Hawks pitcher hopes to be ahead with the curve

Robert Whitenack can name just one player in major league baseball from a Division III college: New York Mets pitcher Billy Wagner.

Whitenack, who joined the Boise Hawks on Saturday, hopes to one day join the short list of players with that distinction. He was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the eighth round of this month's draft after pitching three years at Division III SUNY-Old Westbury.

Whitenack, who is expected to make his pro debut Wednesday at Salem-Keizer, might be from a small school but he brings a big weapon with him as he begins his professional career: a knuckle curveball.

"One of my dad's friends threw it in college, and he showed it to me," said Whitenack, who carries just 185 pounds on his 6-foot-5 frame. "I've been throwing it ever since. It gets better and better every year and the scouts loved it. I'm staying with it."

The pitch is fairly unusual, but not unheard of. Major leaguers Mike Mussina, Cliff Lee and A.J. Burnett all use a version of the pitch. But Whitenack said his grip is unusual.

"Mike Mussina throws a knuckle curve, but he throws it with one finger," Whitenack said. "I don't know anybody who throws it with two fingers like I do."

A traditional knuckleball isn't thrown with a lot of velocity, but Whitenack said he delivers his knuckle curve with a decent amount of speed.

"I actually throw it pretty hard. It's been clocked at 81, 82 miles per hour," said Whitenack, adding that his fastball has been clocked at 93 to 94 mph.

Whitenack said he enjoyed confounding batters - and even umpires - with his unorthodox pitch in college. He said NCAA baseballs have bigger seams than the balls used in the pros, and that made his pitch move even more.

"It would really break," he said. "Sometimes it was unfair. I've fooled umpires, who would tell my catcher, 'Tell Whitey I missed that call.' "

Hawks pitching coach David Rosario said Whitenack will have every opportunity to show that he can be successful using the pitch with the Hawks. Rosario has only seen Whitenack throw his knuckle curve in a practice session.

"It looked pretty decent," Rosario said. "It's all about control now. We'll see in the next couple of days how it looks in a real game."

Rosario said that Whitenack will be allowed to throw the pitches he's comfortable with for the first couple of weeks.

"I don't think it would be fair to start changing (pitches) before we've even seen them in a game," he said.

Whitenack knew after two years of college that he could beat Division III batters, but he learned at a summer league in Hawaii last year he could also be successful against top-level batters.

"There were a lot of big-time college players there," Whitenack said. "I was a little nervous because I had never faced anybody like that."

Turns out there was little reason for the nerves. When all was said and done, he was named the league's top prospect.

"After that, I knew I could get Division I prospects out, too," he said.