Chad Durbin came to the Phillies as a mediocre swingman who’d spent his entire career in AL Central purgatory. Since then, he’s been (alternately) the bread upon which a World Series title sandwich was built, and a man for whom his fielders didn’t need to show up–whoever he faced either walked or hit a home run.
I once wrote of J.A. Happ that I had no idea how he was effective–he didn’t throw particularly hard or have earth-shattering breaking stuff. But he was. Chad Durbin is much the same. He throws five pitches, all of which (according to FanGraphs) were within 3 1/2 runs of league average in 2010.
In 2008, that mediocre stuff helped Durbin put in an outstanding season in middle relief: 87 innings pitched and a 2.87 ERA. In 2009, Durbin’s control deserted him to the tune of more than six walks per nine IP and a 4.39 ERA that wasn’t half as bad as his performance warranted. For all the talk of which Jimmy Rollins or which Cole Hamel...
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