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ANALYSIS: Sometimes all you need is a little bit more time. You might struggle at Triple-A, you might struggle when you reach the majors, but for some guys everything just clicks around their late-20s, and that seems to be the case for former Louisville Cardinal Kyle Funkhouser. Funkhouser struggled mightily, yet had his moments, in 2020 as part of the versatile Tigers bullpen that saw most high-leverage and middle-relief work in the hands of Daniel Norris, Jose Cisnero, Buck Farmer, Gregory Soto, and Bryan Garcia. As a result, Funkhouser collected just one win, zero holds, and zero saves over 17.1 IP last year. This season, Funkhouser has located his groove and he has been appropriately rewarded, so far notching three wins, two holds in two chances, a 2.34 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, and 3.58 FIP in 34.2 IP.
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So what changed? Turns out that many things changed in small ways. His strikeout rate is up by 6.3%, his walk rate is down by 3.7%, he's forcing a ridiculous 62.5% grounders with just 17.7% line drives, his hard hit rate is down 2%, average exit velocity is down 3.5%, his home run rate went from 3.7% to 1.4%, and his XBH rate dropped from 8.6% to 2.8%. That's pretty much a step in the right direction on every avenue. Making slight adjustments to the use of his repertoire, he has brought the values for each of his pitches from the negatives to 3.3, 2.4, and 1.9 for his fastball, slider, and changeup, respectively. Kyle Funkhouser has collected all three wins and both holds just in the 21.2 IP since June 5th, a stretch for which he is averaging a little over 1.1 IP, so with his newfound place of responsibility in the Tigers bullpen, he's a sneaky option in deeper leagues to potentially contribute across the statistical board.
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