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we got a knuckleballer
Posted: January 14 10, 7:22 pm
by Jocephus
Cardinals signed RHP Charlie Zink to a minor league contract.
Zink, 30, was in the Red Sox organization for close to eight years and was once regarded as a top prospect, but he's made just one major league appearance thus far. The knuckleballer went 6-15 with a 5.59 ERA last season at Triple-A Pawtcuket and struggled mightily with his control.
Re: we got a knuckleballer
Posted: January 14 10, 10:04 pm
by sighyoung
I've been drooling over the prospect of getting Charlie Zink since . . . well . . . o.k., I'm just drooling.
Re: we got a knuckleballer
Posted: January 14 10, 10:05 pm
by sighyoung
The nice thing about inking Zink is it will lead to more Dr. Seuss-style poetry on GatewayRedbirds.com.
Re: we got a knuckleballer
Posted: January 15 10, 12:02 am
by Jmodene
I can already hear Chris Berman calling him Charlie "Kitchen" Zink.
FWIW, while the article only points out his poor 2009 season, they don't mention that in 2008, also pitching for Pawtucket, Zink went 14-6 with a 2.84 ERA and only 49 walks in 174 1/3 IP. He's been pitching professionally since 2001.
Of course, the big question is whether Yadi can catch the knuckler.
Who was our last knuckleball pitcher? Barney Schultz?
Re: we got a knuckleballer
Posted: January 15 10, 8:40 am
by phins
That is not what I expected when I clicked on this thread...
Re: we got a knuckleballer
Posted: January 15 10, 9:49 am
by doe_boy
Jmodene wrote:I can already hear Chris Berman calling him Charlie "Kitchen" Zink.
Didn't know Berman grew up in Dutchtown.
Re: we got a knuckleballer
Posted: January 15 10, 10:00 am
by InvincibleCakeEater
Probably just signed him to help Franklin with his out pitch.
Re: we got a knuckleballer
Posted: January 15 10, 10:13 am
by JL21
I know it's nothing significant but I like the move a lot. Knuckleballers take forever to "develop" if you can even call it that. He's at the age where if something is going to click, it'll click now. It's a cheap little scratch-off ticket that could pay off huge if something starts to work for the guy. Worst case, he's another corpse you can throw into the pile of Boggs/Garcia/whatever depth they may need to support the potential for Carp/Penny/Lohse/Wainwright missing time.
Re: we got a knuckleballer
Posted: January 15 10, 11:27 am
by phins
JL21 wrote:I know it's nothing significant but I like the move a lot. Knuckleballers take forever to "develop" if you can even call it that. He's at the age where if something is going to click, it'll click now. It's a cheap little scratch-off ticket that could pay off huge if something starts to work for the guy. Worst case, he's another corpse you can throw into the pile of Boggs/Garcia/whatever depth they may need to support the potential for Carp/Penny/Lohse/Wainwright missing time.
True. Plus, with a knuckleballer, they can throw forever, so his age really isn't a big issue. Dude will probably be nothing but filler, but he could be more than that based on his past success.
Re: we got a knuckleballer
Posted: January 15 10, 12:30 pm
by jim
Knuckleballers bring so much baggage with them that they have to be really good to justify them. You can run on them so easily and the number of induced passed balls and wild pitches it all starts to add up bad things pretty quickly.
I caught one bona find knuckleballer in my life and it sucked. Your release time is so messed up because you can't get your feet moving like you need to. I was a solid 1.9 to second base and I'll bet it dropped to 2.2 or thereabouts with that guy throwing.