Hitting The Cutoff Man

On Wednesday night, the Mets beat the Tigers 5-0 behind the latest knuckleball gem from one Robert Alan Dickey -- also known as "R.A."

Dickey, one of the few knuckleballers around and the only player named R.A. in baseball, gave up four hits in eight shutout innings to improve to 6-0 with a 2.33 ERA since coming up from Triple-A in mid-May. The 'Resident Assistant' also is quickly lifting his name up the pantheon of the initialed in baseball history.

Excluding a handful of players who appeared briefly around the turn of the 20th Century, there have been 48 big leaguers whose first name consisted of initials. Very few of of those have been impact players.

Here is your career leaderboard for wins above replacement level (WAR) among this group.
1. JD Drew (1998-present): 46.1
2. CC Sabathia (2001-present): 38.6
3. BJ Surhoff (1987-2005): 34.4
4. JR Richard (1971-80): 22.4
5. AJ Burnett (1999-present): 21.4

Dickey is now at 2.7, with 1.4 this season, having allowed two earned runs or fewer in five of his seven starts despite missing an elbow ligament.

With his recent performance, Dickey does vault himself onto the all-time initialed team.

SP: CC Sabathia, JR Richard, AJ Burnett, CJ Wilson, JA Happ
RP: BJ Ryan, JP Howell, JC Romero, JJ Putz, RA Dickey, TJ Matthews, CJ Nitkowski, DJ Carrasco
C: AJ Pierzynski, AJ Hinch (player-manager)
IF: JT Snow, JJ Hardy, BJ Surhoff, DT Cromer, JJ Furmaniak
OF: JD Drew, BJ Upton, RJ Reynolds, FP Santangelo, JT Bruett


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