Why aren't there more knuckleball pitchers in MLB?

[THA_DIESEL]

It's a deadly pitch.

Tim Wakefield will go down as the king of knuckleball pitching. I have yet to see someone try to do what he does.

[Robber]

it's hard to learn and very hard to control

many guys would try knuckleballs but get them over for strikes like barely ever

you need to throw them so they can hit the zone often enough that hitters have to worry about it. otherwise the hitter will ignore them and just wait for you to throw a juicy heater

[Jericholic]

Very few teams allow their pitchers to throw knuckleballs. It seems as though it is treated as a last resort by guys who otherwise don't have enough stuff to make in the bigs. I agree though that it is a deadly pitch and a lost art.

[Facepunch]

Seems to me that when Wakefield is off that Knuckleball gets rocked. I always looked at it as a high risk high reward tool.

[cecil127]

you ever tried to throw a knuckle ball? quite difficult and as a lefty i found it damn near impossible to develop.

[iceminers26]

Phil Niekro is far better than Wake, the guy had over 300 wins and is in the HOF

[MexicanStallion]

I would assume it is quite difficult to master enough to make it a career. Look at R.A. Dicky. I believe he is a knuckleball pitcher and he barely has 20 wins for his career. I believe Charlie Haeger on the Dodgers throws one as well, but he has been sent to the minors already.

[iceminers26]

I read an article where Wade Boggs is a knuckleballer, threw 16 knuckleballs out of 17 total pitches in his 1 inning of work, never knew that.

[youngerthree]

could be difficult to throw on a consistent basis

[tbonmusikman]

When the knuckleball is good it's devestating, however when it's bad it's also devestating and it's bad much more often than it is good.

[canon714]

Seems to me that when Wakefield is off that Knuckleball gets rocked. I always looked at it as a high risk high reward tool.

I have to agree with you 100%. When the knuckleball is off it is like batting practice.

[iceminers26]

When the knuckleball is good it's devestating, however when it's bad it's also devestating and it's bad much more often than it is good.

tough to play totals when a knuckleballer is involved.

[LLXC]

Hard to command.

[70kgman]

Most people don't know that Wake was drafted as a first baseman. He didn't even want to become a pitcher, his minor league coach said he wanted him to try pitching when he was putting up atrocious numbers offensively, Wake said "no", so the coach said "either you pitch or you're released." lol

[dynamite140]

That pitch is the funniest pitch ever.