With the debut of Jacob Misiorowski being historically successful, it got me thinking. Just how good could someone like this be, with 100 mph heat and a breaking pitch that screws grown men down into the ground. I dug into the numbers and, well, if you can throw 100, just throw it down the middle. Over and over.
It sounds reckless. It sounds like something you’d hear from a meathead at a showcase or an old-school coach who hasn’t kept up with the game since the Reagan administration, but the numbers, as stubborn and sobering as they are, tell a different story. Once a pitch reaches triple digits, something strange happens. The so-called “danger zone” - the middle of the plate, belt high - starts to look less like a mistake and more like a strategy.
We’re not talking about deception here. No tunneling, no sequencing, no elevated heaters above the hands. This is brute force. A 100 mph fastball, thrown directly down the pipe. Hitters, even at the highest level, can’t do much with it.
You probably remember that video and Cliff Floyd might not have been peak, but how low could we go to get … if not an unhittable pitch, but one that would be so hard to hit that hitters couldn’t do enough to it to hurt you? The answer might surprise you.
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