Brian Wilson is throwing a knuckleball now, because of course he is By Mike Oz | Big League Stew -- 1 hour ago (Dodgers Nation) If you were to pose the question, "which MLB pitcher would randomly starting throwing a knuckleball eight years into his career," Brian Wilson would have to be one of the top five answers on the board, right? Wilson is an odd cat, one of baseball's funkiest pitchers, so uncorking baseball's funkiest pitch seems fitting. He did it Tuesday, throwing a strike on the first pitch to Brad Miller of the Seattle Mariners: Wilson was the starting pitcher in Tuesday's game for the Los Angeles Dodgers. That's something he's never done in his entire regular season career, but it's spring training, so what the heck? Maybe this was just an attempt by Wilson to get on SportsCenter or do something weird because he himself was in a weird situation as a starter. But maybe not. Maybe he's going to start throwing the occasional knuckler. It was a nice pitch, across the plate for a strike. And as the Dodger Insider blog reminds us, there was video last season of Wilson "messing around" with a knuckleball during warm-ups. Because having a big ol' weird beard wasn't enough, right? Mike Oz is an editor for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz __
I love the good ol' wonky knuckleball. Just don't throw it to Crawford during BP.. he might kill himself trying to hit the ball. Actually, go ahead and throw the pitch to him on every AB
here it is... http://m.mlb.com/video/v31432301/sealad-wilson-uncorks-a-firstpitch-knuckleball/?team_id=119
Odd that he is getting shit for this. I have no idea why. People add and subtract pitches everyday. If the addition gives him one more weapon that does not tax his arm and throws off batters, how is that bad?
Anyone else it would be, "Oh look he tried out a knuckleball". Brian Wilson does it, "What a crazy motherfucker".
As long as it's an effective pitch for him. Now that he has lost velocity he's going to need to keep hitters off balance. If he sees that guys are on top of him, he can at least use it as a show pitch.
It's hard to separate the crazy label from Wilson. Afterall, he's the only person this side of the 80's who thinks a mohawk is cool, he puts shoe polish in his beard, and judging by his eyes I suspect he doubles his Ritalin dose from time to time... whether he's throwing a knuckleball or taking a dump it's hard to not think "What a crazy motherfucker". That said, the ex gnat is growing on me.
