Many thought the knuckleball ERA in Major League Baseball had come to an end, but the New York Mets’ RA Dickey has done his part in changing skeptics’ minds this season.

Dickey moved to 9-1 on the season in a win over the Nationals on Thursday in which he went 7 1/3 innings and struck out eight batters.  He now has 78 Ks (sixth in NL) to go along with a 1.08 WHIP and a 2.44 ERA on the season.

As ESPN.com’s Tristan H. Cockcroft pointed out in a recent article “coming into his latest outing, Dickey was already on the roll with 38 K's in his past four starts combined, 34 of those on the knuckleball. He limited opponents to .184/.217/.299 triple-slash rates with his knuckler in those four games, generating misses on 34 percent of swings.”

Since 2009, all major league pitchers have afforded .253/.297/.398 rates and a 21 percent swing-and-miss rate on knuckleballs (Dickey threw 47 percent of the total).

FANTSAY SLANT: Dickey has become a must-start option in all formats right now as opposing batters continue to try to figure him out. The fact he’s able to land the knuckleballs in the strike zone is making him one of the toughest pitchers in baseball to hit right now.  You would expect his value to be at an all-time high right now which may make it a good time to shop him. However, his rate of return will likely not be as high as his numbers indicate so owners may be part off to simply ride out the streak.

Fantasy Baseball, MLB new york mets, r.a. dickey