R.A. Dickey looked like a guy that would never make it. Not only would there be no glory, there wouldn't even be consistent work for him at the big league level. He started out as a "regular" pitcher, but in 2005 it appeared like his career was about over. He lost velocity, hitting 86-88 mph just wasn't enough with his fastball, so Orel Hershiser suggested he try a knuckleball. That change took a while, it always does as it can take years to harness the pitch, but eventually Dickey learned to control the knuckler and his career took off. 

THE MINORS

Career (1997-2010): 79-71, 4.25 ERA, 1.39 WHIP, 5.9 K/9 over 1,283 innings. 

THE MAJORS

2001-09: 22-28, 5.43 ERA, 1.57 WHIP, 5.51 K/9, 3.60 BB/9, 1.53 K/BB over 442.2 innings

2010: His first year in New York in his breakout season. R.A. went 11-9 with a 2.84 ERA and 1.19 WHIP over 174.1 innings. Only struck out 5.37 batters per nine but cut the walk rate all the way down to 2.17 per nine.

2011: Went 8-13 with a 3.28 ERA and 1.23 WHIP in his first 200-inning season. His K/9 rate was 5.78 but he once again kept down his walk rate at 2.33 per nine. 

2012: Had his best season on his way to winning the Cy Young award. Dickey won 20 games, had a 2.73 ERA, 1.05 WHIP and struck out 230 batters in 233.2 innings. A simply phenomenal campaign.

2013: His first year with the Blue Jays resulted in a 14-13 record and 4.21 ERA. He struck out 177 batters over 224.2 innings with a 1.24 WHIP. 

2014: His second year with the Blue Jays resulted in a 14-13 record with a 3.71 ERA. He struck out 173 batters in 215.2 innings with a 1.23 WHIP.

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THE SKILLS

Dickey throws his knuckle way harder than most.

Tim Wakefield threw his knuckler about 65-66 mph.
Tom Candiotti threw it between 55-75 but loved it at 66 mph.
Hoyt Wilhelm, Charlie Hough, Phil Niekro all sat in the 60's.

Dickey throws his knuckleball at 75.7 mph. Year after year the mark is over 75 (each year since 2010). Not only does he throw it harder than anyone else before him, he throws it nearly as hard as his fastball which he's thrown at 81.9 mph the last two seasons. Oh, Dickey also throws the knuckler 86 percent of the time the last three years (Wakefield was at 84 percent for his career).  The harder he has thrown it, the more success Dickey's had. Period. He also varies the speed a bit more than others who throw the pitch whereas many others threw the pitch at a slower, more consistent speed. Here's a chart from Fangraphs that charts the differences in speed on the pitch.

It should be noted that the knuckler Dickey throws doesn't move quite as much as Wakefields - blame the velocity - but the extra velocity appears to help with the location of the pitch, a huge key as knucklers often struggle to throw strikes at times. That's not the case with Dickey. More on that in a moment.

Some knuckler notes. Since 2008...

Dickey has held batters to a .238/.289/.373 slash line on the pitch.
For his career Felix Hernandez is at .239/.295/.350. 
Seriously.

Batters have hit a line drive off the knuckle ball 18.9 percent of the time with a 47 percent ground ball rate and 34 percent fly ball rate. The big league average in  2014 was 21/35/44. Should point out one level of concern. Dickey had a ground ball rate of 46+ percent each year from 2008-2012. The last two years the number has dipped to 40 and 42 percent. 
 
The HR/F ratio on the knuckle ball is 10.0 percent for Dickey's career. That's the league average.

The BABIP on the knuckler is .275, a bit lower than the .290-.300 mark that is the norm. His BABIP, on all pitches, has been between .263 and .278 for five years, a remarkable run of consistency. 

Dickey's swinging strike percentage on the pitch is 10.7 percent.  The average is about 9.5 percent.

Face it folks, the knuckle is average or better pretty much across the board. 

Let's pull back to the normal mode of analysis.

Dickey has thrown at least 200-innings each of the past four seasons, and each of the last three he's thrown at least 215 innings. Only he and James Shields are part of that club.

Dickey has struck out at least seven batters per nine innings in each of the past three seasons. Because of all the innings that means he's posted at least 170 strikeouts each of those seasons. He is one of only 14 pitchers to hit that mark each of those seasons. 

Dickey has walked 2.83 batters per nine over the course of his career, and the last five years the mark has been 3.09 or lower. The mark has inched up the last two years - 2.84 and 3.09 - and that's a slight concern. Still, his K/BB ratio the last two years has been 2.49 and 2.34, and that's passable. 

Because of all the innings he throws, Dickey wins games, at least 14 each of the past three seasons. Only six men have done that: Adam Wainwright, Zack Greinke, Lance Lynn, Max Scherzer, Clayton Kershaw and Dickey. His total of 48 victories in that time is tied for the 5th most in baseball. 

What about his ratios? I noted how he doesn't get hit too hard and that he doesn't issue a tremendous amount of free passes. The results is a WHIP that has been under 1.25 in each of the past five seasons. Moreover, the last three years his WHIP (1.17) is better than that of the likes of Mat Latos (1.18), Yu Darvish (1.20), James Shields (1.20) and Jon Lester (1.26) just to name a few. As for his ERA it's 3.54 the last three seasons, four tenths of a run below the league average. It's also a better mark than Lester (3.61), Jeff Samardzija (3.70) and Yovani Gallardo (3.77) to name a trio.

CONCLUSION

Dickey is 40 years old and he's not getting better. He's also walked a few more batters than normal the past few seasons and allowed a few less grounders that we're used to. That's the down. The upside list is a bit longer. He's less likely to get hurt throwing the knuckler. Oh, and since he has no UCL he'll never need Tommy John surgery. He throws tons of innings which allows him to rack up wins and strikeouts. He's also unlikely to harm you in the ratio categories. There aren't any more Cy Young awards in his future, but that doesn't mean he can't be a useful fantasy hurler in 2015 as he was in 2014.

10 team lg: No one will even be thinking about drafting him. You should. The wins and strikeouts give him value and he's likely got enough left to post ratios that aren't going to harm you in a shallow league like this. 

12 team lg: An SP6 type who may not even cost you that much. Chasing the pot at the end of the rainbow is the move most make. Dickey is a nice support option for guys like Cliff Lee or Andrew Cashner, guys with more talent who will be rightly drafted earlier, but guys that possess health concerns. 

15 team lg: Dare I say he's a target here? In a league this deep people will be scrambling to add the like of Daniel Norris, Kevin Gausman and Carlos Rodon. Not going to argue that the guys don't all possess way more talent than Dickey but the fact is what are the odds any of them match the three year of Dickey? Get my drift here?

AL-only: Consistently solid innings without name recognition. Who doesn't like that? Not sexy in the least, and that will cause him to fall much further than he should.