Sunday Notes: Jacob Misiorowski Throws a Sinker-Like Changeup… Only Sometimes

Jacob Misiorowski has a fastball that consistently reaches triple digits, and he augments it with an effective curveball-slider combination. Usage-wise, the 24-year-old Milwaukee Brewers right-hander is throwing his high-octane heater at a 62.3% clip, while his breaking-ball percentages are 16.6 and 17.3 respectively. Given the lethality of those pitches — his xBA is a paltry .168, and his K-rate an MLB-best 41.8% — he has little need for a changeup…

… but there is one in his arsenal. From time to time, he will even show it to a batter. Of the 289 pitches Misiorowski has delivered so far this season, 11 (3.8%) have been changeups. The story behind his only-sporadically-used weapon?

“I’ve had a changeup my whole career,” Misiorowski told me prior to throwing three of them in a 101-pitch start at Fenway Park on Tuesday. “That was one of the first pitches I truly learned. But then as I started throwing harder, I began going away from it, and it obviously got worse and worse the less I threw it. By the time I got drafted [63rd overall in 2022], I basically didn’t have a changeup any more. I had to relearn it, re-figure it out. So, yeah, it’s always been there, but it hasn’t always been there.”

Misiorowski went on to tell me the grip was originally a more conventional four-seam circle, but that he now has his pointer and middle fingers together, and his thumb underneath. He also said that he likes the amount of horizontal he gets on it, which is generally around 18 inches and has been up to 20. When I told him that the movement profile sounds a little like a two-seam sinker, he agreed that it does.

A few more things Misiorowski told me about the pitch are unfortunately lost, due to glitches I’ve recently encountered on my iPhone’s recording app (I mentioned this teeth-gnashing, hopefully-resolved-soon, issue in Monday’s piece on Padres’ broadcaster Mark Grant.) Fortunately, I was able to grab a few minutes with Brewers pitching coach Chris Holt, who made up for the missing words with his own perspective.

How would he describe Misiorowski’s changeup?

“It’s horizontal-moving, it’s not really depth-y,” replied Holt. “In the small amount of developmental time he’s had with us, his big key has been getting on time. The changeup is almost detrimental in a way, because in his head he thinks he is throwing something slow. His changeup is in the 93-94 [mph] range. He doesn’t get on time for it, so he never gets to the point where he can get in front of it the way that he wants to get in front of it.

“It’s almost like a sinker,” continued Holt, negating the need for me to ask if he feels that it profiles as such. “It’s what, 18 and five, 18 and six? Really, it’s a good sinker. It’s something we’re going to try to implement more this year as we go along, but despite what you saw last night with him kind of got hitting with a ton of bricks and running out of gas [in the seventh inning], he’s been on time. He’s throwing the ball where he wants to — there are fewer sprays — so there is a little more count accessibility to throw the changeup. We’re going to look to do that.”

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RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS

Nelson Cruz went 15 for 25 against Kendall Graveman.

Fred Kendall went 11 for 26 against Jim Barr.

Jason Kendall went 19 for 42 against Woody Williams.

Hank Bauer went 10 for 23 against Hal Woodeshick.

Elbie Fletcher went 16 for 34 against Russ Bauers.

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Sticking with the Brewers, I had a question for Jake Bauers that circles back to something he said several years ago. Back when he was a young player with the Tampa Bay Rays, the now-30-year-old outfielder/first baseman told me that he would rather not know which pitch was coming. Moreover, he would have a better chance of hitting a slider if he was simply sitting fastball.

Does he still feel that way?

“Against certain pitchers, it might be better to be more reactionary than anticipatory,” replied Bauers, who is in his third season with the Brewers. “But as I’ve matured over the years and developed kind of my own style of hitting, that has probably changed a little bit. I think I’m a little better at anticipating, and then putting myself in a position to put a good swing at that pitch, as opposed to maybe selling out.”

The reasoning behind his previously-stated mindset?

“If I had a feeling that a breaking ball was coming, I would sit on it, and I had a tendency to sit back too long,” explained Bauers, who has three home runs and a 108 wRC+ over 46 plate appearances so far this season. “I would end up jamming myself on it. I wasn’t getting beat on a fastball, I was getting beat on a slider, because I was caught back.

“I would say that still I’m on the fastball with 90 to 95 percent of the pitches I see,” the lefty slugger continued. “If it’s a guy I’m familiar with, or a guy that has really obvious tendencies, I might change that. But even in those situations, I feel like I’m a little better at being more consistent with my timing if I’m not making too much of an adjustment. Almost like a soft anticipation instead of a selling out, if that makes sense.”

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Another brief Brewers note:

“We’ll let Sal [Frelick] do it,” Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy replied when I asked who he’d use as an emergency catcher. “The kid was a great hockey player. [Andrew] Vaughn was our third catcher; he practiced it a little bit and is pretty good, but he broke a hamate and isn’t with us. We asked [Jackson] Chourio and he said no. But he’s not with us either; he’s got a broken hand.”

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A quiz:

Who holds the Yankees’ single-season record for one-base hits? (A hint: a post-integration infielder, he batted .315 and had 43 stolen bases that year.)

The answer can be found below.

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NEWS NOTES

SABR announced this week that Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti, and the team’s longtime radio voice, Tom Hamilton, will be among the featured speakers at this summer’s national convention. More information on the event, which will be held in Cleveland from July 29-August 2, can be found here.

Tom Nieto, a catcher who appeared in 251 games while seeing action for four teams across the 1984-1990 seasons, died on March 27 at age 65. A minor league coach and manager following his playing days, Nieto notched 57 of his 127 career hits with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1985. One of his five home runs was a 10th-inning walk-off for the Montreal Expos against the Chicago Cubs in 1986.

Bob Duliba, a right-hander who went 17-12 with 14 saves and a 3.47 ERA while pitching for four teams across the 1959-1967 seasons, died on April 4 at age 91. Originally with the St. Louis Cardinals, the Glen Lyon, Pennsylvania native came out of the bullpen to relieve Vinegar Bend Mizell in his MLB debut.

Davey Lopes, who swiped 557 bases while playing for four teams — primarily the Los Angeles Dodgers — across the 1972-1987 seasons, died earlier this week at age 80. A second baseman, Lopes logged 1,671 hits and a 111 wRC+, performing best against opposite-handed hurlers. The Providence, Rhode Island native batted .291 with an .831 OPS versus southpaws, and .251 with a .698 OPS versus righties.

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The answer to the quiz is Steve Sax, who hit 171 singles for the Yankees in 1989. If you guessed Derek Jeter, his single-season career high was 169.

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A followup note on Davey Lopes:

He was almost a Giant. One year before being drafted and signed by the Dodgers in 1968, Lopes was taken in the eighth round by San Francisco, only to temporarily forego pro ball and return to Washburn University. He wasn’t the only notable player the Giants drafted but failed to sign in 1967. Their fourth-round pick that year was Steve Busby, who opted to attend the University of Southern California. and subsequently become a Kansas City Royal via the 1971 draft. A two-time All-Star who tossed a pair of no-hitters, Busby went 56-41 for the Royals from 1973-1975 before injuries sidetracked his career.

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Joe Sambito spent his first eight big-league seasons with the Astros, appearing in 353 games and tossing 536 innings from 1976-1984. A southpaw who pitched almost exclusively in relief, he logged 33 wins, 72 saves, and a 2.42 ERA while wearing a Houston uniform. I recently asked the now-73-year-old Brooklyn native about those teams, and about one player in particular.

“The Astros were not built on power,” recalled Sambito, who was at his best in 1979 when he saved 22 games and posted a sparkling 1.77 ERA. “We had a lot of rabbits who hit line drives. It was gap-to-gap. And then we had some good arms, some good young pitchers. I was fortunate to be one of those guys.”

The most notable of those of young pitchers was J.R. Richard, a 6-foot-8 righty with erratic control and an electric fastball. From 1975-1979, the flamethrower twice led NL pitchers in strikeouts, fanning 303 and 313 batters in back-to-back seasons. He also led the senior circuit in walks and wild pitches three times each.

“J.R., on a good day, was untouchable,” said Sambito. “He had probably the highest ceiling of anybody. Whether or not he got the most out of his ability, I think that would have been more for him to answer. But he was good. Guys were afraid to get in the box sometimes, because he had a tendency to lose the ball. You never knew where it was going to go. I saw him hit a few guys, but it wasn’t intentional. He wasn’t a headhunter. He was what you’d call effectively wild.”

He was especially dominant from 1976-1979. Over that four-season stretch, Richard went 74-51 with a 2.88 ERA, a 2.82 FIP, and a 22.6% strikeout rate that was second in the majors behind only Nolan Ryan among pitchers who threw at least 500 innings. He was once again overpowering in 1980 — a 10-4 record, a 1.90 ERA, and his first All-Star berth — but only until his career was tragically derailed in mid-July. Richard suffered a stroke, never again to stand atop a big-league mound. He died in 2021 at age 71.

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FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Hyun Min Ahn is 13-for-39 with two doubles, a triple, and two home runs for the KBO’s KT Wiz. A member of Team Korea who went 5-for-15 in this year’s WBC, the 22-year-old outfielder slashed .334/.443/.570 with 22 home runs and a 175 wRC+ last season.

Jun Soon Park is 13-for-33 with two doubles, a triple, and a home run for the Doosan Bears. Selected sixth overall in the 2025 KBO draft, the 19-year-old infielder debuted last summer and slashed .284/.307/.379 over 298 plate appearances.

Ryusei Terachi is 16-for-48 with a double and a home run for NPB’s Chiba Lotte Marines. The 20-year-old catcher slashed .256/.299/.331 with an 85 wRC+ last year in his rookie season.

Kensuke Kondoh is 14-for-47 with three doubles, five home runs, and 11 walks for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. The 32-year-old left-handed-hitting outfielder has slashed .307./418/.458 over 15 NPB seasons.

Hiroya Miyage was diagnosed with a damaged UCL and will get a second opinion before potentially undergoing surgery. The 24-year-old southpaw had a 2.39 ERA over 150-and-a-third innings for the Orix Buffaloes last year. He threw three-and-a-third scoreless innings for Samurai Japan in the WBC.

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An excerpt from Robert K. Fitts’s book In the Japanese Ballpark: Behind the Scenes of Nippon Professional Baseball, which was published last year:

“Even back in the 1960s, Japanese stadiums had these really good-looking girls running around in shorts carrying these huge containers of draft beer… They’re running up and down the steps of Korakuen Stadium, and the steps were so steep that you needed to be a mountain goat to navigate them… You could sit up there on a summer night with a cool breeze coming in and see the lights of Tokyo, the neon signs, and the trains going by, and then in this pool of light down below on the field, Sadaharu Oh would step in with this one-legged stance and hit a home run.”

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FARM NOTES

The New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Double-A, Toronto) tallied 10 runs while logging just one hit — a two-run single in the second inning — of their 12-7 win over the Portland Sea Dogs (Boston) on a 35-degree Tuesday night in southern Maine. Three Sea Dogs pitchers combined for eight walks, two HBPs, and four wild pitches in the frame.

Jesús Made is 12-for-32 with two triples, a home run, and a 159 wRC+ over 36 plate appearances for the Double-A Biloxi Shuckers. The 18-year-old shortstop in the Milwaukee Brewers organization is No. 2 on our 2026 Top 100 Prospects list.

Max Clark is 19-for-46 with eight doubles, a triple, and a 198 wRC+ over 57 plate appearances with the Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens. The 21-year-old outfielder in the Detroit Tigers organization is No. 7 on our 2026 Top 100 Prospects list.

Noah Schultz is 3-0 with a 1.29 ERA and a 40.4% strikeout rate over 14 innings with the Triple-A Charlotte Knights. The 22-year-old southpaw in the Chicago White Sox system is No. 36 on our 2026 Top 100 Prospects list.

Jhonny Level is 14-for-27 with two home runs and a 263 wRC+ over 30 plate appearances with the Low-A San Jose Giants. The recently-turned-19-year-old shortstop in the San Francisco Giants system is No. 77 on our 2026 Top 100 Prospects list.

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A random obscure former player snapshot:

To say that Tom Oliver wasn’t known for his power would be an understatement. A gifted defensive centerfielder for the Boston Red Sox whose MLB career spanned the 1930-1933 seasons, Oliver came to the plate 2,073 times and never left the yard. No other player in the modern era has more plate appearances without homering. (Bill Holbert, who played from 1876-1888 holds the pre-1901 record with 2,396 PAs sans a home run.)

Oliver did have a decent batting average, finishing at .277 with a high-water mark of .293 in his rookie campaign. His time in the minors included some sparkling BAs, including .352 with the Beaumont Exporters in 1926, and .338 with the Little Rock Travelers in 1929. He also flashed occasional power down on the farm, going deep 48 times in 6,470 plate appearances.

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LINKS YOU’LL LIKE

When he was 10 years old, Anthony Eyanson was diagnosed with achalasia, a rare disorder that makes it difficult to swallow. Eleven years later, he is now one of the top pitching prospects in the Boston Red Sox system. Ian Cundall wrote about the 21-year-old right-hander for Baseball America.

Detroit’s Metro Times ran an excerpt from Adam Henig’s new book, Baseball’s Outcast: The Story of Ron LeFlore.

At Good Grief, Luke Epplin wrote about how Gene Bearden — a 20-game winner for the Cleveland Indians in 1948 — apparently fabricated his claim of being badly injured during a torpedo strike of the U.S.S. Helena during World War II.

Len Levin. who died earlier this week at age 95, served as a proofreader for thousands of biographies, game stories, journal submissions, and book essays that were published by the Society for American Baseball Research. Jacob Pomrenke wrote a memoriam at SABR.org.

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RANDOM FACTS AND STATS

MLB announced this week that 6.8% of players on Opening Day rosters, injured lists and the restricted list were Black. That number was 6.2% at the start of last season, and 6.0% to begin 2024.

Lee Smith had 478 saves and allowed 89 home runs. Kenley Jansen has 478 saves and has allowed 89 home runs.

Masahiro Tanaka went 24-0 with a 1.49 ERA over 212 innings with NPB’s Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in 2013. The 37-year-old erstwhile New York Yankees hurler — he pitched in pinstripes from 2014-2020 — is now taking the mound for the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants.

The Boston Red Sox out-slugged the Kansas City Royals 22-11 at Kauffman Stadium on today’s date in 1994. Scott Cooper went 5-for-6 with a pair of doubles and a home run for the winning side. Boston batters went deep five times on the day, Royals batters twice.

On today’s date in 1932, Sammy Byrd swatted two of his 38 career home runs to lead the New York Yankees to a 12-6 win over the Philadelphia Athletics. Four Hall of Famers — Jimmie Foxx, Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, and Al Simmons — who combined for 2,048 career home runs each went deep once.

Players born on today’s date include Chucho Ramos, who in 1944 became the second native Venezuelan to play in MLB (Alex Carrasquel, who debuted in 1939, was the first). An outfielder, Ramos appeared in just five big-league games, logging five hits in 10 at-bats for the Cincinnati Reds.

Also born on today’s date was Charlie Lau, who caught for four teams across parts of the 1956-1967 seasons, then became a renowned hitting coach, tutoring the likes of Harold Baines and George Brett. The author of the book The Art of Hitting .300, Lau logged 298 hits and a .255 batting average over his relatively nondescript playing career.

MLB history includes two players born in the village of Evart, Michigan (population ≈ 1,700). One of them is Wib Smith, a catcher who went 8-for-42 while appearing in 17 games for the St. Louis Browns in 1909. The first of his hits came in his first ever plate appearance, against Hall of Famer Addie Joss. The other Evart native is Wish Egan, who made 42 appearances while toeing the slab for the Detroit Tigers and St. Louis Cardinals from 1902-1906. He later made a name for himself as a scout. Egan is credited with signing Hoot Evers, Hal Newhouser, and Dizzy Trout.