This year the Rays, a small-market franchise that can’t spend lavishly on power hitters, bunted 134 times — more than any team in a decade — en route to the best record in the American League.
asserted
that → spend → League
“It’s about continuing to understand what influences winning,” Rays front-office man Erik Neander explained: Bunts have become so rare in the “Moneyball” age that opposing fielders don’t know how to handle them.
asserted
fielders → ’ → them
Given the Rays’ success with an old-school tactic, what’s on deck as baseball’s next big comeback?
asserted
what → give → comeback
My money’s on the knuckleball — the sport’s most storied pitch.
asserted
money → ’ → knuckleball
In an era where conventional pitchers chase more and more velocity and higher spin rates, the knuckleball travels slowly and — this is the key — hardly rotates.
asserted
this → chase → velocity
That makes it dart around chaotically for reasons baseball’s best scientists can’t quite explain.
asserted
scientists → make → reasons
Any attempt to understand it is almost pointless,” said Barton Smith, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Utah State University — the guy who may know more about why pitches move than anyone on Earth.
uncertain
pitches → understand → Earth
Yet the knuckleball has all but disappeared from MLB.
asserted
knuckleball → disappear → MLB
Don’t blame sabermetrics, said Christopher Long, a Rutgers-trained mathematician who worked for a number of MLB teams after “Moneyball,” Michael Lewis’ 2003 book on statistics-driven management, upended the game.
asserted
Moneyball → blame → game
“My job was all about getting an edge.
asserted
job → get → edge
Identifying better players, cheaper players or younger players,” he told me.
asserted
he → identify → me
“I was dead certain that one way to get an advantage was to build a pipeline of knuckleball pitchers.”
asserted
way → get → pitchers
Long knew that slow-throwing knuckleballers can pitch as much as they want, and that great ones like Phil Niekro and Hoyt Wilhelm won hundreds of games while competing into their late 40s.
asserted
ones → know → 40s
He assumed it would be easy to develop new knuckleballers.
asserted
it → assume → knuckleballers
“A conventional major league pitcher needs a really hard fastball, plus multiple other pitches with different kinds of spin.
asserted
pitcher → need → spin
He must be able to hit different spots around the strike zone.
asserted
He → hit → zone
That’s a tall order,” he said.
asserted
he → ’ → ?
“A knuckleballer throws the same pitch the same way to the same spot every time.
asserted
knuckleballer → throw → spot
It seems a much smaller ask.”
It wasn’t: Turns out the knuckleball is just too hard to control, and if you throw one that spins, the batter sends it into orbit.
asserted
batter → seem → orbit
And retraining a conventional pro pitcher to throw strikes without spin is a large ask indeed.
asserted
retraining → retrain → spin
High-tech pitch-design labs — which teach pitchers nasty new innovations like the sweeper and the kick-change — haven’t been able to create a knuckleballer, either.
asserted
which → teach → knuckleballer
Wilhelm may have known the secret.
uncertain
Wilhelm → know → secret
The Hall of Famer once advised his White Sox teammate Wilbur Wood, who was struggling as fastball-curveball pitcher, “Don’t try throwing the knuckleball now unless you threw it as a kid.”
asserted
you → advise → kid
Unlike the bunt, the knuckleball takes years to truly master.
asserted
knuckleball → take → years
“There are so many throws and so many tweaks you have to make,” said Tom Candiotti, who won 151 MLB games with the knuckleball he learned at the age of 10.
asserted
he → be → 10
“And even if you find someone with a real good one, when he gets on a mound, with a batter and an umpire and 50,000 fans, that knuckleball can turn into a spinner real quick.”
asserted
knuckleball → find → spinner
As Eddie Gamboa, whose MLB knuckleball career lasted 13 innings for the Rays in 2016, put it, “The knuckleball is the crazy ex-girlfriend who makes you pull your hair out.”
asserted
you → last → hair
But teams are taking chances on knuckleballers they find in the wild.
asserted
they → take → wild
In 2023, the Twins gave UConn pitcher Devin Kirby-Williams a shot — though he’d thrown only three knucks in college.
asserted
he → give → college
He’s bouncing around the minors hoping for his big break.
asserted
He → bounce → break
In 2025 the Detroit Tigers signed Kenny Serwa after his knuckleball video went viral.
asserted
video → sign → Serwa
This summer, when the Padres cut Matt Waldron, MLB’s only knuckleballer, he caught on with the Blue Jays and then the Nationals.
asserted
he → cut → Jays
So the knuck’s not dead yet.
asserted
knuck → ’ → ?
And odds are the moneyballers who brought back the bunt will go to bat for it.
asserted
who → bring → it
The Aporia
