbury, Detroit’s Cabrera, Fielder, Trout, Pujols, Hamilton, Hunter, Mauer, Morneau, Jones, Markakis, Longoria. No more facing what fearsome hitter in the NL East?
Toronto’s offense is like the ’80s Yankee offenses: four solid hitters and five so-so or worse ones. They have Bautista, Encarnacion, Reyes, Cabrera, and a whole alotta ehhh like the Yanks had Mattingly, Winfield, Henderson, Randolph and a whole lotta ehhh save Don Baylor for a few years. No way Toronto’s top four hitters are as good as the ’80s Yankees top four which had two 3000 Hit Club First-Ballot Hall Of Famers (Winfield and Henderson) and a borderline HOFer (Mattingly.) Even without a C, RF, or DH (yet) the Yanks still have a better offense than Toronto in Cano, Jeter, Teixiera, Granderson, Youkilis, and Suzuki (shortly) plus Gardner if you want to pencil him in for 45-55 steals and a .350-.385 OBP and maybe even A-Rod.
Toronto has done NOTHING to improve their bullpen.
Toronto better do something in 2013. If their rotation and offense, the only two things they’ve upgraded don’t get it done, 83-85 wins tops which is a nice improvement from 2012 (73 wins to 83-85) but spells no postseason. They MUST get good starting pitching and have their top four hitters hit otherwise it’s a decent finish.
dickey has been good for three years, not one. Jays bullpen is fine. Guess you haven’t heard of Janssen, eh? And Santos is healed up. Farrell was the one who sucked at using splits for the BP, and he thankfully left to make the Sox suck even more.
Your comments are pretty ridiculous and seemed very one sided. Gave me a good laugh though, thanks!
Good article, however the same cannot be said for “Duh, Inning”‘s comments.
Is Mark Buerhle the only player in MLB that got older?
Much bigger stage in Toronto? He just pitched three years in New York!
Why do people insist on comparing Dickey’s stats before he began to throw the knuckleball?
It is not guaranteed that the Blue Jays (nor Yankees) are going to win the division. That’s why they play 162 games. However it’s likely that Toronto, if they remain healthy, will be contending for the American League East Title.
Rays will CRUSH the AL East.
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