How Matt Waldron Saved a Dead Pitch 

The knuckleball doesn’t go “extinct” just dormant. There’s always a lull between great knuckleballers: Wakefield ‘92-11 was preceded by Niekro ‘64-‘87 who took over from Wilhelm ‘52-‘72 who followed Cicotte ‘05-‘20.

Tim Wakefield was so fun to watch because of his knuckleball, and thats coming from a Guardians fan. MLB needs more knuckleballers! It makes the game way more exciting and the pitch, when thrown right, challenges even the top hitters of the league.

wakefield and dickey were both amazing. glad someones keeping the pitch alive.

Tim wakefeild once said someone else would discover the kunckle.

That wakefield knuckleball at 1:16 is crazy

As a catcher for my time playing baseball from 8-20 yrs old, I taught my 7+ year old son how to throw the knuckleball to keep him and his arm away from the curve. He threw his first no-hitter at 9 yrs old in the Orlando FL little league tournament, at that age the kids dint know what to do with it. The use of the K-ball continued through travel ball, High School and summer leagues leading to scholarship offers. As a HS senior he beat, in the state semi-finals, the undefeated #1 team in the state, with 5 draftees, with ease once the plate umpire figured out what he was throwing in the first inning ( no runs allowed). In his junior and senior year he always faced, what MBL called " the Dark Knight" to very close games, the only player that could hit him was his travel team catcher ( who was the Gatorade state player of the year) because he knew the drop, and movement, as a catcher.

Wish the knuckleball was more prevalent. I got tendinitis at 12 from over pitching and throwing curves too early, so the knuckleball became my go to and by 16 I had it down perfect. Damn I miss the days of little league and travel ball

i was very weary with Waldron at the start of the season... he had ALOT of traffic on his bases, and often times very early in the game. Always in a jam. I'm very glad to see that he has turned into one of, if not, all things considered, our best pitcher in the rotation. Nobody in baseball can replicate what he does. Bravo, Matty Nuckles.

This video has convinced me as a little leaguer to try and learn it I’ll maybe report back in like a month

Waldron is the best pitcher on the Padres , crazy

amazing as always

The "wind currents" aren't what gives it that type of movement. It's the pressure.

Very cool video. I havent watched baseball in years but I'm watching again because of this dude.

It’s not that teams don’t like knucklers. It’s really that catching for them is challenging and goes against everything they are trained to do and a pro catcher.

Just picked him up in fantasy, on the day you dropped this. Subbed.

I was literally just talking to my dad about how the knuckleball is about to go extinct and then this video popped up, which is insane. I can’t believe and I’m super super happy that the knuckleball is not extinct and I hope it never will.

This is the way. A knuckleball as a secondary pitch makes its control and movement issues non-existent. Its the same as a pitcher with not really good control of his slider, curve or other third or fourth pitch

I've been watching him intently. The mixing in of the fastball and the slurve/sweeper is pretty devastating. He's become my favorite padres starter LFGSD!!!

I love the knuckleball but I don’t know how to do it. My friend goes ahead and tries to pitch it and becomes absolutely wild.

If it works, it works!

this Is why I love Baseball

one of the first moments

If you can master the knuckle ball it's a great pitch. I umpired semi pro highschool and legion ball. There was one kid that through it. As an umpire it was hard to call it at times. The catcher only asked for it maybe twice an inning because it crossed him up . He was not confident he could catch it because it moved so odd . I know I missed some strikes because my mind kept telling me that is a ball and I would see it go across the plate as a strike but my mind was yelling ball. There was a game that a good hitter yelled to the pitcher go ahead throw that knuckle I wii nock it out of here. When it got to three and two. The pitcher showed hit the ball with his fingers bent into the ball. When the pitch came in the batter all most screwed him self into the ground the bat wasn't even close

Wilbur Wood was a 20 game winner for the White Sox in the sixties as a knuckler

Great video, i subbed

Wakefield. *Rush of nostalgia*

It's a fun day when you get to watch a good knuckle ball pitcher. The speed and movement of the ball can take a good hitter's bating average down a notch or two.

It takes a very special catcher to be able to handle a knuckleball pitcher.

6:22 the field is playing deep, but with the exit velo on his knuckles, they need to play shallow.

I Just learned how to throw one and it came alot easier to me than i thought. There is a technique to it.

I’d argue that expected stats may not be great when looking at a knuckleball pitcher. The slower speed allows the hitter time to realize it’s a knuckle and shorten the swing a bit. Something along those lines might be why the exit bell is low given the BA

The knuckleball will never die.

You have to be committed to it there is no gong back.

If I could go back in time I'd start throwing the knuckle ball at 5 years old and work on nothing else

It's funny, because so many pundits said it was dead, said it would never come back. They said it was over that an era had ended. Like 10 RU-vidrs make videos about this last year and now they all seemed absolutely silly. Like I said the knuckleball is as effective as it ever was maybe more because hardly anybody throws it. The issue isn't that the knuckleball doesn't work, however that most pictures just don't throw it therefore there's somewhat of a cognitive bias in that thinking that nobody throws it because it doesn't work. Kind of Sengas forkball.

I just want to see him make the all-star roster...

.... amazing thing about the knuckle ball is that nobody in the stadium has any idea where the ball will wind up

So pretty much the only reason people were hitting his Knuckeball is because of the shift, bad defense, and bloop singles.

GBR!

Could u image if skenes could develop a knuckle ball like this going from his high heat to this 😂

if theres one thing you can say about baseball, its soooooooo much better with at least one knuckleballer in the mlb

I hold the ball with my whole hand including the palm and then I just throw to get a knuckleball 😎

1:18 WHAT IS THAT MOVEMENT??

Fucking love this guy!

No pitch goes extinct. Look up the spit ball. Spit not split. There will always be variations of the knucklleball in pitches decades from now

It would be amazing to see a guy who can throw a 90 mph fast ball and a knuckleball. Is it possible?

Oooouuuuu very nice

Every here and again you get an Eichhorn.

His first 7 starts were also bad because the offense never scored for him at all.

even if you get ahold of a good knuckleball its often a pop up or some weak sauce because if its doing knuckleball things its literally just swinging and hoping for the best😂 edit: but if your knuckleball doesnt knuckleball its just BP

How do you not have more followers

🔥🔥🔥

Don’t compare Waldron to the great Wakefield or RA Dickey. His KB is relatively flat and most of the times way way out of strike zone; it fooled hitters early in the season due to its novelty. To fool mlb hitters with 70mph pitches, it better dance like a butterfly up and down left and right. You have to dedicate yourself to a KB to be effective, not just throw it like a part time hobby.

Dickey bounced between the majors and minors? Sounds like Drake

Why do you end every sentence like you're asking a question lol

Knuckleball is just too hard to throw. Everybody should try, but only one in 500 might get it

Anyone else here from the Father’s Day series?

Yeah and he got tanked up last night by the bravos let's go braves

And he’s a bronze in MLB24

Waldron could be the first because true knucklers never will be consistent. You need legit stuff for when its not working. Problem1 is you need a catcher dedicated to a knuckleballer. Calling Wakefield the most reliable is ridiculous, love him but he had a 4.40 career era. Only reliability was his health. And we all seen Dickey have the most luck ever for that one year and be the best pitcher in the mlb. after that he never had the luck to make it move in advantageous ways in key moments again and faded out of the league

More like how the knuckleball saved his career

Yes, a pitcher who made his debut in 2023 saved a pitch that a handful of high school and college kids I played with threw. Right.

I am him

Bro is not anywhere near one of the best starters in the league

Seventh

He didn’t. End of video. Saved you some time.

Sorry, Wakefield was tedious to watch! The value of knuckleballers is that they tend to eat a lot of innings and stay healthy. But, they cannot be depended upon for big moments.

First

The stat geeks are ruining baseball. If you don't throw 95 mph and have a high enough spin rate, you're ignored. So stupid

Like some cult religion that barely survives, there has always been at least one but rarely more than five or six devotees throwing the knuckleball in the big leagues . . . Not only can't pitchers control it, hitters can't hit it, catchers can't catch it, coaches can't coach it and most pitchers can't learn it. The perfect pitch. Ron Luciano

The knuckle ball is effective primarily because it is a pitch batters rarely see. I would go further and suggest that hitters don't spend a lot of time training to hit knuckle balls instead, coaches have them focus on dealing with the more common pitches such as sliders, fastballs, cutters, curveballs, and change ups. This is why a batter suddenly finding a ball with no spin moving oddly in the air as it approaches the plate cannot hit it. The effectiveness of the knuckle ball depends on how rare it is used. It's a pitch that relies heavily on the element of surprise. If more pitchers begin using the pitch and it becomes more common, hitters will get better equipped to handle it. Eventually the pitch will become less effective.

Always loved throwing the knuckle ball, hardly used it in games but was fun to mess with some people with