How Matt Waldron Saved a Dead Pitch

The knuckleball, once a rare but effective pitch, had nearly vanished from baseball. Pitchers like Tim Wakefield and R.A. Dickey found success with it, but it fell out of favor in the modern, velocity-focused game. Matt Waldron of the Padres revived the knuckleball, transforming his struggling career. Initially, he faced challenges, but by 2024, increased use and mechanical adjustments helped him become a top pitcher. Waldron's success shows the knuckleball's potential, marking a surprising resurgence for the pitch and his career.

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Scriptwriter and Clips:
Chris Greve

Animations and Voiceover:
Matt Greve

#knuckleball #padres #mattwaldron

[bghyst]

The knuckleball doesn’t go “extinct” just dormant. There’s always a lull between great knuckleballers: Wakefield ‘92-11 was preceded by Niekro ‘64-‘87 who took over from Wilhelm ‘52-‘72 who followed Cicotte ‘05-‘20.

[jonvia]

Tim Wakefield was so fun to watch because of his knuckleball, and thats coming from a Guardians fan. MLB needs more knuckleballers! It makes the game way more exciting and the pitch, when thrown right, challenges even the top hitters of the league.

[chrisc]

wakefield and dickey were both amazing. glad someones keeping the pitch alive.

[post-leftluddite]

That wakefield knuckleball at 1:16 is crazy

[huguesdorban]

This video has convinced me as a little leaguer to try and learn it I’ll maybe report back in like a month

[CameronBrown-phdo]

Tim wakefeild once said someone else would discover the kunckle.

[patrickomalley]

As a catcher for my time playing baseball from 8-20 yrs old, I taught my 7+ year old son how to throw the knuckleball to keep him and his arm away from the curve. He threw his first no-hitter at 9 yrs old in the Orlando FL little league tournament, at that age the kids dint know what to do with it. The use of the K-ball continued through travel ball, High School and summer leagues leading to scholarship offers. As a HS senior he beat, in the state semi-finals, the undefeated #1 team in the state, with 5 draftees, with ease once the plate umpire figured out what he was throwing in the first inning ( no runs allowed). In his junior and senior year he always faced, what MBL called " the Dark Knight" to very close games, the only player that could hit him was his travel team catcher ( who was the Gatorade state player of the year) because he knew the drop, and movement, as a catcher.

[therealrickytan]

i was very weary with Waldron at the start of the season... he had ALOT of traffic on his bases, and often times very early in the game. Always in a jam. I'm very glad to see that he has turned into one of, if not, all things considered, our best pitcher in the rotation. Nobody in baseball can replicate what he does. Bravo, Matty Nuckles.

[freehat]

Always loved throwing the knuckle ball, hardly used it in games but was fun to mess with some people with

[CoyoteBongwater]

Very cool video. I havent watched baseball in years but I'm watching again because of this dude.

[TipToeVertigo]

Wish the knuckleball was more prevalent. I got tendinitis at 12 from over pitching and throwing curves too early, so the knuckleball became my go to and by 16 I had it down perfect. Damn I miss the days of little league and travel ball

[matthewthompson]

6:22 the field is playing deep, but with the exit velo on his knuckles, they need to play shallow.

[BlueRidgeKites]

Waldron is the best pitcher on the Padres, crazy

[nixn]

Just picked him up in fantasy, on the day you dropped this. Subbed.

[TurdFergusson]

It’s not that teams don’t like knucklers. It’s really that catching for them is challenging and goes against everything they are trained to do and a pro catcher.

[NorthSDsurfer]

I've been watching him intently. The mixing in of the fastball and the slurve/sweeper is pretty devastating. He's become my favorite padres starter LFGSD!!!

[m.o.]

This is the way. A knuckleball as a secondary pitch makes its control and movement issues non-existent. Its the same as a pitcher with not really good control of his slider, curve or other third or fourth pitch

[Lotus_jacobaeus]

The "wind currents" aren't what gives it that type of movement. It's the pressure.

[heyheyhey]

It would be interesting to see how many knuckleballers there are throughout MiLB. I hear about all these different knuckleball training camps, so people are still trying to learn it. Is there a general threshold to how high up the Minor League ladder that they top out at?

[AjisterKraken]

I love the knuckleball but I don’t know how to do it. My friend goes ahead and tries to pitch it and becomes absolutely wild.