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Terrific work, Doc. :) My only real additions:
1) The other reason the high-fastball plays up, IMO, and the low fastball gets crushed is because short pitchers have to be willing to pitch up in the zone. At least that's my assessment of it. I think it has to do with the angle off the mound.  A tall pitcher can throw down through the zone when throwing the low fastball, but short guys just give hitters a looong time to look at the low pitch, kinda like it was coming out of a pitching machine.
But when you pitch up from that angle it's a look that hitters don't get that much - partly because there aren't a lot of short pitchers - so when the pitch comes from low (relatively-speaking) to high it gives that really good riseball effect and hitters struggle with it. 
The problem with throwing up in the zone is that your miss areas are "automatic ball" and "centered HR pitch."  Player will swing at the ball in the dirt but rarely at the ball over the shoulders, so you have to be able to throw the high heat where you want.  Erasmo does this beautifully in 3/4 of his starts.  Farquhar is unafraid to throw the high fastball but I don't know that he has that kind of control over it.  Simply showing it scares the pants off the hitters, though - especially if you can drop the yellow hammer on them with the next pitch, like you say and like Farquhar can do.
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2) The other thing about Danny closing is that he probably needs to be more of a killer.  The difference between a closer who wants to get you out and a closer who wants to humiliate you WITH an out seems to make a difference in American Baseball (tm).  Just throwing random pitchers up there and getting the appropriate amount of outs doesn't seem to work all that well.  Maybe it has to do with the pressure of the closing gig, which - despite the best efforts of SABR guys - players seem to take incredibly seriously.  I don't ever want Medina closing; he puts insane pressure on himself in that role and I don't think he can take it.
Wilhelmsen has the jitters from the pressure of the role (and perhaps being ill-suited to it on a daily basis).  Farquhar has already proven he has good bounce-back from a blown save and doesn't seem to carry them over to the next game (part of the Feng Shui of Closing he's doing out there that you mentioned earlier).
But the curve is a humiliation pitch.  Hitters will look bad against it, they know it, and they are looking desperately for any other pitch to swing at to avoid that humiliation.  A great closer knows they want the fastball and makes them dine on a humiliation sammich at every opportunity.  Farquhar isn't that shark-like yet with his bad intentions.  When he throws the curve as the opposition is muttering "nononononoNONONO" at the plate, then he'll be the perfect man for the job.
As it is, he's the best we've got and I like him a bunch.  Let him keep learning on the job.  Nobody gets a giant contract after 40 IP, but it's hard to have fully settled into the job at that point either.  I still like his chances to fully master the learning curve.
~G