The Brewers Are About to Test the Limits of Power Pitching

No team has ever embraced extreme velocity like Milwaukee has—especially not those that have won the World Series.

Brewers reliever Abner Uribe (right) has a 2.04 ERA in 57 1/3 innings. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

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Can an old-school, fastball-based power pitching staff win the World Series? As spin has overtaken the game, recent history says no. None of the past 17 full-season champions ranked among the top five teams in fastball usage. Eleven of the 17 champions ranked in the bottom half in fastball use:

2008-25 World Champions Fastball% MLB Ranks (Full Seasons)

Rank	Champions
1–5	0
6–10	3
11–15	3
16–20	3
21–25	3
26–30	5

As the game has moved away from fastballs as the foundation of pitching, three teams are out to prove you can still win it all by throwing heaters more than half the time: the Brewers, Red Sox and Yankees, the only three playoff teams (and among only six overall) that throw more than 50% fastballs (cutters not included). 

The Brewers are the ultimate test of how far power pitching can take a team. We have never seen a pitching staff like this in the postseason.

Milwaukee will have the highest average fastball velocity in postseason history (95.9 mph), the most pitches clocked at 100 mph in recorded history by a 62% margin over any other staff and as many as six pitchers on their postseason roster who have hit 100. In Jacob Misiorowski and high leverage relievers Abner Uribe, Aaron Ashby and Trevor Megill, manager Pat Murphy can use nothing but 100-mph arms to win a game.

Most Pitches 100 MPH in MLB History

Team	Pitches
1. 2026 Brewers	1,141
2. 2026 Padres	703
3. 2018 Padres	673
4. 2026 Dodgers	565
4. 2024 Athletics	565

Milwaukee should avoid the temptation to follow the industry trend of throwing fewer fastballs in the postseason. Last season, in getting swept by the Dodgers, Brewers pitchers Freddy Peralta (down 10.3%) and Misiorowski (down 13.3%) typified how Milwaukee went away from its usual rate of fastballs (down 3.8% overall).

Since 2018, the Brewers have played .573 baseball in the regular season, fourth best in MLB, but .355 baseball in the postseason (11-20).

Here are the facts about fastball use to keep in mind entering playoff baseball:

• Fastball use is at an all-time low (47.1%).
• Fastball average velocity is at an all-time high for a sixth straight year (94.6 mph).
• Batting average on fastballs in the last decade has dropped from .280 to .261, the second lowest mark in recorded history (since 2008).
• Fastball use in the postseason typically declines from the regular season, falling to an all-time low last postseason (46.5%).

Here is a look at regular season and postseason fastball use over the past 18 years. You will notice how 1) how the pitch-tracking boom in 2015 accelerated the decline of the fastball and 2) how teams generally throw fewer fastballs in the postseason:

MLB

The experience of former manager Joe Maddon is that the more important the games become the more people in the front office want to get involved in game planning. Everybody wants to pull from their own silo of information to find the incremental edge that is sure to turn a series. Reinvent at your own risk.

The overriding aim of game planning is to pitch away from slug, especially as hits become more infrequent in the postseason. One swing can change a game. That’s the quick reason why fastball use goes down in October. MLB hitters slug .424 against fastballs and .381 against non-fastballs.

But the Red Sox (52.1% fastballs, only Seattle throws more), Brewers (51.8%) and Yankees (51.2%) should stick to their strengths. There is no need to reinvent Peyton Tolle of Boston, Misiorowski and Cam Schlittler of New York, who rank 1-2-3 in fastball use among pitchers with 1,400 pitches.

Last postseason was the postseason of the splitter, with more than double the rate of splitters (6.7%) ever seen in a regular season or postseason The champion Dodgers cut their fastball use from 45.9% in the regular season to 43.8% in the postseason—the lowest ever by a World Series winner—and the Blue Jays cut their fastball use from 45.7% to an incredible 37.9%—the lowest ever by a World Series loser.

Maybe, just maybe, this will be the postseason of the fastball. Only one potential playoff team ranked in the bottom 10 this year in fastball use, the Rangers. And if this October is a return to old-fashioned hardball, the Brewers must be the team leading the way.