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I Am Amused By the Simplicity of This Game, dept.

Charlie Furbush came in to face the 210 OPS+ Chris Davis.  (That's not a figure of speech.)

Four consecutive ... sliders.  Strikeout.  

Furbush is a lot more than just a Left handed One Out GuY, but you forget that you COULD use him as that.  He honestly can just come in there and rip off a lot of sliders for strikes, and you'd be in great shape.

We all expected big things ... we all thought big things were quite possible with this kid.  Where's he been?  Well, he hasn't been pitching.  He's got only 8 innings in, and a hilarious 16K, 8BB control ratio going.  Here, let's split it out:

• 8.1 IP
• 16.2 strikeout rate ::coughAroldisChapmancough::
• 7.5 walk rate
• 1.1 homer rate
• 52% groundball rate

Usually when a guy with nuclear stuff sees BOTH his strikeouts AND walks go up, it's that he's rusty, or throwing harder and wilder, or drawing so MANY swings and misses that the ball's never in play.  (Think Tim Lincecum, when he was in minor league baseball.)

That is the way with Furbush in 2013.  His Zone% is down a little bit, because his IP are down.  His SwStr% is a ludicrous 16.0%, and the Contact% against him is a feeble 60%.  Ask Chris Davis about that -- 

Funniest of all is the contact rate on balls out of the strike zone.  26%.  Major league average is 65%.

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Same Ol' Charlie

Along with Furbush's 10.3 strikeout rate last year (!), he also had a 42% grounder rate.  That's up this year.

Same old Charlie Furbush.  For some reason, Wedge has been keeping him in the hip pocket.  Platoon issue?  Nada - righties hit .195 against Furbush last year.  What does the naked eye tell you?  That not a blinkin' thing has changed about the lad.  He's the same Arthur-Rhodes-Waiting-to-Happen that he was in December.

He's been a little rusty.  He's capable of throwing 100 innings per year out of the 'pen, and he is on pace for a measly 44 innings.  With Pryor out, it's not clear why Furbush has been so underused.  Granted, Oliver Perez has been tough.

That's okay.  Furbush has got 91.2 innings left in his arm this year.  He'll likely surface as a star reliever before too long.

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