You Probably Can't Handle Dmitri Young's Splitter

It looks like Ichiro Suzuki isn't the only hitter who might have aspirations of trying out this whole pitching thing later in his career: the Washington Post's Dan Steinberg witnessed Dmitri Young showing off his arm while playing catch with Robert Fick earlier this week. From the Sports Bog:

Robert Fick can chat amiably with reporters while playing catch with Dmitri Young, who was throwing his split-fingered pitch, which looks like a knuckleball and was repeatedly handcuffing Fick, who then challenged Fredberg beat guy Todd Jacobson that he couldn't catch the Dmitri pitch with $100 on the line. [Note to MLB moralists: he was joking. No bet was made.]

Jacobson, for the record, is a former WaPo colleague and, before that, a catcher at Seneca Valley high. Plus his dad used to throw him a knuckleball. He was not cowed by Fick's challenge.

"I can catch it," he said.

Jacobson stood behind Fick to get a better look at the pitch. Brian Schneider walked by. Fick challenged Schneider to catch Young. Schneider declined.

"See that?" Fick said. "That's our catcher saying 'I'm good'."

Honestly, Young would have been the last guy on the Nats that I would have figured had a good pitching arm -- I mean, with a nickname like "Da Meat Hook," you wouldn't expect handling the ball would be his forte. He does have one thing going for him, though: he certainly has a relief pitcher's physique.