Bryan Holaday, Knuckleballer?

[DrungoHazewood]

I was just perusing the old Fangraphs, looking to see if anyone had thrown a knuckleball in 2020.  Last year there were a handful of guys who threw a few flutterballs, but I knew Steven Wright was out with an injury. 

According to the pitch type listings the only people who've thrown the pitch this year are position players: Erik Kratz, Todd Frazier, and Holaday.  But it's so few pitches, and players who don't normally pitch, I don't know if it wasn't just a mis-categorization of a batting practice curveball or something.

Does anyone remember Holaday's stint on the mound on August 14th?  I certainly wasn't watching the end of a 15-3 blowout loss.  The only clue in the game thread was @SteveA commenting that "Holaday bringing it at 73 MPH".

If we could get confirmation that he threw a knuckler, that might be the first one by an Oriole pitcher since Dan Boone in 1990, although Fangraphs says Ryan Flaherty may have also thrown a few knucklers in a pitching appearance in '16.  But again we'd need confirmation that it wasn't just a 71 mph junkball that the trackers didn't know what to do with.

[GuidoSarducci]

From I recall, didn't seem like a knuckleball so much as an eephus pitch.

[Can_of_corn]

Eddie Gamboa did make the majors with the Rays in 2016 and Baseball Reference has him wearing an O's hat.  Does that count?

[Philip]

Hey, it worked for Givens.

[DrungoHazewood]

12 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

Eddie Gamboa did make the majors with the Rays in 2016 and Baseball Reference has him wearing an O's hat.  Does that count?

No.

[bobmc]

15 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

I was just perusing the old Fangraphs, looking to see if anyone had thrown a knuckleball in 2020.  Last year there were a handful of guys who threw a few flutterballs, but I knew Steven Wright was out with an injury. 

According to the pitch type listings the only people who've thrown the pitch this year are position players: Erik Kratz, Todd Frazier, and Holaday.  But it's so few pitches, and players who don't normally pitch, I don't know if it wasn't just a mis-categorization of a batting practice curveball or something.

Does anyone remember Holaday's stint on the mound on August 14th?  I certainly wasn't watching the end of a 15-3 blowout loss.  The only clue in the game thread was @SteveA commenting that "Holaday bringing it at 73 MPH".

If we could get confirmation that he threw a knuckler, that might be the first one by an Oriole pitcher since Dan Boone in 1990, although Fangraphs says Ryan Flaherty may have also thrown a few knucklers in a pitching appearance in '16.  But again we'd need confirmation that it wasn't just a 71 mph junkball that the trackers didn't know what to do with.

I went back and watched Holaday's outing on 8/14 and yes Ben McDonald called two of his pitches knucklers.  His first was clocked at 69 mph and Ben said "he was pushing it up there".  The last out was on a knuckler.