The second and third greatest knuckleball pitchers of all time?

[Balticfox]

Originally Posted by steve B

I'm not sure how the others were teamwise, but Wakefield was very different.

Signed an auto renewing one year contract that was a decent deal for both him and the team. Only modified at his request after a bad season - he requested the yearly pay be decreased since he felt his age and abilities were not as valuable.

At least one time had good stats until a week where neither the starters of relievers were doing well. Asked to eat up innings on minimal rest so the relievers could rest even if it went badly and wrecked his stats he agreed and took a pretty bad beating for all nine innings. And just said it was what the bullpen needed so he was happy to help.

Now that's a player who merits the full respect of every true baseball fan! Tim Wakefield certainly gets mine.

Wakefield's best year may have been in 1995 which was fairly early in his career. In that year he pitched 195 1/3 innings in 27 starts for the Boston Red Sox with 6 complete games. He posted an ERA of only 2.95 while pitching an average of almost 7 1/3 innings per appearance! It was in 2005 though at the age of 38 that he logged the most work pitching a total of 225 1/3 innings in 33 starts which was just over 6 2/3 innings per start with a respectable ERA of 4.15.