33-year old knuckleballer Mickey Jannis

[Tony-OH]

4 hours ago, MurphDogg said:

He has only been a full-time knuckleball pitcher since 2015. He has had success at AA in 2017, 2018, and 2019, with ERAs of 3.60, 3.60 and 3.10. Knocked around in his 4 AAA appearances though. Seems like a fun guy to have in camp and I would rather have him filling the 5th spot in the Norfolk rotation than someone like Eshelman or LeBlanc.

Jannis is not a new knuckleball pitcher and he has been absolutely murdered by AAA hitters in 4 starts and while he's been good, it's not like he's been dominant against AA hitters (4.02 ERA and 1.36 WHIP) in 517.2 IP. He's a knucklballer so you just never know, but he's a guy that did not garner an official spring training invite last year or this year. 

He'll probably start the year in Norfolk's rotation with Baumann, Lowther, Wells, and Smith though Zimmermann could be there as well if he doesn't win an Orioles rotation spot. 

This whole things reminds me of spring training fluff more than an actual under the radar break out guy, but that's what spring training is ultimately for and he can prove it there.

[LookinUp]

9 hours ago, Aristotelian said:

Cool. Between him and Valdez we have a shot at the lowest team average velocity in MLB. I would not be surprised if he and Valdez are 1-2 in MLB if they both make it.

Jannis, Valdez, Means, Felix and Harvey to start out. Means might look like Nolan Ryan out there.

[MurphDogg]

10 hours ago, Tony-OH said:

He'll probably start the year in Norfolk's rotation with Baumann, Lowther, Wells, and Smith though Zimmermann could be there as well if he doesn't win an Orioles rotation spot. 

Smith isn't on the spring training roster so he seems ticketed for AA.

[Tony-OH]

1 hour ago, MurphDogg said:

Smith isn't on the spring training roster so he seems ticketed for AA.

Good catch, we can take him out of that running then. Still, Jannis appears ticketed to AAA this year unless something new has happened with that knuckleball and it's improved greatly.

[DrungoHazewood]

On 2/14/2021 at 2:23 PM, Frobby said:

“Mickey Jannis will be competing for a spot in the Orioles rotation this spring, and that’s encouraging news for knuckleball fanatics. The 33-year-old right-hander is one of the few purveyors of that particular craft currently active in pro ball, and while the odds aren’t in his favor… well, you just never know. Hoyt Wilhelm turned 30 a few months into his rookie season, then went on to pitch for two decades and get inducted into the Hall of Fame. Those lofty heights are almost certainly beyond Jannis’s reach, but the opportunity to pitch in the big leagues isn’t.”

“I’m really looking forward to seeing him in camp,” Baltimore GM Mike Elias said when I asked about Jannis’s chances. “Mike Snyder, our pro scouting director, has been a big fan of his. I think it will be great for the major league staff to get to see him, because we do think he’s interesting. As we saw last year with with César Valdez, there are guys with neat stories that figure out how to be successful in the major leagues, and we’re hopeful that [Jannis] can be one of them. He’s got a real shot.”

“Valdez made nine relief appearances for the Orioles last year at age 35, throwing his changeup an almost-unfathomable 83.2% of this time. It’s by no means unreasonable to believe that Jannis — a veteran of 10 minor-league seasons — could do much the same with a knuckleball. There may not be any Hoyt Wilhelm in Jannis’s future, but if the butterfly is floating this spring, there could very well be some César Valdez.”

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/sunday-notes-jonathan-schoop-needs-a-better-two-strike-approach-maybe/

That's awesome.  Jannis has immediately become my favorite Oriole.  I need to look it up, but I wonder when he converted to knuckeballing?  His numbers don't look like a knuckleballer.  Not enough walks.  Although his recent AAA numbers look like somebody who temporarily lost the feel for the pitch and was basically lobbing up 58 mph change ups.

Edit: Apparently he switched in 2012 after being released by the Rays.  I missed his brief stint with the Blue Crabs in 2014, probably got some tutoring from fellow knuckleballer Joe Gannon.

[BRobinsonfan]

On 2/14/2021 at 9:14 PM, Explosivo said:

Here’s a cool story. I called up mlb radio on xm and talked about the kid you are referencing. They were intrigued and next week, they called him up and gave him an interview. Zack is a cool guy. He posted on a message board a long time ago and we interacted. He ended up sending me a signed ball and T-shirt his friends made for him. The “no spin zone”.

Kid?  Unless you're my age he's practically an old man by baseball standards.   That's a neat story though.  I'd like to see him succeed.  

[DrungoHazewood]

55 minutes ago, BRobinsonfan said:

Kid?  Unless you're my age he's practically an old man by baseball standards.   That's a neat story though.  I'd like to see him succeed.  

By knuckleballer standards he's barely mid-career.  It's hard to find a decent knuckleballer who didn't pitch into his 40s.

[BRobinsonfan]

11 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

By knuckleballer standards he's barely mid-career.  It's hard to find a decent knuckleballer who didn't pitch into his 40s.

Agreed, but I would add the caveat that its hard to find a decent knuckleballer. 

 

[DrungoHazewood]

1 hour ago, BRobinsonfan said:

Agreed, but I would add the caveat that its hard to find a decent knuckleballer.

Nobody who even has the slightest delusion about using their god-given stuff to make the majors wants to try the knuckleball in a game.  So the microscopic pool of knuckleball pitchers is a subset of guys with 4.88 ERAs in the Carolina League (sorry, AA Ball Southeast Division) at the age of 25.

As many of you know I spend too much of my time thinking about alternate ways the world could have evolved.   I sometimes wonder:

a) What the world would be like if baseball hadn't all of a sudden decided (circa 1960) that knuckleball pitchers have to throw the knuckleball all the time.  Prior to that lots of pitchers would mix in a knuckler like a slider or a change up.  The Senators had a team in the 40s where pretty much everyone in the rotation threw a knuckler at least some of the time.

b) What would happen if you took a group of reasonably good MLB prospects in 2021 and had them all spend six months learning to throw a knuckler.  Nobody is ever going to risk their prospects doing this, but it would be very interesting.  At least to me.

b2) Maybe you could get some crazed independent Atlantic League GM to try this.  If I get unexpectedly rich I'm buying the SoMd Blue Crabs and giving them an all-knuckleball staff.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

If Jannis makes the team, I'll be disappointed if I don't hear this music piping from the speakers at OPACY. 

 

[SteveA]

16 minutes ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

If Jannis makes the team, I'll be disappointed if I don't hear this music piping from the speakers at OPACY. 

 

I can't remember, did we play it for Tettleton?

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

27 minutes ago, SteveA said:

I can't remember, did we play it for Tettleton?

I don’t remember, but I’m leaning towards no. I don’t think walk up music was even a thing in MLB when Tettleton played for the Orioles. Plus he only played as an Oriole at bare bones, no frills Memorial Stadium.

[Legend_Of_Joey]

On 2/15/2021 at 9:28 AM, Tony-OH said:

Good catch, we can take him out of that running then. Still, Jannis appears ticketed to AAA this year unless something new has happened with that knuckleball and it's improved greatly.

I wonder how the MLB ball reacts vs the MiLB ones, mainly due to the seam difference? That could help or harm him more. 

[Can_of_corn]

6 minutes ago, Legend_Of_Joey said:

I wonder how the MLB ball reacts vs the MiLB ones, mainly due to the seam difference? That could help or harm him more. 

Seams are lower so I think it would harm.

[Legend_Of_Joey]

17 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

Seams are lower so I think it would harm.

True, but the leather is also different and they are wound up differently (usually a little looser.)