that Hamels is the "best lefthander in the National League ... you have to respect his fastball, and his change-up is devastating. If you're guessing fastball and you get change-up, you're way out in front of it. His change-up is a soft sinker that just falls down." Aside from the changeup, he throws a four-seam fastball in the low 90s (can reach ), a cutter , and an "inconsistent" curveball that sometimes loops and other times is sharp, and hovers in the mid-70s (around ). Prior to the conception and advent of his cutter, he briefly threw a two-seam fastball around 2008 and 2009, before debuting his cutter in 2010. Once he attained a "feel" for how to effectively utilize his cutter, it helped him increase his groundball rate (percentage of balls in play that were groundballs), to over 50 percent in 2011. Personal life Family Hamels, who is of Dutch descent, is the oldest of three children. He grew up in San Diego, where his parents still live. Hamels and his wife, Heidi Strobel, whom he married on December 31, 2006, continued to raise their children in Philadelphia. Strobel was born in Buffalo, Missouri, and grew up there with her parents and her two younger sisters. As a child, she used to sell chicken eggs and publish her own neighborhood newspaper. After high school, she attended Drury University in Springfield, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in exercise physiology, secondary education, and physical education. Strobel was a contestant on the sixth season of the reality show Survivor. They have four children together; two biological sons, an adopted daughter from Ethiopia, and another daughter. The family was living in a Newtown Square home that they built in 2014, but they put it up for sale in 2021. They own a home in Southlake, Texas. The family built a home in Branson, Missouri, where Strobel was raised, but instead chose to relocate to Texas, and they then donated the home to Camp Barnabas, a camp for children with special needs. The Hamels Foundation Hamels created and currently runs an organization known as The Hamels Foundation with his wife, Heidi. The foundation was created in 2009. The Hamels Foundation funds childhood programs in Philadelphia and Africa. In 2017, Hamels and his wife donated their Missouri mansion, valued at an estimated $10 million, to Camp Barnabas, a Christian charity that runs