A groundball pitcher is a pitcher that relies on getting hitters to hit into ground outs instead of flyballs or strikeouts.
Most groundball pitchers rely heavily pitches with good downward movement (sink), such as the sinker, the two-seam fastball, and the splitter/forkball. These pitches are used to 'jam' hitters, causing them to hit the ball into the ground, and to an infielder. As a result, many groundball pitchers have a very high groundout to flyout ratio (GO-AO), and a high number of double plays turned.
Currently active and successful groundball pitchers include perennial GO-AO league leaders Roy Halladay and Chien-Ming Wang, as well as Cleveland's Fausto Carmona and Jake Westbrook, the Dodgers' Derek Lowe and Brad Penny, the Cubs' Carlos Zambrano, and Arizona's Brandon Webb, all of whom are noted for their devastating breaking balls.
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