A split-finger fastball or splitter is a pitch in baseball derived from the forkball. It is named after the technique of putting the index and middle finger on different sides of the ball, or "splitting" them. When thrown hard, it appears to be a fastball to the batter, but appears to the batter and observers to suddenly "drop off the table" towards home plate—that is, it appears to suddenly move downwards, towards the batter's knees. Despite the use of the word fastball, it is used as an off-speed pitch.
The split-finger grip is similar to the forkball grip, but the forkball is pushed further back between the fingers and is usually thrown with a wrist flip that makes it slower than the splitter. The split-finger is often recommended as an alternative to breaking pitches to young players because of its simplicity and the significantly reduced risk of injury.
As it is an off-speed pitch, the splitter is generally thrown slower than a pitcher's fastball. According to PITCHf/x, the average four-seam fastball from a right-handed pitcher in 2010 was 92 mph, while the average splitter was 85 mph and the average changeup 83 mph.
The motion of a split-finger pitch is similar to the outlawed spitball and at one time the pitch was known as the "dry spitter." When thrown, the pitcher must emphasize the downward pull of the pitch at the end of his motion. Thrusting the hand and forearm downward is what causes the reduced backspin relative to a fastball, and thus the appearance of "drop off the table" movement from the pitch. The split-finger fastball is a very effective pitch with runners on base. A common tactic is using the split-finger to cause the batter to hit into a double play. When thrown correctly, the split-finger's apparent last second drop causes many batters to hit the top half of the baseball therefore inducing a ground ball.
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This article uses material from the Wikipedia articles "Baseball" and "Split-finger fastball", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.
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