Last night, Charlie Furbush pitched against the Royals. Terrific! Charlie Furbush has been a very good pitcher. After a couple pitches Furbush indicated some discomfort and was visited by the trainer. Terrible! Furbush pointed toward his shoulder and was removed. Worse than terrible! Then word came back that Furbush had triceps tightness. Okay! Then we found out that Furbush threw pitches in the batting cage and felt fine. Terrific and weird!
I wrote about Furbush being fine toward the end of last night's recap. Well funny thing about that I guess, because Furbush isn't just fine. He's going on the disabled list, and Steve Delabar is coming back. Furbush is hitting the DL with that same triceps tightness, and I figure he'll probably be given a more thorough examination soon to see about anything more serious. He tried throwing again earlier today and experienced renewed discomfort.
So that's a bummer, because Furbush has great numbers and isn't an asshole, which are qualities we like in our baseball players. I don't know if this is one of those injuries that end up being something different and something worse. George Sherrill, for example, went on the DL with a strained flexor bundle, and then he wound up undergoing Tommy John surgery that knocked him out for the season. One hopes that Furbush will find his way back in a reasonably short amount of time, but then this sentence didn't need to be written. And truthfully it's not like there's sense in having Furbush hurry back since his future is more important than his and the team's present.
You wonder if Steve Delabar might be more annoyed by all this than Charlie Furbush. It's been a weird few days for Steve Delabar.
Delabar: /flies to Kansas City
Delabar: /gets optioned to Tacoma
Delabar: awwwww
Delabar: /flies away from Kansas City*
Delabar: /unpacks
Delabar: /hears about Furbush injury
Delabar: Jesus
Delabar: /packs
Delabar: /hears Furbush is okay
Delabar: Jesus
Delabar: /unpacks
Delabar: /hears Furbush is on DL
Delabar: JESUS
Delabar: /packs
Delabar: /flies to Kansas City
It's also very hot in Kansas City. I don't know if Steve Delabar likes that but most people do not because heat is awful and humidity is awful and while I don't know anything about Kansas City's climate I'm guessing it's both hot and humid. Steve Delabar's going to be sweating out of places where he didn't know he had glands.
So Charlie Furbush is out for some while, meaning probably more leverage for Oliver Perez and Lucas Luetge. And Steve Delabar will try to stop allowing home runs exclusively to right-handed hitters, exclusively on the road. One solution to that would be allowing home runs to left-handed hitters at home. Steve Delabar shouldn't opt for that solution if he wants to quit getting sent to the minors. Bad, Steve Delabar! Why would you do that! I thought you were a teacher!
***
* (turns out Delabar didn't actually fly away from Kansas City but in my defense, shut up)