Jeff Hanisch-IMages
Jacob Misiorowski didn’t simply flummox the Cardinals. Certain, when the 23-year-old right-hander made his huge league debut in entrance of 26,687 very pumped Milwaukee followers final Thursday night time, he confounded the St. Louis lineup till a leg cramp and a frivolously rolled ankle ended his night after 5 no-hit innings. However he additionally baffled Statcast. “Sinker,” learn the graphic on the backside of the display screen when Misiorowski rocketed a 100-mph four-seamer into the underside of the zone for the primary pitch of the sport. His changeup usually went down as a sinker, his curveball went down as a cutter, and his slider was generally categorized as a cutter and generally as a four-seamer.
The classifications had been working completely by the top of the sport, however even early on, you’ll be able to’t actually blame Statcast right here. For one factor, it didn’t have a baseline expectation to work from as a result of this was Misiorowski’s debut. For one more, all of those pitches actually did appear like fastballs. I don’t simply imply that in a jokey manner. I imply it very, very actually. Practically each pitch Misiorowski throws actually does appear like a fastball; I used to be planning on writing about it earlier than I even discovered concerning the Statcast facet of issues. “That’s how I throw,” he stated after the sport. “Each pitch is making an attempt to throw 100%.”
Earlier than we get get into the specifics, we must also cease and handle the truth that though Misiorowski is named the Miz, it’s not too late to alter his nickname to Le Mis (and even Les Mis, when you don’t thoughts some gentle noun-pronoun disagreement). You must admit that watching Misiorowski pouring in 103 mph fastballs with this as his warm-up music would ship shivers of worry down the spines of opposing leadoff batters:
Look down, opposing batters. If you end up standing within the batter’s field, you could certainly be standing in your grave. Misiorowski’s secondaries have the very same traits, the identical velocity and motion profiles, of precise fastballs thrown in latest seasons by main league pitchers. It’s not simply that he throws his slider so arduous that it seems to be like a fastball. It’s that his slider strikes precisely just like the four-seam fastball that Garrett Richards threw 1,236 instances in 2021.
On Thursday night time, Misiorowski’s slider averaged 94.5 mph, with 7.6 inches of induced vertical break and an inch of horizontal break to his glove facet. It’s what you would possibly name a bullet slider. In 2021, Richards’ four-seamer averaged 94.3 mph, 8.6 inches of induced vertical break, and 1.3 inches of glove-side break. The 2 pitches had the very same spin orientation and share of lively spin. Inform me these aren’t the identical precise pitch:
So once I say that Misiorowski’s slider might be a fastball, I’m not taking liberties. No marvel Statcast defaulted to a fastball. You could possibly argue that it wasn’t even mistaken. It was actually Richards’ 2021 fastball, and in that season, its velocity was nicely above common. That stated, opponents slashed .309/.392/.487 towards it, so hopefully it really works higher as a secondary providing.
Eric Longenhagen captured slow-motion video of Misiorowski’s mechanics and pitch grips. The slider actually does come out of his hand like a slider. You possibly can see his hand get across the baseball. However he additionally throws it arduous, has quite a lot of pure rise, and imparts quite a lot of gyro spin. (Sooner or later, we’ll additionally want to speak about the best way Misiorowski’s head whack sends his hat bouncing round on his head.)
Misiorowski’s changeup isn’t in Eric’s video, nevertheless it seems to be much more like a fastball than the slider. On Thursday night time, it averaged 91.5 mph, 8.5 inches of IVB, and 19.4 inches of arm-side run. Based on Baseball Savant, 12 totally different pitchers have thrown a sinker that averaged inside one inch or mile per hour of all three of these numbers. Twelve! Brad Peacock really appeared on that listing in each 2017 and 2019:
Peacock’s Sinker and Misiorowski’s Change
Participant
Pitch
Velocity
IVB
HB
Brad Peacock
Sinker
91.8
18.9
8.8
Jacob Misiorowski
Changeup
91.5
19.4
8.5
SOURCE: Baseball Savant
Over these two seasons, Peacock’s sinker was inside three-tenths of a mile an hour, half an inch of IVB, and three-tenths of an inch of horizontal break of Misiorowski’s changeup. Not solely that, however the sinker was an excellent pitch for Peacock! Opponents batted simply .231 towards it, and it ran a 55% groundball price. Anyway, that wonderful Peacock fastball is now Misiorowski’s changeup:
Final up, now we have Misiorowski’s curveball. On Thursday night time, it averaged 87.9 mph, 9.1 inches of induced drop, and 5.7 inches of glove-side motion, and, nicely, you’ve received me there. No one throws a fastball, or perhaps a minimize fastball, that drops and strikes to the glove facet that a lot. However I’ve to inform you, solely three gamers have ever thrown a curveball with a median velocity that prime: Joe Kelly at 89.4 mph in 2023, Louis Varland this season at 88.4, and Alex Lange in 2024 at 88.1. PitchingBot presently has an ideal 80 on Misiorowski’s curveball, and Stuff+ sees it because the fourth-best curve within the sport. So whether or not or not you’ll be able to persuade anyone that it’s a cutter, it’s awfully quick and it seems to be awfully good.
Earlier than I go away you, I ought to confess that, as you would possibly anticipate when a younger pitcher has major-league-debut adrenaline coursing by means of their veins, Misiorowski’s velocity was a bit larger than regular on Thursday night time. “I felt amped up,” he advised reporters, and all of his pitches had been a tick more durable on common than what he averaged at Triple-A earlier than his call-up. However the reality is, I might have simply run the identical train utilizing his Triple-A numbers. Misiorowski has fuel to spare. Even when his slider averaged simply 93.3 mph, because it has throughout 156 tracked pitches in Triple-A this season, that might make it the quickest slider of your entire pitch monitoring period. You could possibly in all probability run this similar train with Edward Cabrera’s changeup or the well-known Jacob deGrom slider of outdated, however deGrom is credited with 318 profession fastballs above 100 mph over his complete profession. Between the minors and the majors, Misiorowski is already at 82 this 12 months, and we’re barely a 3rd of the best way by means of the season.
So when you’re unfortunate sufficient to look down and end up standing within the batter’s field towards Le Mis, you need to in all probability gear up for the fastball. Even when you’re mistaken, you could be proper.
