Baseball has spent the last decade getting faster, sharper, meaner, and more specialized. Every bullpen has a guy who looks like he was built in a lab to throw 100 mph for one inning and make hitters question their life choices. That part isn’t new anymore. We’re past the point where triple digits alone makes everyone stop what they’re doing.

But Jacob Misiorowski is different.

This isn’t some max-effort closer emptying the tank for three batters in the ninth inning. This is a 24-year-old, 6-foot-7starter for the Milwaukee Brewers, throwing 100-plus over and over and over again, then still reaching back for 103 late in the game like he forgot he was supposed to be tired.

That’s the part that makes this feel so ridiculous. It’s not just the radar gun. It’s the volume. It’s the shape. It’s the body. It’s the way the whole thing looks like it shouldn’t be possible, and he just keeps doing it.

Against the Padres on Wednesday, Misiorowski threw seven scoreless innings, struck out 10, walked nobody, and fired a ridiculous 49 pitches at 100 mph or harder, which turned out to be the most ever tracked in a single MLB game. He also had a 97-mile-an-hour slider thrown in this one, because apparently just being over 95 with just his fastball wasn’t enough. His final pitch of the seventh inning was a 103.2 mph fastball for strike three. It was his 93rd pitch of the night...

And somehow, that came after another completely absurd outing against the Yankees, where he threw 41 pitches at 100 mph or higher and hit 103-plus 10 different times. Not over a month-long stretch. Not spread out over a season. Back-to-back starts.

Come on. That's not fair. 

This Is More Than Just A Hot Arm

The easy version of Misiorowski’s story is that he throws ridiculously hard. And yeah, obviously, that’s true. But just calling him a hard thrower almost feels lazy at this point.

Baseball has a lot of guys touching 100 now. Most of them are relievers throwing 12 pitches and heading back to the dugout. What Misiorowski is doing as a starter is different. He’s not just reaching back for triple digits in the first inning before settling into normal-human velocity later in the game. He’s still throwing 100 deep into starts. That completely changes the feel of an at-bat. Hitters don’t get the comfort of thinking, “alright, maybe the velocity drops a little as this goes on.” With him, it really doesn't.

And the size makes it even nastier. At 6'7" with a 7'6" release point, the ball gets on hitters absurdly fast because of the extension and release point. That means the ball is literally just 53 feet away from the hitter as he's letting go.

Aaron Judge even talked about how it feels like the ball is basically being released on top of you. A normal 100 mph fastball is hard enough to deal with. One coming from a guy built like this is just unfair.

Then you get to the slider, and the whole thing starts sounding fake again. The pitch can sit in the mid-90s, which is hilarious when you really think about it. There are starters around the league grinding every offseason trying to get their fastball to 94 or 95. Misiorowski is throwing a breaking ball there.

That’s why the ceiling gets so ridiculous so quickly.

If he was just a young flamethrower spraying the ball everywhere, this would still be entertaining, but it’d feel more like “future closer with electric stuff” than true ace conversation. Instead, he’s already showing he can miss bats, work through lineups, and dominate games while still figuring parts of this thing out in real time.

The Debut Wasn’t A Fluke

What Misiorowski is doing now feels crazy, but it didn’t exactly come out of nowhere.

His debut stretch last season almost sounded fake when you read it back. He threw five hitless innings against the Cardinals in his first start, then took a perfect game into the seventh against the Twins in his second. His first 11 innings in the majors were hitless, which became the longest streak by a starting pitcher in the Modern Era.

Not a bad way to introduce yourself.

The full rookie season still had some normal young-pitcher bumps. He finished with a 4.36 ERA over 66 innings, but the flashes were impossible to ignore. He made the All-Star team after just five starts, beat Paul Skenes head-to-head, beat Clayton Kershaw later in the year, and then gave Milwaukee meaningful postseason innings.

That’s not a normal rookie season.

Now, in 2026, it feels like those flashes are starting to turn into something real. Through nine starts, Misiorowski owns a 2.12 ERA with 80 strikeouts in 51 innings while holding hitters to a .162 average.

The Brewers came into the year needing their young arms to grow up fast. Misiorowski has done more than that.

The Body Still Has To Catch Up To The Stuff

The only thing slowing him down right now isn’t hitters. It’s the physical toll of doing something this violent every fifth day.

Misiorowski has already had two starts cut short because of leg cramping, including the Padres game when he wanted to go back out for the eighth. That’s worth paying attention to. Guys just aren’t built to throw this hard for this long without their body fighting back a little.

But even that comes with context. Brewers pitching coach Chris Hook compared him to an engine that runs really hot, and honestly, that feels perfect. Misiorowski is learning how to hold elite velocity deeper into games than he ever has before.

That doesn’t mean there’s no risk here. Any young pitcher throwing this hard is going to carry injury questions. That’s just reality. But it also feels more like part of the learning curve than some giant red flag right now.

Milwaukee has something real here. Something weird. Something loud. Something that makes the sport feel a little more alive every fifth day.

And if Jacob Misiorowski is only scratching the surface, good luck to everybody else.

All stats courtesy of MLB.com.

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