Why are Groundballs So Important?

I've been reading recently about the significance of a pitcher's ability to induce groundballs. Most pitchers in the Major League's who feature an above average sinking fastball (think Brandon Webb, Derek Lowe, and Chien Ming Wang) are extremely valued for their ability to induce hitters into producing groundballs. During my days in the Arizona Diamondbacks' organization, they would even keep stat of every pitcher in the organization's ratio of groundballs to flyballs. But why exactly did they care and what exactly is good ratio anyways?

As mentioned in my last blog, the best pitchers in the game are able to get outs within the strike zone, and the groundball inducing sinker is one of the best ways to do that. Imagine how much easier it would be to get hitters out by simply throwing your fastball and letting hitters just beat it into the ground. Pitchers who are able to get hitters to swing early in the count and also hit groundballs (that generally result in outs) are usually able to keep their pitch counts lower and therefore, pitch much later into the game. Plus, to quote Bull Durham, "Don't try to strike everybody out. Strikeouts are boring! Besides that, they're fascist. Throw some ground balls - it's more democratic." By throwing groundballs, he means "get outs in the strikezone by throwing your sinker and letting them ground out!" (to paraphrase).

The second reason groundballs are important is because they can help save a pitcher's pitch-count by getting him out of innings with groundball double plays. A pitcher who produces a lot of groundballs is always 'one pitche away' from getting out of an inning even with the bases loaded and 1 out.

Thirdly, a pitcher who can keep the ball on the ground is much less likely to give up homeruns (especially when the bases are loaded). Of course, a sinker ball pitcher needs to keep the ball down in the zone to be effective. Even a sinker will get hit out of the yard if its up in a hitter's wheel house.

This isn't to say a groundball pitcher can't strike people out. On Fangraphs.com, Dave Campbell referenced a start by Brandon Webb in September 2005 where 26 of his 28 outs where either groundballs or strikeouts.

So what is a good ratio of groundballs to flyballs? Typically, the benchmark is 1 to 1. That is to say, for every groundball you induce you give up one fly ball. When the ratio begins to tilt towards more groundballs to flyballs (1.3 to 1 for example) that begins to look very favorable for the pitcher. A ratio of 2 to 1 would be Brandon Webb status. (Webb's actual ratio is 1.89 to 1, but you get the idea - Derek Lowe's almost as good at 1.75 to 1. On the contrary, Livan Hernandez only got groundballs 45% of the time for a ratio of about .85 to 1)

So there you have it - groundballs keep a pitchers pitch count down, get the pitcher out of jam, and prevents home runs. Now all you have to do is develop a sinker. (We'll talk about that in a new blog).

But not in the next post - Stay stuned for the next BIG LEAGUE BREAKDOWN - this one will feature Derek Lowe. Look for it this weekend.