Here's what makes The Miz unlike any pitcher we've ever seen

The thing that makes Jacob Misiorowski a must-watch is his overwhelming velocity. But the thing that makes him a unique Major League pitcher is his release point.

The triple-digit fastball is obviously electric. And the 98 mph slider we just saw in the All-Star Game is a monster of a pitch. But what really takes The Miz to another level is how far he drives down the mound to fire his pitches.

Misiorowski releases the ball closer to the hitter than almost any other pitcher in the Majors. And that makes those 100 mph heaters and mid-90s sliders look even faster.

There is no other pitcher with Misiorowski's combination of extreme velocity and extreme release extension. And there hasn't been in the decade-plus of Statcast tracking.

"It makes a world of difference," Misiorowski told MLB.com just before the All-Star break. "I think it's a huge advantage of mine that I do that."

Extension is just how far in front of the rubber the pitcher releases the ball. The mound might be 60 feet, 6 inches away from home plate, but no pitch actually has to fly that far in reality. The average Major League pitch is released 6.4 feet in front of the rubber, meaning it travels just over 54 feet to get to the hitter. But some pitchers -- like Misiorowski -- release the ball much closer than that, which shaves away valuable split-seconds that the hitter has to react to the pitch, decide whether to swing and then actually hit the baseball.

"I think the way he gets down the rubber really helps him," Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. "It's all about, in my estimation, 'shutter speed.' These hitters have only a certain amount of time to see it. So it's really not velo -- it's, 'How long do they see it for?'"

Misiorowski, who makes his first start of the second half on Tuesday with the Brewers having won 11 in a row, has an average extension of 7.5 feet on his fastball and 7.6 feet on his slider. He releases the ball over a foot closer to the hitter than the typical MLB pitcher. That makes his stuff play up even more.

And when you couple that extension with his raw velo, Misiorowski is in a league of his own.

Misiorowski generates his elite extension naturally, a product of his height (he's one of the tallest starters in the Majors at 6-foot-7), his long arms and his delivery. That helps him reap the rewards without having to waste energy focusing on maintaining an aggressive release point.

"I've always had it, so I don't really think much about it," Misiorowski said. "It's a big part of my pitching, but at the same time, I don't really worry about it, because that's just how I throw. … I'm always thinking, 'Drive off that back leg as hard as I can.' That's how I'm gonna throw hard. But at the same time, I'm just so long that I just get out there."

Misiorowski's arsenal would be overpowering enough from the velo alone. He's in the top 1% of the league in fastball velocity, and he's throwing the hardest slider of any starting pitcher in the Statcast era, ahead of even Jacob deGrom's most dominant seasons. Hitters would have barely enough time to react if those pitches weren't coming from 52 feet away.

And when they are? A 100 mph fastball from Misiorowski will get to the plate in under four-tenths of a second. His 95 mph slider arrives just a fraction after that. The hitter doesn't have the time or the space to "See ball, hit ball" -- to identify the pitch and get off a good swing.

"The hitter's reaction to it all is what you're basing everything off of," Misiorowski said. "You see how they react to a ball up, and they kind of check the swing, and they kind of look towards the dugout, and they're like, 'Holy [crap].' … You know you're doing something right."

If you look at the hardest-throwing starters in the big leagues today, none get down the mound like Miz. Pitchers with big fastballs like Hunter Greene and Paul Skenes release those fastballs with close to a foot less extension than Misiorowski. So do aces with power sliders like deGrom and Tarik Skubal. Misiorowski's extension is the extra dimension that elevates all his pitches.

"I know my good friend Bob Welch used to get down the rubber pretty good, and throw kind of similar over the top," said Murphy, who's seen plenty of dominant pitchers over his decades in the game. "Welchy's fastball might have been 95, but everybody said it played like 100 -- when he was in his prime, when he was young like Miz."

That begs the question: If driving down the mound can make a 95 mph fastball like Welch's look like 100, what does that mean for Misiorowski, whose fastball is already 100?

"The fastball at the top of the zone is just 10 times better," Misiorowski said, "because it looks like it's going four extra mph or something like that -- I don't know the exact number. But it's a huge help."

And the slider, which is already faster than the average MLB starter's fastball?

"The slider at 96 looks like 98, 99," Misiorowski said. "And it's moving an extra six inches compared to my fastball that's staying straight."

What Misiorowski is talking about is "perceived velocity" -- how fast his pitches look to the hitter.

While it's hard to quantify exactly how each pitcher's release point impacts a batter, Statcast does calculate a perceived velocity metric, which basically reflects the speed a pitch would be equivalent to if the pitcher released it with average extension. So for Misiorowski, who has far above-average extension, his perceived velocity will be higher than his actual velocity.

Much higher. Right now, Misiorowski's perceived velocity on his fastball is 101.3 mph. His perceived velocity on his slider is 96.8 mph.

Those are both the highest in a season of any starter in the Statcast era. By a lot.

SP with highest perceived 4-seam fastball velo, Statcast era

1. Jacob Misiorowski, 2025 -- 101.3 mph
2. Jacob deGrom, 2021 -- 100.3 mph
3. Bobby Miller, 2023 -- 100.2 mph
4. Jacob deGrom, 2020 -- 99.8 mph
5-T. Hunter Greene, 2025 -- 99.6 mph
5-T. Tyler Glasnow, 2019 -- 99.6 mph

SP with highest perceived slider velo, Statcast era

1. Jacob Misiorowski, 2025 -- 96.8 mph
2. Jacob deGrom, 2020 -- 94.0 mph
3. Jacob deGrom, 2019 -- 93.6 mph
4. Jacob deGrom, 2022 -- 93.5 mph
5. Jacob deGrom, 2021 -- 92.9 mph

If you're topping lists where the main other pitcher is Jacob deGrom, that has to be a good thing. Having a fastball that averages 99 mph but looks like it's 101, and a slider that averages 94 and looks like it's 97? Also probably a good thing.

Strong release extension can make any pitcher's stuff play up, no matter how fast you throw. A little bit more juice always helps. But Misiorowski is an outlier because the baseline of his stuff is so high.

Raising that baseline was a big part of his development in the Minors, where Misiorowski added a lot of velo across the board before his big league callup, but especially to his breaking pitches. Misiorowski's slider, for example, used to be in the mid-to-high 80s a few years ago.

"I think it started with a bullpen where my coach was like, 'Come on, don't be a baby. Throw the ball! Let's go,'" Misiorowski recalled with a laugh. "And it just evolved into this.

"I realized that you can go into the tank, like, 'Oh, I can get it to 90, and it's still moving like when I throw it 88,' or 85, or whatever. You just keep pushing it and pushing and pushing and pushing, and you still get the movement, and finally you're like, 'OK, let's throw it 95.'"

The result is the phenom in the Brewers' rotation today, one who closes the distance between himself and the batter and then rips his pitches past them before they can tell what's happening.

"With [my fastball] being 100, or [the slider being] 90-something, there's not enough time for an eye to see it midway," Misiorowski said. "So I think if I'm just releasing them in the same general area, then I'll be fine."