A groundball pitcher, sometimes referred to as "wormkillers" for the number of balls that hit the dirt and "kill worms" 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. Examples include Brandon Webb, Tim Hudson, Derek Lowe, Aaron Cook, Nick Blackburn and Chien-Ming Wang.
Famous quotes containing the word pitcher:
“Indolence is heaven’s ally here,
And energy the child of hell:
The Good Man pouring from his pitcher clear
But brims the poisoned well.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)