Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher Freddy Peralta has had an impressive start to the 2023 season. In the two games he has pitched, he has covered six innings and struck out seven batters in both contests. Overall he has allowed just one earned run, which equates to a 0.75 ERA.
One noticeable difference for Freddy Peralta this year is his fastball velocity. Peralta’s fastball averaged 92.6 MPH in 2022. So far this year his velocity has increased to 93.7 MPH, but he is also maintaining a higher velocity deep into games.
During his last start against the St. Louis Cardinals, Peralta threw a career high 35 fastball at 95 MPH or higher. He threw 102 pitches in the game, but four out of his last five fastball were greater than 95 MPH. The fifth fastball was exactly 95 MPH.
Freddy Peralta threw the most 95-mph fastballs of his career today with 32, which he wasn’t aware of until informed: pic.twitter.com/ki7Sa5as6J
— Todd Rosiak (@Todd_Rosiak) April 9, 2023
Freddy’s last five fastballs as he crosses 100 total pitches:
97 – 97 – 96 – 96 – 95 – 96
He gets a 1-2-3 6th with K’s on Walker and Knizner. Great stuff from Peralta today #Brewers
— Dominic Cotroneo (@Dom_Cotroneo) April 9, 2023
Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher Freddy Peralta is throwing harder this season.
During this same game, Freddy Peralta also threw the hardest pitch of his career as a starting pitcher. This was a 97.8 MPH dart to Jordan Walker.
Six innings, one run on 102 pitches for Freddy Peralta, who had the best fastball velo of any of his 69 MLB starts.
A 97.8 mph FB to Jordan Walker in the 4th was Freddy’s hardest fastball as a starting pitcher in the big leagues. (He has topped out at 99.0 mph as a reliever.)
— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) April 9, 2023
There are a few factors that may go into why Peralta is throwing harder right now.
The first being that we are early on in the season. Pitchers at this point don’t have a lot of mileage on their arms and can typically throw at higher velocities. Another factor is that he is healthy. Peralta missed a big chunk of last season with injury and had two separate stints on the injured list.
Hopefully fastball Freddy can keep up this high velocity in starts going forward. He’s been very impressive to begin the 2023 season.
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