SUMMER LEAGUE NOTEBOOK

July 28, 2006

Furbush Shines On The Big Stage

BY ALLAN SIMPSON

If there was any doubt lefthander Charlie Furbush could pitch with the big boys, he has pretty much laid that to rest with a sparkling performance this summer in the Cape Cod League.

The 6-foot-6, 215-pound Furbush spent his first two seasons at St. Joseph’s College, a remote Division III school in Maine, going 16-1 overall. He pitched last summer in the Cape Cod League as a temporary player, but went just 1-5, 5.40 for Hyannis , whose 7-36 record was one of the worst in Cape Cod League history.

But this summer has been a different story. Not only has Forbush posted a 3-1, 1.50 record with 43 strikeouts in 48 innings, but he tossed the league’s second no-hitter earlier this week and was scheduled to start the league’s annual All-Star Game on Saturday.

“He’s had a fantastic summer for us,” Hyannis coach Greg King said. “He’s just gotten better and better every time out. We had him in the pen his first couple of outings to build up his arm strength and he struggled in his first couple of starts, but he’s been a different pitcher since.”

Not only has Forbush learned to throw an effective changeup this summer, but he’s learned to become a more refined pitcher.

“He’d never thrown a changeup before, or one that was any good, but one bullpen session is all it took for him to master the pitch,” King said. “It gave him the third pitch he needed and it’s actually sped up his fastball.

King points to a recent 6-1 win over Cotuit, the league’s best team, as the game that really turned the corner for Forbush.

“We had our pitching coach call all his pitches that game, not to be a control freak, but to teach him how to use his stuff better,” King said. “And he’s been a different pitcher since.”

Furbush was at his absolute best in his no-hitter against Bourne, when his fastball was clocked at 93 mph and he struck out 12.

He entered the ninth inning with a pitch count of 116 and King toyed with the idea of lifting him, but he let him complete the mission.

“It was a dilemma,” King admitted, “but we thought this kid had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to throw a no-hitter. I also knew he had absolutely dominating stuff, and I know he bounces back well. For him to throw 120 pitches, that’s nothing. Ten more was about his limit, but any sign of trouble in the ninth and he was out of there.”

Between 20 and 30 scouts were on hand to watch Furbush’s no-hitter—a sign of his escalating value. Division I colleges have also been hot on his trail all season, enticing him to transfer to a higher-profile program, and he made the decision two weeks ago to pitch at Louisiana State next spring.

“He’s a bit of a free spirit anyway, so he’s not intimidated at all pitching to the best college hitters in the country,” King said. “With what he’s done here this summer, he’ll have no trouble pitching at that level next spring.”

WEATHERS: RAGS TO RICHES STORY

Righthander Casey Weathers was added to Team USA’s pitching staff earlier this month, a surprising development considering both how Weathers took up pitching almost by accident and how little Weathers had pitched prior to this summer. But it was also a ringing endorsement of how far he has come as a prospect.

Weathers went 1-0, 0.84 in 16 appearances this summer for the Anchorage Glacier Pilots and was tied for the Alaska League lead in saves with eight when he was added to the Team USA roster by head coach Tim Corbin, who doubles as Weathers’ coach at Vanderbilt.

“We were a little hesitant to bring him on at this point in the schedule,” Corbin said, “but he’d performed very well at a high level and he was the right fit at the right time.”

As a junior this spring for the Commodores, Weathers worked in only 27 innings, going 1-1, 3.33 with three saves in 18 games. He pitched sparingly at the start of the year after transferring to Vanderbilt from Sacramento City College , where he was primarily an outfielder.

“Quite frankly, he couldn’t pitch when he came to us,” Corbin said. “We had a tough time projecting him on our 25-man travel roster as late as January or February, but the more and more he got himself in and out of tough jams this spring, the more his confidence grew and the more we used him. This summer he has continued to get better.”

Weathers took up pitching almost by accident at Sac City , picking up a ball in practice that was lying near the mound on his way in from right field. Just messing around, he threw a few pitches and when his fastball touched 90, the overnight conversion to pitching began.

Though he just reared back and threw his fastball with little sense of command at the start of the year, he began to show a lot of improvement as the spring developed, particularly with a fastball that topped out at 96. Scouts also were intrigued with his strong, athletic body in addition to his impressive raw stuff. In four Southeastern Conferences games, he didn’t allow a run while striking out 17 in eight innings.

While he was drafted much lower than projected, in the 25^th round by the Detroit Tigers, he has shown vast improvement this summer, particularly with the command of a hard slider and cut fastball. His fastball has been clocked from 94-97 mph, and his slider from 83-86.

Weathers replaced Bryan Augenstein (Florida ), who was shelved with a sore arm, on the Team USA roster. He has been used in a setup role with Team USA , but it’s entirely possible he will step in as Vanderbilt’s closer next year if he doesn’t sign with the Tigers first. Corbin is confident he won’t.

“There’s always a chance he’ll sign,” Corbin said, “but he’s made it clear to us that he wants to go to school for four years, that he’s not a one-year rental. He’s not enamored with money. All he cares about is coming back to school.”

It’s also likely that his stock in the draft will take a quantum step forward a year from now—if he shows anywhere near the improvement next spring that he has showed this summer.

“He’s come a long way but he’s still pretty much a two-pitch guy,” Corbin said. “Everything he throws now is hard. He’s still got a ways to go.”

While Weathers was added to the Team USA roster, his more celebrated Vanderbilt teammate, lefthander David Price, has continued to excel as the ace of a pitching staff that posted a 1.22 ERA through its first 18 games. Price finally allowed his first earned run of the summer in a 4-2 loss to Japan in the first game of the annual U.S.-Japan Intercollegiate Series, played this year in the U.S. Price was 2-1, 0.33 while striking 41 and walking just five in 27 innings.

“He’s not only pitched better this summer but he’s gotten stronger,” Corbin said. “His velocity has been a pretty steady 93-96, his breaking ball is better and he likes his changeup more. He’s put himself in good position to have a long professional career.”

Price is the early favorite to be the top pick in the 2007 draft.

Team USA , meanwhile, will finish out the domestic portion of its summer schedule with the remainder of the Japan Series before playing two games against teams from the Coastal Plain League. It is set to defend its title at the World University Games in Cuba from Aug. 6-15, with Price scheduled to work the first game against Taiwan .

NBC WORLD SERIES KICKS OFF TODAY

The 72^nd annual National Baseball Congress World Series kicked off this afternoon with a field of 42 teams, including Chicago’s Prairie Gravel, which won the 2005 title with a lineup that had a mix of college players and ex-pros. Prairie Gravel lost its first game of the double-elimination tournament a year ago, then won nine in a row to win its first title.

Also in the field is the Alaska League champion, either the Kenai Peninsula Oilers or Anchorage Bucs (the title had yet to be resolved, though the Oilers had a 1 ½ game lead with a game between the two clubs remaining and a possible makeup game by the Bucs) and the Hays Larks, the Jayhawk League champion. Those two leagues have combined to produce 24 NBC champions since 1968—16 by the Alaska League, eight by the Jayhawk. The Oilers have won three titles, in 1977, 1993-94, while the Bucs and Larks had never won a championship.

Hays won the Jayhawk League title for the fifth time in six years as first baseman Dan Stovall (New Mexico ) led the team with an average of .418, the highest by a Hays player since former big leaguer Jim Leyritz, the team’s last .400 hitter in 1985.

SUMMER NOTEBOOK

--Furbush’s mound opponent in the Cape Cod All-Star Game is scheduled to be Brewster lefthander Shaun Siebert (Arkansas ), who had yet to allow a run through his first 41 innings. He was 5-0, 0.00 with 33 strikeouts.

--Orleans (Cape Cod) 6-foot-10 righthander Andrew Brackman knows he’s going to have to make a decision soon on a career in baseball vs. basketball. “Baseball takes away from basketball and basketball takes away from baseball,” he told the Cape Cod Times. “If I had focused on one, I would have been a lot better.” Though he had pitched only 17 innings this summer as he continued to rehab from a stress fracture in his hip that caused him to miss the second half of his sophomore year at North Carolina State , there are strong indications Brackman is leaning to baseball. His fastball has been as high as 99 mph this summer and it was a steady 97 as he worked six scoreless innings in his last outing against Yarmouth-Dennis. Pressed as to which sport he would eventually choose, he said: “I don’t ever see giving up baseball.” The Wolfpack has reportedly juggled its scholarship allotment for baseball to accommodate Brackman for the 2007 season. He had previously been on a basketball scholarship. Brackman is projected to be one of the top pitchers in next year’s draft.

--Newport’s Pat McAnaney led the New England Collegiate League with six wins en route to a 6-0, 1.79 for the 28-10 Gulls, but absorbed the loss in the NECBL’s 13th All-Star Game, played in Keene, N.H., on July 23. McAnaney, a rising junior at Virginia , allowed four earned runs on three hits and a walk in the first inning, his only inning as the North defeated the South 6-2. Keene center fielder Cheyne Hurst (South Carolina) earned MVP honors in large measure because of his three-run homer off McAnaney.