Who's your best Knuckleball Pitcher?

[TribeFanInNC]

Originally Posted by kingcharlesxii

In the OTBA, Richard Stinson is a 43 year old who is only now just slowing down. He might not get to 400 wins but we've learned not to bet against him.

Player Report for #3 Richard 'Barney' Stinson

The scary thing is how good he was at age 41.

Epic!!!

[CobaltJays]

This knuckleballer had the best peak of any pitcher in my game. I even renamed the Pitcher of the Year Award after him once he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. It's just unfortunate that injuries derailed his career in his mid-30's.

[Bluenoser]

Flash forward 6 years and Lester is still going strong.

13 wins shy of 300, less than 250 K's to reach 4000.

Still rated as 70 overall (20/80). I suspect #300 will happen this coming season and #4000 early next unless he can match last years K total, which is possible.

He's 34, so I'm hoping he can reach 350 W's, which would be 78 more than the next highest.

An iron man too, has missed a total of 67 days to injury in his career, with the longest stretch being 4 weeks.
_

[NoOne]

the velocity rating a pitcher has isn't necessarily how fast he throws any single pitch - except a four seam fastball. i think some earlier posts had some misplaced angst

[canadiancreed]

Had this guy in the TCBA. We'll see if he comes back after a broken elbow.

Player Report for #19 Wil Chunn

[Doc_Brown]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

Flash forward 6 years and Lester is still going strong.

13 wins shy of 300, less than 250 K's to reach 4000.

Still rated as 70 overall (20/80). I suspect #300 will happen this coming season and #4000 early next unless he can match last years K total, which is possible.

He's 34, so I'm hoping he can reach 350 W's, which would be 78 more than the next highest.

An iron man too, has missed a total of 67 days to injury in his career, with the longest stretch being 4 weeks.
_

Is it a game you created/downloaded? If you D/L it can you point me to the link. Thanks.

[Bluenoser]

Originally Posted by Doc_Brown

Is it a game you created/downloaded? If you D/L it can you point me to the link. Thanks.

It's just a fictional league I created and player generated by game. He was part of the 2007 draft class. 12th over all pick.

[Bluenoser]

Originally Posted by canadiancreed

Had this guy in the TCBA. We'll see if he comes back after a broken elbow.

Player Report for #19 Wil Chunn

Nice - let us know how he does if/when he comes back please.

[Friendly_Beaver]

Originally Posted by NoOne

the velocity rating a pitcher has isn't necessarily how fast he throws any single pitch - except a four seam fastball. i think some earlier posts had some misplaced angst

Yeah I know that now, thought it would mean the top velocity they throw one of their pitches, but this does make a lot more sense.

[canadiancreed]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

Nice - let us know how he does if/when he comes back please.

WIll do. Personally I'm hoping he bombs (because he's my primary competition....and I hate losing pitchers that demanded stupid money, wont talk to me, then sign for a fair amount less), but I'm pretty sure he'll be one of the better pitchers of our dead ball era.

[Bluenoser]

Aug 2nd

300 Victories for Memphis's Lester Brown: It was a great day for Lester Brown today at Memphis Stadium -- he picked up victory number 300 to join the great pitchers of the past in the exclusive 300 Club. The Memphis ace stopped the Boston Brawlers 8-3, yielding 6 hits and recording 11 strikeouts and 1 walk in his milestone game.

"300 wins puts you in some pretty good company," Brown told reporters. "I'm honored to be there."

Brown has a career 300-151 mark with a 2.67 ERA. He has fanned 3950 batters, issued 910 walks, pitched 4189.1 innings and limited the opposition to a .216 batting average.

[Cryomaniac]

Originally Posted by nightfly

I believe Yanks is right, and the speed rating would be the speed a pitcher would throw his fastball - those pitchers who don't actually have one won't throw their other pitches at quite that speed.

My own knuckleballer (a lefty!) could throw his about 70; ironically his changeup was his fastest pitch, about 75. I couldn't care less - he was one of the all-time greats of our league: 5 Cy Youngs, 8 other top-3 finishes, had one of the best post-40 seasons of all-time, threw three no-hitters (including at 44 and 197 days - the oldest pitcher to ever do it - and it was a Maddux), and finished second all-time to Nolan Ryan in career strikeouts.



That age-41 season? He threw 16 complete games and 11 shutouts. It was ridiculous.

Is it really a changeup if it's your fastest pitch?

[Pdubya64]

We asked Markus about pitches in OOTP a few years back. I am paraphrasing here, but essentially the game (at the time) did not really handle different pitches the way they are in the major leagues. Things are simplified in the game and if memory serves, that is why the example pitcher's knuckleball was 96 or whatever. It is based off a fastball being the primary pitch used in baseball, or something to that effect. I don't believe that has changed, but Markus is the only one who knows for sure.

I don't recall if Markus ever said he was looking at more detailed/realistic pitching as a future component of the game. My hunch is no, as other than the wonky stats about speed and one or two others that escape me atm, it works right now in the greater scheme of OOTP, so a lot of work for... what exactly?

One of those "things" you just have to overlook. Cool to see Knuckleballers can succeed at OOTP though, thanks OP.

[Bluenoser]

It's 2026 and Lester is still going strong.

350 Wins for Mad Dogs Brown: What would you do after you had just won your 350th game? Run around Memphis Stadium doing cartwheels, jumping for joy and waving to the crowd? Well, maybe you and I would do that, but not Lester Brown -- that's not his way.

After he notched number 350, the 37-year-old Memphis hurler spoke to the press like he always has -- in a soft, quiet voice. He wasn't doing any cartwheels or even anything resembling a jump for joy. "Obviously it feels very good," Brown commented. "To win this many games, you've got to have a lot of help."

Brown got his milestone victory by beating the Jacksonville Cranes 2-1. He held them to 6 hits in 8.1 innings and rung up 6 strikeouts with 5 walks.

After sharing his thoughts with the press, he went to the clubhouse. There he was greeted by the guys who had helped him get #350. His teammates showered him with champagne and then gave him a rousing round of applause. That got to him -- for the first time today, Brown's face broke into a big smile.

Since coming into the league, Brown has a 350-177 mark and a 2.72 ERA. The 37-year-old hurler also has struck out 4683 batters in 4915 innings and permitted 3982 hits.

[Nunyer]

I've never managed to have a decent knuckleballer... Although I can't say I've ever gone out of my way to draft / develop one either. In an old league that I think I started on OOTP12... and that is either long lost or has long since been banished to a USB stick in my junk drawer... I did have a back of the rotation knuckleballer during some lean years.

About the only thing I remember about him was years after he had left my team, he was the only OOTP pitcher I can ever recall seeing retire with 300+ losses when using standard modern day settings. I think his career record was 210-305 or something like that... with an ERA well north of 4.00... When I noticed him on the "recently retired" list, I couldn't believe he had still been getting rotation gigs in to his mid 40s. Over the ~80 year history of that league, he was first in career losses by roughly 100... and first in career IP by roughly two gazillion. Memories can get fuzzy, so if I stumble across a backup of that league, I'll see if I can resurrect it just to check if his numbers were as bad as I remember.

But now that I read about some of these success stories in this thread... I might just keep my eye open and try to find a gem. I think it would be pretty cool to ride a knuckleballer for 275 innings a year for 25 years.

[Bluenoser]

Amazing career. He's 41 closing on 42, so likely his last season (contract expires).

Memphis Over Birmingham 4-1, 400th Win for Brown: Memphis ace Lester Brown solidified his place in league history with his 400th career victory today at Barracudas Ballpark. Brown and the Mad Dogs bested Birmingham 4-1. He checked the Barracudas on 3 hits in 8 innings and finished the day with 2 strikeouts and 2 walks.

"I've worked hard for this day," Brown said. "Sometimes I didn't think it would happen. Most of the time it seemed so far off. Now it's here. It's like a dream!"

So far in his career, Brown has collected 400 wins and 222 losses and has recorded an ERA of 2.86 and struck out 5284 batters while pitching 5810.1 innings.

_