Jacob Misiorowski is, quite frankly, almost too good to be true. Like Ricky Vaughn without the baggage, or Nuke Laloosh without the 5-cent head. He’s Roy Hobbs whiffing The Whammer with all the baby-faced innocence of Henry Rowengartner.
But Misiorowski’s flamethrowing feats are no fictional fantasy. They are real, and so far, they’re spectacular.
Just three starts into his career, he’s already the odds-on favorite for National League Rookie of the Year. And considering what happened in those three starts, it’s easy to see why.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
His debut was only the best in modern history by a starting pitcher – an 11-inning no-hit stretch spread over his first two games, one that earned his hat a spot in Cooperstown. He went head to head with Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes and made the Cy Young favorite look like the fresh-faced rookie. The overall batting average of balls put in play against Misiorowski is a miniscule .069. Perhaps most impressively, he’s thrown 73 fastballs at opposing batters, and only one of them became a base hit.
You’ll find that last nugget in baseball columnist Bob Nightengale’s lengthy overview of how the Brewers continue to baffle the pundits with their success. Basically, it comes down to doing more with less by looking for value where bigger clubs can’t see it.
But Misiorowski’s success might tweak that narrative a bit. Everybody can see his potential from a mile away, and because the Brewers control his contract for six years, his value is off the charts.
When you have an asset like that, you do everything possible to protect it. That’s why the Brewers are already carefully planning how to manage his workload. Keep that in mind when you wonder why they’re not letting him work deeper into a game that he’s dominating.
Now he heads for a trip inside baseball’s brightest spotlight – New York City – and a Wednesday night start against the Mets. And just to turn the glow up a notch or two, MLB is doing a national giveaway for a signed Misiorowski baseball.
Maybe a few big-league hitters will join the raffle. Because it might just be their only shot at getting close to a baseball that’s been in Misiorowski’s hands.
