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Chad Patrick - Milwaukee Brewers (2026)
Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Chad Patrick lines up a pitch (April 4, 2026)
Across baseball two seemingly contradictory things are happening at the same time:
- First, pitchers are throwing harder than ever. 2026 has a chance to be the first season where average fastball velocity exceeds 95 miles per hour.
- Second, improbably, pitchers are using the pitch that best shows that velocity less often than ever.
While most fans have probably witnessed the sport’s long rise in pitch speeds, they might not have noticed the second. Four seam fastballs have been a big part of baseball’s velocity explosion, as with less vertical movement than two seam fastballs or sinkers they maximize speed and are built to attack high in the strike zone.
High velocity pitches may seem like they “disappear” to batters, but this season they really are disappearing. Less than 50% of all pitches this season have been fastballs, down 10% from a decade ago. The trend is even more pronounced for four-seam fastballs specifically, and even pitchers who throw them the hardest are shying away from them a bit. Jared Greenspan of MLB.com noticed that 12 relievers have an average four seamer at or above 98 mph this season but only one of them uses that fastball more than 54% of the time. The list of pitchers reducing their usage includes Padres star closer Mason Miller, a possible Cy Young candidate.
Swings and Strikes
The reason is relatively straightforward (no pun intended): Baseball’s fastest and straightest pitch generates more swinging and called strikes than any other offering, but it also leads to the most hard contact. “The fastball in a vacuum is a good pitch. But metrically, or analytically, offspeed are generally better-performing pitches than the fastball. If you look at the big scope of data, most of the damage is done on four-seam fastballs,” Miller said in the story linked above.
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The decline in four-seam usage is more pronounced at least in part because of significant changes from a pair of teams that have long been seen as having fallen behind the game’s cutting edge: The Nationals and Rockies both underwent major regime changes in their front offices and coaching staffs over the winter and both significantly decreased the number of fastballs their pitchers are throwing this season.
In Milwaukee, however, a franchise that is often seen as being on that cutting edge is going in the other direction. Many of the Brewers’ most successful pitchers are throwing more fastballs, not less. The list starts with Jacob Misiorowski, of course, and it would be a surprise if the hardest-throwing starting pitcher in MLB history wasn’t regularly using his fastest pitch.
Even setting Misiorowski aside as a possible outlier, however, many of the Brewers’ other prominent arms have also maintained or increased their fastball usage this season. Kyle Harrison throws a four-seam fastball nearly 60% of the time and is among the MLB leaders in strikeouts with that pitch. Almost two thirds of Chad Patrick’s offerings are either a four seamer or cutter. Grant Anderson is throwing a four seamer as his most used pitch this season for the first time in his career. Last season Abner Uribe threw roughly an even number of sinkers and sliders, but this year he’s throwing almost twice as many sinkers.
If the Brewers continue to experience this level of success they might start a new trend: They’re among the game’s top five teams in ERA and strikeouts again this season despite having one of the game’s least experienced pitching staffs. At a minimum, however, they’re experiencing success while defying one of the game’s latest strategic changes.
