Brandon Maurer is 6 feet 5 with long flowing hair and a fastball that averages 96.5 mph. In baseball, there are only 20 relievers who throw harder.
He supplements the velocity with a biting slider, and when viewed in totality, the package suggests an above-average piece of a major-league bullpen. He offers the kind of talent that pitching coaches covet.
Maurer, 27, is also a right-hander who entered Thursday with a 6.00 ERA in 51 innings this season. And the disconnect between pure stuff and results can confound. Maurer has the arsenal to be effective. His results do not match up.