So what is the strategy with knucklers?

[KleShreen]

I've now played about 40 innings against R.A. Dickey on either HOF or Legend and I've gotten a total of 7 hits with a pretty good lineup. I use default hitting, so I'm not using zone or anything. It just seems like I can never get good contact. Everything is popped up or lazy grounders, even if it is right in the middle of the plate. Of course, on Legend, every one of Dickey's knucklers is right on the black, anyway. It seems like he never throws anything but a strike. Is there some kind of strategy against him? Swing only when they're low in the zone? Nothing I have tried seems to work.

[KBLover]

Re: So what is the strategy with knucklers?

The only thing I can do is tell myself "If I'm late, I'm on time". I.e. If I feel like I'm swinging way too late, I'm probably on the mark.

For knucklers, I try to ignore all the movement until I'm ready to swing (seemingly late), and have no expectations of movement. Not like a curve or such where you can predict to a degree the movement. Knuckleballs are "see and react at the moment" pitches to me.

I'll probably use a contact swing unless it looks fat (since knuckleballs have random-ish movement at random-ish times on the way to the plate). This way, if it darts out of the zone or out of MY zone then I can try to check swing and contact is more likely to succeed with that. If the hitter has power, he can still drive it on contact swings as well.

Of course, I can only imagine Dickey on Legend. A knuckleballer with Greg Maddux command is unfair.

That said, knuckleballs are annoying to hit. But I love the pitch

[NEOPARADIGM]

Re: So what is the strategy with knucklers?

The cliche is "If it's high let it fly, if it's low let it go."

Other than that, like irl, you just kinda gotta get lucky and hope the knuckler isn't dancing around and comes in flat. In that sense it's a lot like reading any other pitch: gotta watch for mistake locations and take advantage. Easier said than done but there's no secret to it that I'm aware of.

[RogueHominid]

Re: So what is the strategy with knucklers?

I beat the living piss out of Dickey in 2 appearances in the WS, and my strategy was exactly as Neoparadigm and KBLover outlined: I made sure I waited a little longer to start my swing than I would for a slow changeup, and I made sure I only swung at balls that were up.

[BENVCR]

Re: So what is the strategy with knucklers?

With Zone and on Legend, I find my best bet is to just pick a quadrant and wait for one. They might catch you looking on a few cheeky fastballs but you will eventually get something hit table.

Chasing a knuckler is usually bad