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When Major League Baseball released its rosters for its Spring Breakout games in 2025, the Cincinnati Reds and Milwaukee Brewers had one of the most intriguing potential pitching matchups the previous years second pick in the draft, the Reds Chase Burns, against the Brewers hard-throwing prospect Jacob Misiorowski.
Advertisement Both right-handers were highly touted and armed with triple-digit fastballs.
That meeting was dashed for MLB Network when Burns started for the Reds in a Cactus League game just three days earlier.
The dream matchup will finally come to fruition Thursday afternoon, 473 days later, when the 23-year-old Burns starts against the 24-year-old Misiorowski in the finale of a four-game series in Milwaukee.
And what a difference 15 months makes.
No longer a pair of promising prospects, the second-year aces enter their first faceoff as likely National League All-Stars and Cy Young contenders.
What makes these two young starters special? To start, they both have stuff thats as good as anybody else in baseball.
Heres a look at how their arsenals make Misiorowski and Burns two of the best pitchers in baseball.
Fastballs Its hard to go toe-to-toe with the hardest fastball in the league.
Misiorowski has the highest average fastball velocity of any starter, and has also thrown the fastest pitch thrown by a starter in the pitch tracking era (105.5 mph, in literally his most recent time on the mound).
Hes the only starting pitcher to throw a fastball over 103 mph, and hes done it 63 times already.
Case closed? Sure, but lets give Burns some flowers too.
Only five starters have thrown harder than him this year at 97.9 mph on the gun, and it has more vertical movement than his Brewers counterpart does.
But Burns has a higher arm slot 53 degrees to Misiorowskis 30 degrees so hes expected to have that ride.
His fastball has some cut, which makes it equally good against lefties and righties, but then you return to the radar gun supremacy, and you just have to smile and shrug.
Advantage: Misiorowski Breaking Balls Velocity matters for breaking balls as well as fastballs.
So when Misiorowski is pumping 93 mph sliders fastest in the game, of course its tempting to hand him the breaking ball trophy, too.
Advertisement Again, Burns isnt far behind, with the fourth-hardest slider among starters at 90.6 mph, and his breaking ball breaks more.
Those extra three inches of drop make it a better pitch in terms of velocity plus shape.
And thats been borne out in the numbers Burns gets whiffs on 52 percent of the swings he gets on the slider, and Misiorowski only 32 percent.
Misiorowski still holds an advantage because he throws the cutter, the slider and the curve.
He uses his slider as a fastball: his go-to pitch when he needs to throw a strike and establish his best overall mechanics.
Everything plays off my slider, he said this spring.
I always have that to get me back in line, to tell me what my delivery is doing wrong, like Im getting too long.
The curve is his action pitch and, you might have guessed, he throws it harder than any other starter in baseball.
So, on a list of the best breaking balls thrown by starters judged by Stuff+, which looks at the physical characteristics of a pitch, the Miz has multiple entries that challenge Burns excellent slider.
| Pitcher | Pitch Type | Stuff+ | |---|---|---| Curve | 131 | | Slider | 128 | | Curve | 127 | | Curve | 127 | | Slider | 125 | | Curve | 121 | | Slider | 121 | | Curve | 120 | | Slider | 121 | | Slider | 120 | | Slider | 120 | | Slider | 119 | | Slider | 119 | | Slider | 115 | | Curve | 115 | Maybe Burns can bring back his college curve and change the math here, but by virtue of quantity (and quality), hes taking a close second place again.
Advantage: Misiorowski Changeup This is a short one, because the two pitchers have combined to throw just over 100 changeups, and they almost only ever use it against lefties (and sparingly at that).
Nobody has managed a hit against Misiorowskis changeup, and Burns gets whiffs on a third of the changeups he offers up.
Burns locates his a little better, but Misiorowski gets better movement.
Its an area of improvement for both, as much as both pitchers were excited about the pitch this spring.
I knew what it took to get to the big leagues, and I knew my fastball and slider were good enough, so once I got up here, I sacrificed the development side of the curveball and the changeup in order to get outs, Burns said this spring.
This year, this spring training, Im throwing the changeup a lot more and its been a big thing for me, getting more comfortable with the kick change.
Advertisement Ive been struggling with pronating, Misiorowski said this spring, I couldnt get over my changeup to save my life.
So Ive started cheating this finger onto this seam its a double circle change! Well, we havent seen enough to render a decision on these yet.
Advantage: TBD While they havent previously faced off in the same regular-season game, each got a brief sample of their National League Central opponent during their respective rookie seasons in 2025.
Misiorowski made two appearances against the Reds last year, giving up five earned runs before getting pulled one out into the second inning during a mid-August start at Great American Ballpark.
He also threw 2 1/3 innings in relief during the final weekend of the season, giving up one earned run after allowing three hits and three walks.
Burns brief appearance against the Brewers came in relief during the regular-season finale, when he struck out four in 1 2/3 innings, giving up no hits but walking two.
Both pitchers have certainly made a big jump in their sophomore seasons, with Thursdays matinee looking like the first meeting of many to come between the division rivals.