The other camp describes him as a gutsy, scrapping offensive player who gets a lot of pop out of his bat with a muscular, determined swing. On the D side, J.J.'s advocates also dispute the quick-hands theory. Drills are drills. Getting the job done is what counts. This is where Furmaniak confounds critics by consistently delivering best effort.
Furmaniak was sent to the Rookie Pioneer League after signing with the Padres in 2000. He batted .343 with a .494 slugging percentage with 5 home runs and 38 RBIs for Idaho Falls.
In 2001 he was promoted to Fort Wayne in the Class A Midwest League. He struggled a bit there, his average dipping to .220 mostly due to a problem reading pitches. He struck out 117 times that season. On 123 games played and 436 at-bats he delivered the same number of dingers (5) and almost the same RBI production (35) as at Idaho Falls the prior season.
J.J. had a good spring in 2002, and was promoted to the High-A California League Padres affiliate, the Lake Elsinore Storm. He spent the season by the lake, lifting his average only slightly to .257 with a .386 slugging percentage. He still registered 100 strikeouts, far too high to be productive.
Furmaniak and the Padres batting instructors worked on some fine tuning, which didn't show enough signs of improvement to warrant a promotion out of Arizona in 2003, but paid off when J.J. returned to Lake Elsinore that season.
Some stance shifting and improved pitch reads kicked his average up to .314 in the 78 games and 309 at-bats that he took for the Storm, the first time his average had been above the .300 mark since playing in the Pioneer League. While his other numbers remained largely in the same slow, steady curve of improvement, he had a 45% drop in strikeouts, down to 55. His slugging percentage climbed into noteworthy territory at .524.
He was given a promotion to the Southern League AA club in Mobile. Again the average dipped to 262 as he had as many strikeouts as hits (27). Still, his slugging percentage remained a respectable .408.
Furmaniak stayed at Mobile for 2004. He struggled a bit at the beginning of the season, his average dipping to .196. Still he was promoted to Portand in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League where he played the majority of the season and did very well, turning in a .292 average and a .487 slugging percentage on the year. He also showed huge production gains with the Beavers, generating career high RBIs (73) and home runs (17) and tying his record for doubles (24).
Furmaniak is the youngest of three children. He started playing organized ball when he was six. He attended 'exposure' camps and played and worked out throughout his teen years. When asked what the hardest thing about making the transition to pro ball, he said:
"The first day of Rookie ball was tough. I must have fielded about 200 grounders."
The camp of detractors on the D side obviously had the ear of someone in the Pads farm. Furmaniak was sent to Mexican winter ball to see what other positions he could play. The notion was to make him a utility infielder who could fill in for the sick and wounded.
"[The Padres] kind of want me to be a utilitiy guy," he said during the All-Star break.
He's been playing third base periodically, because it's the position that he has the least experience playing. His last stint at third was in 2002.
In 2005 Furmaniak returned to Portland. His average was .266 with a .437 slugging percentage based largely on 14 home runs through July 28. He says that he hit a bit of a slump during the first two weeks of the season.
He was named to the PCL All-Star Team for the 2005 Triple-A All-Star Game. Projections were that he would have some sort of call-up by mid year. Then he got a different kind of call.
He was traded to the Pirates by San Diego on the 28th for catcher Dave Ross. He reported to Indianapolis, the Pirates new affiliate in the Triple-A, on July 30, 2005.
We like the trade. Furmaniak is very much a Pirates kind of player: High intensity, high commitment, not high dollar. In other organizations, he might just scrape by as a utility infielder. He's a great team/club player that can put up power numbers with continued good coaching. If he can keep his fielding solid, and avoid falling into strikeout trouble, we see a an excellent shot for him to be a role player in the infield for the Pirates in 2006.
