Tigers' catcher has an incredible knuckleball — could he become a pitcher?
Tigers' catcher has an incredible knuckleball — could he become a pitcher? originally appeared on The Sporting News . Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
MLB is better when there are knuckleball pitchers, but right now, that's pretty much a lost art.
Well, except for Detroit Tigers catcher Jake Rogers .
Rogers obviously doesn't pitch regularly, but he does take the mound when the Tigers are getting clobbered.
And when he does that, he throws a legitimately impressive knuckleball:
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The 31-year old Rogers is a career .199 hitter. He's regarded as a solid defensive catcher, but he's a career-long backup.
It'd be a bold move to abandon catching, and there's no sense that he's actually going to do so.
But could he pull it off?
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Rogers has made six MLB pitching appearances and has a 4.76 ERA in 5.2 innings. He doesn't just throw knuckleballs in those outings, so that's not totally indicative of what he could be like -- and it's clearly a small sample size in weird game scenarios of blowouts.
It'd be a big commitment and change for Rogers to decide he was going to become a knuckleball pitcher.
But for baseball fans, it'd be fun. Rogers should do it for the rest of us.
