Sidearm (baseball)

[1] As the game progressed towards professionalism and became more serious, pitchers began to attempt to prevent the batter from hitting the ball by throwing faster pitches.

Sidearm pitchers whose deliveries are below the horizontal throw a fastball that rotates nearly forward, so the ball will sink rather than rise.

Other prominent major leaguer sidewinders include, or have included, Madison Bumgarner, Chris Sale, Jimmy Herget, Scott Feldman, Pat Neshek, Scott Sauerbeck, Dennis Eckersley, Mark Eichhorn, Javier López, Jake Peavy, Vinnie Pestano, Ted Abernathy, Gene Garber, Dave Baldwin, Bob Locker, and Kent Tekulve.

Still others such as Jered Weaver, Bronson Arroyo, David Cone, and Tom Henke would sometimes "drop down" to a sidearm delivery to fool a batter for a strikeout.

It is most common to hear that sidearm pitching places less stress on the elbow and shoulder, thus reducing a pitcher's risk of injury.

Rich Gannon, Michael Vick, Philip Rivers, Aaron Rodgers, Matthew Stafford, Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson are notable sidearm quarterbacks.