Jack Stern

Image courtesy of © Katie Stratman-Imagn Images Major League Baseball released its latest All-Star balloting update on Monday afternoon. Brice Turang is the closest to representing the Brewers in Philadelphia next month, but he remains roughly 63,000 votes behind Phillies second baseman Bryson Stott for second place. To advance to the next phase of voting, Turang must bridge that gap to land within the top two spots at his position. Turang deserves to play in the Midsummer Classic for his performance on the whole this year. He leads qualified second basemen with a 132 wRC+, and his 2.9 bWAR ranks second. However, he hasn’t been in his All-Star form for several weeks. It’s been an especially rough go lately. Since June 5, Turang is hitting .225/.267/.437 for a .703 OPS. During that time, he’s struck out in 35.2% of his plate appearances, while walking at just a 5.6% clip. “I think he's going through a little lull,” Pat Murphy said in the visiting manager’s office in Cincinnati earlier this week. “I think he'll self-correct.” Since a red-hot start to his season, Turang’s bat has cooled considerably. After posting a 160 wRC+ in April, he slipped to 105 in May and 124 in June. His strikeouts have steadily increased throughout. The good news is that even the slumping version of Turang has still been a solid hitter, particularly for someone still playing strong defense at the keystone. “There's a few exceptions, but he figures it out for a hit for one at-bat,” Murphy said. “Well, not figures it out, but he's good enough to still produce, and his lulls are not that low. That's a sign of a really good player.” During the club’s last homestand, Murphy explained that Turang was struggling with his timing because he was drifting forward off his back leg, rather than staying back and working behind the baseball with his swing. “He understands his swing, and he understands what he's doing right now that's holding him back a little bit. We talked about it in the dugout yesterday,” Murphy said at the time. “He totally understands what he's doing when he gets in these modes where he drifts forward and gets to his front, he can't stay behind the ball.” When a hitter drifts forward, velocity gets on them quicker. Turang has always let the ball get deep, which means he swings later at fastballs, but it has progressed to the point where he’s too late too often. That lateness means that even when he lines the ball up and makes contact, it's weaker than it should be, because the ball sails a hair deeper before his bat can get to it, so he catches it off the end. Overcompensating for that can also result in pulling off the ball, with the same result. “You're going forward, ball's coming, it makes sense,” Murphy said. “So then you start cheating to it, and then what happens? Then you come off the ball. So there's all sorts of ramifications of it.” The issue has been most pronounced against left-handed pitchers. Turang has kept his head above water against right-handers, but the quality of his at-bats has fallen off badly against southpaws. According to Statcast, he was late on 30% of his swings against left-handed fastballs in May. That’s up to 58% in June. Month wRC+ (RHP) wRC+ (LHP) DRC+ (RHP) DRC+ (LHP) April 185 98 150 110 May 140 14 123 89 June 170 -20 102 51 Murphy wanted to give Turang, who has played in 73 of the team’s 77 games and experienced a slight decrease in bat speed, more days off to work through the issue, away from the pressure of a game setting. That may be more plausible now that Cooper Pratt is in the fold as the everyday shortstop. On June 14, two days after Pratt’s promotion, Turang was out of the lineup for the first time since May 3. In eight games since then, he’s hit .303/.343/.455 while making more loud contact, but he’s remained too late on velocity and continued striking out 37.1% of the time. The good news is that Turang and the Brewers have already diagnosed the problem, and it’s a fairly simple fix. Nothing is wrong with his swing path, which is nearly identical to when he was crushing the ball in April. That doesn’t necessarily make applying the adjustment easier, though. “It's easy to talk about. ‘Well, just change it.’ But it's hard to do when the action’s on and you've repeated it,” Murphy said. Fortunately, Jackson Chourio and Jake Bauers have alleviated the pressure on Turang to be the linchpin of the lineup. Those hitters will fall into their own ebbs. At that point, it could again be Turang’s turn to carry more weight in the middle of the order. In the meantime, his timing and contact rate are worth monitoring. “If he stays behind the ball, things are a lot different for him,” Murphy said. “The swing is just beautiful. I mean, it's what you dream about.” View full article

Image courtesy of © Katie Stratman-Imagn Images After departing his last start for the Brewers on April 30 with his fastballs averaging 85.4 miles per hour, Brandon Woodruff faced another round of questions regarding his future—not just about his health, but what kind of pitcher he would be when he was ready to return to a big-league mound. The first question faded away once imaging revealed that Woodruff avoided a serious injury. However, he and the Brewers played things slowly with his recovery, and there were hints along the way that he was preparing to adapt, if necessary, to changes in his stuff. In his first rehab start in the Arizona Complex League on June 9, Woodruff used his arsenal differently and tested a lower arm slot, which seemed to affect the movement of his fastballs. In his first start off the injured list in Cincinnati on Monday night, he took a step toward putting those concerns to rest. Woodruff tossed six shutout innings with 10 strikeouts and did not allow his lone baserunner until a sixth-inning single. More importantly, in nearly every process-based sense—velocity, movement, and control—he was in his usual post-surgery form. That was the version that pitched to a 3.20 ERA, 2.20 xERA, and 3.17 FIP last season. “He looked like Big Woo,” said Joey Ortiz, who broke a scoreless tie in the 10th inning with a sacrifice fly in an eventual 2-1 Milwaukee win. “He attacks the zone, attacks hitters, and he gets outs.” “Nobody’s shocked,” manager Pat Murphy said. “Just because that’s ‘Woo,’ and he takes his craft seriously.” It was an inauspicious start. Woodruff’s four-seam fastball averaged just 89.5 mph in his first inning, while his two-seamer averaged 90.5. He fell behind 3-0 to the first two hitters he faced. He was battling his mechanics and said he briefly considered pitching from the stretch with the bases empty to make his delivery more direct down the mound to home plate. “To be honest, it took me a couple of innings to find it there,” Woodruff said. The control improved, though, and so did the velocity. In the third inning, Woodruff started averaging over 92 mph, maxing out at 94.9 mph in the sixth. By the end of the night, his overall average fastball velocity of 91.9 was barely below his season average of 92.2. His stuff was moving like it always had, if not slightly better. After his four-seamer had less backspin carry in that ACL start, it averaged 18 inches of induced vertical break, matching his season average. “I’ve always been a slow starter, but in the past, before surgery, it’s more of the 93, 94, and then it goes up. Now, it’s a little less than that, and that’s okay,” he said. “I just try to put the ball in good spots, and the hitter tells me everything.” The hitters were telling Woodruff to keep doing what he did before his hiatus: pound the strike zone with fastballs. As he did last season, he leaned heavily on his four-seamer and two-seamer, throwing one or the other for 61 of his 79 pitches. He expanded above the strike zone in putaway counts, but otherwise threw many of those fastballs right over the heart of the plate. “He commands the baseball, and he challenges them to hit his heater,” Murphy said. The Reds, like most teams facing the good version of Woodruff, were often late and underneath the heaters. They whiffed on 24.2% of swings against the four-seamer and two-seamer. There was some hard contact early, but five of the eight balls in play against those fastballs were hit with a launch angle above 30°, so they were hit high enough to be routine flyouts. “If I’m seeing guys, if they’re late, whether it’s 90, 91, it still plays, and I try to treat it that way,” Woodruff said. Now he faces the challenge of staying healthy for a prolonged stretch, which will take the rest of the season to prove. But for now, the fact that Woodruff still looks like himself is a positive development for him and the Brewers. Not only does it reinstate a stabilizing force near the back of the rotation, but it could also bolster the bullpen by sending Shane Drohan, Robert Gasser, or eventually Coleman Crow—each of whom has flashed abilities to be capable starting pitchers—back to multi-inning relief roles. “I’m really proud of him and what he did for the club,” Murphy said. “Because the leadership he shows doing that, it’s pretty special.” View full article

Image courtesy of © Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images It's best to keep expectations for Cooper Pratt in his debut season a bit muted. That's not a knock on his abilities or physical ceiling, but a reminder that a player's development is rarely complete when he reaches the big leagues. There's maturation—both physical and mental—that can only take place at the game's highest level. That's especially true for Pratt, who is just 21 years old and playing in his third full professional season. It might be tempting to think that as one of the Brewers' top prospects (including Brewer Fanatic's No. 4), Pratt could transform the left side of the infield from anemic to dynamic by replacing Luis Rengifo and Joey Ortiz. In reality, the left side will probably remain the weakest portion of the lineup. Pratt helps by raising the floor there. He can be a well-below-average hitter and still exceed the combined 58 wRC+ of Rengifo and Ortiz. He'll be a better defensive shortstop than David Hamilton, and Hamilton and Ortiz will field better at third base than Rengifo. "The pieces fit easily," Pat Murphy said ahead of Pratt's debut on Tuesday, also noting that the realigned infield would allow for more days off for Brice Turang, who has appeared in 67 of Milwaukee's first 71 games. Murphy similarly sees Pratt's impact this year as more about floor than ceiling. He has a solid foundation as a player that will make the Brewers better right now. Murphy praised his defense and baseball IQ in spring training, and has done so again multiple times in the two days since Pratt's promotion. However, the whole coaching staff knows they won't see the best version of him until later, after continued development at the big-league level. "He's not going to come into his power until later on in his career, in my opinion, but I think right now we can expect him to be an on-base guy, a guy that can do some things offensively for us," Murphy said. For now, that's the best approach for Pratt to have. At 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds, he's prompted scouts to dream about the potential power in his build, but it hasn't yet developed at this stage of his career. In Triple-A Nashville this year, his 34.6% hard-hit rate and 84.4-mph average exit velocity were well below average. The current version of Pratt won't be productive if he hits the ball in the air, so maximizing his high contact rate makes much more sense. That means seeing the ball deep to make good swing decisions, with a focus on hitting low line drives and using the opposite field. The Brewers are nearing the tail end of a similar development process with Pratt's new double-play partner. After struggling early, Brice Turang minimized his swing to become an on-base-oriented hitter. Paired with his defense, that was enough to make him a solid player. Since he established that base, a stronger, more mature Turang has eased back into a longer, steeper swing and unlocked more in-game power. "With Brice, you didn't know for sure he could be this as a hitter," Murphy said. "But by his second time around, you could just see it, like, 'This guy's ready to go, he's ready to take off.' And then it doesn't always happen on your terms, because the game deals you what the game deals you. But I think it's the same way with Cooper." Pratt's at-bats in his first two games have reflected the on-base approach. He went hitless in his debut, hitting two of his three groundouts to the right side of the infield. On Wednesday, the first two hits of his career (a ground-ball single and a line-drive, RBI base hit) were both to right field. "He'll tell you it was predicted by some great swami that his first hit would be between the three and four hole," Murphy joked postgame. "I was afraid he was going to dive or something and throw me out," Pratt said. "Once I saw it go through, I was like, 'Oh, yeah.' I heard the crowd, and it was sick." Pratt's baserunning, which drew positive reviews in the minor leagues as part of his high-IQ makeup, was tested quickly. After advancing on a sacrifice bunt by David Hamilton, Christian Yelich lined a base hit just over the head of Cleveland Guardians shortstop Brayan Rocchio. Pratt read it well and got a good jump, allowing him to score from second base. "I knew once [Yelich] hit it, it was over his head," he said, "so I just freaking ran as hard as I could." After his second hit, Pratt stole his first career base. Despite not having great speed, he swiped 27 bases in 2024 and 31 last season due to his awareness. Two days in, Murphy continues to see the little things that led him to believe Pratt can be a meaningful player this year, even if he only scratches the surface of his long-term potential. "He had two great at-bats where he stayed in the zone and didn't try to do too much," Murphy said. "Really proud of him." View full article

Image courtesy of © Erik Williams-Imagn Images Since returning to play after a fractured left hamate bone put him on the shelf for a month, Andrew Vaughn has once again been a productive middle-of-the-order bat for the Brewers. In 109 plate appearances, Vaughn has slashed .354/.431/.531. Among Milwaukee hitters with at least 100 plate appearances, his 172 wRC+ is the best—no surprise, since only Yordan Alvarez and Nick Kurtz have him beat, league-wide. Despite that productivity, he hasn’t been a mainstay in the lineup. Since his return from the injured list on May 4, Vaughn has only started about half of the Brewers’ games against a right-handed pitcher—14 of 27, to be exact. In many of those games, he’s functioned instead as a weapon off the bench, already setting a new career high with eight pinch-hit appearances this year. Those limited opportunities are because Vaughn’s overall line is misleading, and he hasn’t quite been the same hitter he was last summer. According to Baseball Prospectus, his 108 DRC+ is still above average, but it's still much less sexy than his results. Baseball Savant tells the same story, as Vaughn’s .355 xwOBA is far lower than his .422 wOBA. Last season, Vaughn had a 117 DRC+ and .377 xwOBA after being traded from the White Sox to the Brewers. Furthermore, as fellow first baseman Jake Bauers has emerged as one of the club’s best hitters (both by process and by results), Vaughn has performed more like a platoon bat so far this year. He’s mashed lefties to the tune of a 1.438 OPS and 294 wRC+. A 117 DRC+ and .427 xwOBA don’t fully support that performance, but either way, Vaughn is doing good work against southpaws. He’s been more pedestrian against righties, posting a .693 OPS, 99 wRC+, 102 DRC+, and .323 xwOBA. Because those numbers all come from small samples, they don’t mean much on their own. However, Vaughn clearly has not found his best swing against right-handers. Since returning from that hamate injury (which can reduce the pop in a player’s swing for a few weeks past technical full recovery), his bat speed has dipped, particularly against righties. {C}%3C!%2D%2Dtd%20%7Bborder%3A%201px%20solid%20%23cccccc%3B%7Dbr%20%7Bmso-data-placement%3Asame-cell%3B%7D%2D%2D%3E--> Season Bat Speed (RHP) Bat Speed (LHP) 2025 (MIL) 70.9 71.6 2026 68.8 71.1 Bat speed isn’t everything. Hitting is not just about how fast your bat is traveling when you meet the ball, but when and where your bat makes contact. Vaughn has always had below-average bat speed, but above-average bat control. That’s helped him continue to produce this year, as he’s whiffing less and hitting more line drives. A slower swing has been part of an issue against same-handed pitchers, though. Without his usual bat speed, Vaughn has been late more often on right-handed fastballs. Thanks to that good bat control, Vaughn is still lining up his bat with the ball well enough, even when he’s late. That means he can still shoot the ball to right field; his rate of opposite field contact against right-handed fastballs is up to a career-high 41.4% this year. However, those kinds of hits are mostly singles and the occasional double. That’s how Vaughn is still hitting a decent .274 against righties this year, but only slugging .355. It’s the opposite against right-handed breaking balls. Vaughn is early more often on those pitches, leading to more whiffs and softer contact. Since returning to play, Vaughn’s swing has looked diminished, and his timing has been caught in between without the platoon advantage. With Bauers earning everyday at-bats and Garrett Mitchell and Sal Frelick swinging the bat better of late, Vaughn has not been a leading candidate for the greatest share of playing time against right-handers. The good news is that while his bat speed remains lower than last season, it has ticked up over the last couple of weeks. If Vaughn looks more like the hitter he was last season—the one who was regularly on time, allowing him to use the middle of the field and pull enough well-struck balls into the gap—it won’t take much for Pat Murphy to grant him more starts. He drew back-to-back starts against righties last week, with Bauers sliding to the outfield. “He’s a professional hitter, and we need him in there,” Murphy said over the weekend. “The only way to get them both in there is [for] Jake to go out and play the outfield, which he’s done quite well.” Still, Vaughn has to show a bit more to secure more of that playing time. Plenty of season remains for him to do so. View full article

Image courtesy of © Michael McLoone-Imagn Images On the one-year anniversary of his big-league debut, Jacob Misiorowski delivered one of the best starts in modern baseball history. That might sound like hyperbole, but it’s hard to dominate hitters more wholly than Misiorowski dismantled Philadelphia Phillies hitters on Friday night at American Family Field: a 95-pitch, one-hit complete-game shutout with 15 strikeouts. According to Stathead, it was the most strikeouts in a Maddux (a complete-game shutout in under 100 pitches, named for inner-circle Hall of Famer Greg Maddux) since consistent pitch-count tracking began in 1988. “For me, personally, that was as good as it gets,” Pat Murphy said postgame. “That’s probably the first one ever,” Misiorowski said, when asked if he had ever pitched that well at any level in his life. Just listing the box score line doesn’t fully do the start justice. Misiorowski threw hard. He missed bats. He induced weak contact. He controlled the count. He showed five different pitches. There’s a lot to unpack regarding just how complete his dominance was, so let’s walk through each notable number one by one. 104.5 mph This is where Misiorowski first turned heads, and it happened right out of the gates, when he struck out Kyle Schwarber to lead off the game. The 2-2 fastball that Schwarber foul-tipped for strike three was 104.5 mph, the fastest pitch thrown by a starting pitcher in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008). And Misiorowski threw it when he felt his worst all night. “To be honest, the first few innings, I feel like I didn’t have it all that well,” he said. “I was just hoping they would swing, and they were hacking away, so that helped a lot.” Misiorowski has set that record multiple times, as he now owns the 17 fastest measured pitches thrown by a starter. He actually set the new high twice in the Schwarber at-bat, the first coming when he unleashed a 104-mph fastball with his third pitch. He still thinks there’s more in the tank, too. “It’s awesome,” Misiorowski said of setting another velocity record. “I mean, honestly, that’s really cool, but I think there’s always another step to go with it, so keep pushing it.” 15 strikeouts It was a career-high for Misiorowski, who has already pitched eight 10-plus strikeout games in 29 career regular-season appearances. He became the third pitcher in franchise history to record at least 15 strikeouts in a game, and the first since Corbin Burnes on August 11, 2021. Misiorowski’s outing was also baseball’s first 15-strikeout start in nearly a year, since Atlanta’s Grant Holmes did it on June 15, 2025. Eight of those strikeouts came against the first nine batters he faced, and 12 were on his signature fastball. Misiorowski’s heater has done the heavy lifting in most of his starts this year, and Friday night was no different. 24 fastball whiffs That’s the second-most swings and misses against a four-seam fastball in any outing in the pitch-tracking era. Only James Paxton managed more when he induced 25 four-seam whiffs on May 2, 2018. (Paxton struck out 16 that day in just seven innings of work, but needed 105 pitches to get those 21 outs.) Misiorowski threw his fastball 72.6% of the time, the second time this season he’s thrown it at more than a 70% rate in a start. For most of the night, he peppered one after another near the top of the zone, where it’s nearly impossible to get on top of with the bat. 3 hard-hit balls When the Phillies did make contact, it wasn’t solid contact. Of their 12 batted balls against Misiorowski, only three were hit with an exit velocity above 95 mph. Two of those were ground balls. The other was Schwarber’s line-drive single on a slider in the fourth inning, the lone Philadelphia baserunner of the night. “I thought I located it well, maybe slightly off,” Misiorowski said. “I don’t remember exactly where it was at, but I’m happy with it. Just trying to jump out ahead of him. He’s probably thinking heater, and he poked it through.” 95 pitches, 74 strikes Getting as much swing-and-miss as Misiorowski did is often a double-edged sword. It can put the pitcher in control of an outing, but it can also cut that outing short by inflating pitch counts. Balls in play make for quicker outs than strikeouts. That didn’t matter for Misiorowski, though, because he was historically efficient. He issued zero walks and never reached a three-ball count. Only five batters reached two balls. Misiorowski’s command has made massive strides this year. A year ago at this time, he was debuting in the big leagues after walking 12.2% of batters in Triple-A Nashville. His walk rate in 2026 is now 6.7%, well below the league average of 9.2%. That’s the product of focused, diligent work with the Brewers’ big-league trainers and pitching coaches. After adding muscle and ironing out his mechanics, Misiorowski’s lower half is stronger and more controlled than ever. “It’s a lot of work from people behind me and in the training room and weight room and all that,” he said. “The kid is working for it,” Murphy said. “He’ll be here tomorrow doing his work, and that’s what it’s about. Today is over. It’s a great accomplishment, enjoy it, but tomorrow’s a day of work. Get back to it tomorrow. He’s that type of kid.” 9 innings Given how he felt earlier in the outing, the thought of going the distance didn’t cross Misiorowski’s mind for most of the night. “Honestly, I thought the seventh was going to be it,” he said. “When we scored all those runs, I thought they were going to turn to me and be like, ‘Well, you’re done.’” Misiorowski went back out for the eighth, though. After he completed that frame with just 86 pitches, there wasn’t much discussion. “At the end of the eighth, I’m like, ‘You’re good, right?’” Murphy said. “He looked at me like, ‘No way. I’m going back out.’ I was joking, of course. William [Contreras] looked at me like, ‘Really?’” American Family Field came to its feet when Misiorowski returned for the ninth inning. When he reached the mound, he paused for a few seconds to take it all in. “That was cool,” he said. “It’s awesome to have the support from the city and everyone like that.” Misiorowski’s velocity dipped below triple digits a few times in the eighth inning, but the adrenaline boost of the moment helped him reach back for some of his best velocity to close things out. His average fastball velocity in the ninth was 102.6 mph, his highest since the first inning. His last fastball of the night was 103.1 mph. It struck out Justin Crawford swinging, the final bow on the most dominant Maddux on record. “I can’t remember one better,” Murphy said. In Milwaukee, at least, no one can. View full article

Image courtesy of © Benny Sieu-Imagn Images At this point, most of the baseball world knows Jacob Misiorowski has one of baseball’s best fastballs. According to Statcast, Misiorowski’s heater ranks third among qualified four-seamers in pitcher run value (+12), first in whiff rate (42.5%), and 14th in expected slugging against (.262). Those following the game closely probably also know what makes that fastball so tough to hit. In addition to averaging 100 and touching 104 MPH with it, Misiorowski’s 7.5 feet of extension down the mound adds an extra 2 MPH of perceived velocity by reducing a hitter’s reaction time, and he generates more carry on the ball from backspin than one expects to see from his low arm slot. In the 365 days since his major-league debut, Misiorowski has thrown 741 pitches with a perceived velocity of 102 MPH or higher, which is more than all but one pitcher—Aroldis Chapman, who's been pitching in the majors continuously since Misiorowski was eight years old—has in the pitch-tracking era. That abnormal combination of timing and angles often makes it nearly impossible to get on top of his fastball. Thanks to Statcast’s new swing timing metrics, we can confirm how Misiorowski’s fastball misses bats, rather than inferring it from the eye test and hitter testimonies. For the most part, that original conclusion was correct. Hitters are later on his fastball than the MLB average (the middle bell curves), and they swing underneath it more than average (the rightmost bell curves). Look more closely, though, and there are more details about how much each attribute of Misiorowski’s fastball leads to those imprecise swings. In the graphic above, the timing and vertical position of the swing are shown separately, but in reality, they’re closely related. Being late on a four-seamer typically makes a hitter more likely to swing underneath it. Every hitter’s bat path starts by traveling downward, at least slightly. If he starts his swing late on an elevated fastball, his hands and bat will probably still be traveling downward as his bat comes through the hitting zone, so he’ll swing farther underneath the ball. But against Misiorowski’s fastball, that relationship between timing and bat path isn’t perfectly proportional, particularly compared to most pitchers. Hitters are late on 35% of swings against it, which ranks 41st among qualified four-seamers, but they’re underneath it on 63% of swings, which ranks 7th. Put another way, Misiorowski’s fastball gets no more late swings than Kyle Harrison’s, but it gets swings underneath it an additional 4% of the time. That means that abnormal carry from a low slot—15.6 inches of induced vertical break from a 5.26-foot release height—might be most responsible for Misiorowski’s dominance, even if he gets more attention for lighting up the radar gun. That’s good news, because a pitcher’s excellence is more sustainable when it’s not tied strictly to velocity. Sitting in the triple digits takes Misiorowski’s fastball to another level, but it can still get bad swings underneath the ball at 97 mph. It’s not just a good pitch because he throws hard. Misioroswki’s unicorn fastball also elevates his other pitches, particularly his curveball. When a hitter takes a bad swing at a breaking ball, he’s usually early. That’s the pitcher’s goal. It’s a slower pitch than a fastball, so it’s meant to catch guys out in front when they’re on time for a heater. Then there’s Misiorowski, who doesn’t get many early swings on his curveball compared to the average pitcher. Instead, 19% of swings against it are late, the highest rate among qualified curveballs. Once again, a big reason for this is that Misiorowski throws hard. His curveball averages 87.4 MPH, the fifth-fastest qualified curveball in the game. But like his fastball, there’s much more to it than just velocity. Misiorowski’s fastball is so good that hitters must devote their full energy to squaring it up. That means eliminating his slowest pitch. If a pitch starts around the zone, they’ll see it as a fastball, and beating the fastball—getting on top of it when it’s in the zone, and laying off when it’s not—is the top priority. If a pitch starts closer to the knees, they’ll often assume it’s a curveball and let it go for a ball, trying to stay on the fastball. That’s the right approach, as most of Misiorowski’s in-zone pitches are four-seamers, cutters, and sliders. Unsurprisingly, opponents are swinging slightly more at Misiorowski’s hard stuff this year, but far less at his curveball. When Misiorowski does plant an in-zone curveball, their pitch recognition short-circuits, prompting most of those late swings. Here’s Roman Anthony taking a very late cut at a comeback curveball. anthony.mp4 Here’s Pete Crow-Armstrong making a late decision and getting tied up by a back-foot breaker. pca.mp4 In the same game, Seiya Suzuki managed to single it through the right side, but only via an 81.3-mph roller on an emergency swing. suzuki.mp4 For another non-whiff, here’s Jazz Chisholm Jr. realizing too late that he’s seeing a curveball down the middle, not an elevated two-strike fastball, and chopping it into the ground with a late, all-arms swing. jazz.mp4 Swings on in-zone curveballs are often bad news for pitchers. Across the league, they’ve allowed a .348 xwOBA and -25 pitcher run value on such swings. In many cases, the hitter ambushed a hanger. Misiorowski, meanwhile, has allowed just a .213 xwOBA on in-zone curveball swings with a +1 run value, meaning it’s actually been an effective pitch for him. It all stems from establishing his elite fastball. It was exactly one year ago that Misiorowski made his MLB debut. There were some early bumps in the road, but he matured into one of baseball’s best starting pitchers remarkably quickly. He’s gotten plenty of complimentary coverage in that time, and yet, there’s somehow still more about his performance to admire than meets the eye. View full article

Image courtesy of © Paul Rutherford-Imagn Images It's been six weeks since Brandon Woodruff last pitched in a big-league game. After leaving his start on April 30 with a dead arm and having a cyst drained in his surgically repaired right shoulder, he and the Brewers have taken his rehab slowly. It seems he's finally nearing a return, though, as he threw 68 pitches in an Arizona Complex League game on Tuesday night. Before that outing, Woodruff threw three simulated innings of live at-bats in Milwaukee last week. With media present for that session, he appeared to lean heavily on cutters and changeups. There were no public velocity readings, but his main fastballs looked slower than his usual post-surgery cruising speed of 92-93 mph. Velocity didn't look like the focus of the session, anyway, as MLB.com's Adam McCalvy reported that Woodruff was testing a lower arm slot so that his shoulder could work more efficiently. Those changes in release, velocity, and pitch usage all carried over to the ACL, where Woodruff worked 3 2/3 innings. The results from that outing don't matter, but there are takeaways to glean from how his stuff moved and how he used it. Like his simulated outing, there were signs that Woodruff might return to the big leagues as a slightly different pitcher than he was several weeks ago. Woodruff's four-seamer and sinker combined to average 90.6 mph on Tuesday. That's a welcome improvement after his fastballs dropped into the mid-80s in his last big-league appearance, but it's also more than a tick below his season average of 92.2. He was also cutting the ball more from his lower slot, leading to less induced vertical break on his four-seamer—the late carry that got hitters to swing underneath the ball for whiffs, even at 92—and less arm-side run on his two-seamer and changeup. Perhaps Woodruff will find more of that backspin carry as he settles into that lower slot. The adrenaline boost of pitching in meaningful games could also nudge that velocity closer to that 91-93 range, where he learned to succeed last year by tunneling his two-seamer and new cutter to work both sides of the plate. Right now, though, he looks like a pitcher responding to the possibility that his raw stuff has further declined. If Woodruff is indeed preparing to navigate hitters differently, his cutter might be at the center of that new approach. Last season, he threw it just 12% of the time to left-handed batters. Facing a lineup with eight lefties on Tuesday, he used it more than 30% of the time, another sign that it may be a bigger part of his pitch mix moving forward. Because that cutter is a true cut fastball, Woodruff could miss barrels with it as his primary pitch if necessary. While he threw fewer four-seamers last year, it still played well over the heart of the plate when he did use it. If that pitch is less effective in the zone with diminished velocity and movement, throwing more cutters would help him change lanes even more effectively and give that four-seamer more perceived life. Woodruff's next outing could come in Milwaukee next week, which would shed more light on where his stuff is and how best to use it. For now, the signs suggest he's adapting again and entering a new chapter of his post-surgery career. View full article

Image courtesy of © Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images As the Brewers have weathered a slew of injuries to their starting rotation, roles have become less defined by necessity. Shane Drohan has been the poster child for that flexibility, posting a 2.87 ERA, 2.79 FIP, and 74 DRA- in outings ranging from two batters to four-plus innings. "He's been terrific for us," Pat Murphy said last week. "He's really unassuming, humble. I think he's a major-league pitcher. I think we got very, very lucky." A starting pitcher for most of his minor-league career, Drohan excelled as a multi-inning reliever last month, but did so with a starter's pitch mix. Since Logan Henderson joined Quinn Priester and Brandon Woodruff on the injured list near the end of May, Drohan is back to starting. It's unclear how long he'll hold a rotation spot – his future role may have more to do with the club's needs than his own performance – but the Brewers believe he's equipped to be a traditional starter. "No doubt," pitching coach Chris Hook said. "I have no issue with him being able to [start], and just having the wherewithal to know what pitch to throw in certain counts. I mean, he can throw any pitch in any count, and that's just the mark of a starter, being able to do that and feel comfortable." That wasn't always the case. For most of his career, scouts and prospect evaluators projected Drohan as a reliever. His control wasn't good enough in the minors. He didn't consistently reach his best velocity. He threw five pitches, but didn't always sequence them well. Once the Brewers acquired him, they quickly addressed those shortcomings. They noticed that Drohan's arsenal and mechanics limited him to pitching mostly to one side of the plate. Last season in Triple-A, he leaned predominantly on his four-seamer, cutter, and two breaking pitches. With those offerings, he played the north-south game effectively -- fastballs up, breakers down -- but all to the glove side. When he threw something to the arm side, it was rarely a competitive pitch in the strike zone. Eliminating half of the strike zone makes things much easier for big-league hitters. For Drohan's stuff to play at the game's highest level, the Brewers knew he needed to give opponents more surface area to protect. "We want to balance the plate out a little bit," Hook said. As it usually does, Milwaukee's pitching development team started by working on Drohan's mechanics. Instead of rigidly veering his body toward the glove side, they wanted him to rotate more efficiently while working through the arm side. "It was just trying to get his body moving a little bit more, so we could get free and clear to the arm side," Hook said. "I think he's getting squared up a little better, on time, and his body is just moving a little cleaner through that side of the plate." Drohan generates enough backspin on his four-seamer for it to average 12 inches of arm-side run, but for him to use that side of the plate more effectively, the Brewers wanted a pitch with even more horizontal movement. That used to be his changeup, but since Drohan underwent surgery in 2024, his reinforced shoulder now guides his hand toward the outside of the baseball. That supinated motion is the healthier, more natural release for most pitchers, but it means Drohan can no longer pronate a traditional changeup effectively. In spring training, the Brewers helped Drohan add a one-seam sinker to obtain that arm-side movement. It doesn't have a remarkable shape, averaging 9.1 inches of induced vertical break and 15.8 inches of run, but it has more horizontal movement than his four-seamer. Because it's designed to add variety to his arsenal rather than be a great pitch on its own, Drohan has used it roughly 20% of the time against both right-handed and left-handed hitters. "It's just a different look off of the four-seam," Drohan said. "It makes them have to respect something hard going – a righty, going away from them, or a lefty, coming back in to them." With the sinker in tow, Drohan is now a three-fastball pitcher, and his pitch locations are more balanced. He throws the cutter to his glove side to jam right-handed batters, the sinker to his arm side, and the four-seamer to both sides of the plate. Instead of just pitching up and down, he's pitching up, down, in, and out. "Everything was kind of glove-side, and incorporating the [sinker] in spring training, getting him comfortable with that, we start seeing him be able to do a little bit more arm-side stuff," Hook said. The mechanical work has also unlocked more velocity. Drohan's two main fastballs now regularly exceed 95 mph, and his breaking pitches are firmer and tighter. That's not just a product of pitching in shorter relief outings, either. He threw 68 pitches in his last start, and his four-seamer averaged 95.8 mph. "Even though the velo has picked up so much, I feel like my perceived effort level has gone down," Drohan said. "It just tells me I'm moving really efficiently. I'm exploding in my delivery at the right time. It's just working up the chain, throwing everything harder. It's awesome." "When we first saw him, it's like, 'Man, I got to get him a little bit freer,'" Hook said. "I mean, he was so stiff. Now you start seeing some freedom and some looseness, and being on time and through the baseball more often." Drohan's mix still isn't as complete as he and the Brewers believe it can be. He replaced his old changeup with a kick change but has struggled to find a feel for locating it. The Brewers also want to see more glove-side cut on his cutter, which often backs up and instead has a few inches of arm-side movement. It's still distinct enough from his other fastballs to keep hitters honest, but right-handers have slugged .625 against it. "I don't let it get too much into my head, because I know that I have enough run on the four-seam and the two-seam that even if it technically backs up an inch or two, it's still a perceived cut to the hitter," Drohan said. "I've been able to flash cutters that are 92-93 and really cutting, and so it's like, 'That's it.' That's a really good pitch, so obviously you want that. But it's always something you're working on." Hook believes that driving his body through the arm side will also help Drohan's cutter by forcing him to stay on the ball longer. When his body drifts toward the glove side, his arm falls behind. That leaves the ball popping out while his hand is still further behind it, before he has a chance to get toward the outside of a cutter and finish it. "He's been so glove-side-oriented that he kind of gets there, and he almost forces that pitch in there instead of allowing his body to travel," Hook said. "That's where you get these backups, because the ball just kind of spins out. And for him to stay on [the ball], and then for him to be able to get to the arm side, I know that he's going to be able to get through the cutter." The Brewers will rarely declare any pitcher a finished product. Drohan is no different, but he has come a long way in a relatively short time. He's a more balanced pitcher than he was mere months ago, and he'll need those newly acquired skills to navigate Coors Field in his third career start on Sunday. View full article