Peter Aiken-Imagn Photographs
Max Fried is among the finest pitchers in baseball. Now in his ninth massive league season, and his first with the New York Yankees after eight with the Atlanta Braves, the 31-year-old southpaw is 9-2 with a 1.89 ERA over 95 innings. His profession marks are spectacular as nicely. Since debuting in August 2017, Fried has a 2.96 ERA and three.25 FIP to go together with a glowing 82-38 report. His .683 profitable proportion ranks behind solely Clayton Kershaw (.695) amongst lively pitchers with a minimum of 100 selections.
When our 2015 Atlanta Braves High Prospect listing was printed in January of that yr, Fried was coming off a 2014 season that noticed him miss the primary three months with forearm soreness and throw simply 10 2/3 innings within the low minors earlier than present process Tommy John surgical procedure in July. Acquired by Atlanta from the San Diego Padres shortly earlier than our listing went up, the seventh general decide within the 2012 draft was ranked third within the Braves system by Kiley McDaniel, then our lead prospect analyst.
What did Fried’s 2015 FanGraphs scouting report appear to be? Furthermore, what does he give it some thought all these years later? Wanting to search out out, I shared a few of what McDaniel wrote and requested Fried to answer it.
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“The 6-foot-4, 185 pound lefty was half of what might have been the most effective one-two punch in highschool baseball historical past, with Nationals high prospect RHP Lucas Giolito at Harvard Westlake Excessive College in 2012.”
“It was positively a very good little factor,” replied Fried. “It didn’t point out that Jack Flaherty was in there, too. He was most likely a greater performer in highschool than each of us. His stats blew mine and Lucas’ out of the water.”
“Scouts have been involved going into the 2012 draft spring in regards to the unusually excessive quantity of pitches with restricted down time on the highschool’s pitching program.”
“That’s information to me,” stated Fried. “My senior yr, in whole, I feel I threw near 100 innings, however throwing and workload was by no means an issue for me. I performed soccer, basketball, and baseball form of yearly; I by no means actually performed baseball yr spherical. The primary time I actually gave it a full go together with no different sports activities was my senior yr. That was my first time including workload.
“I might say that the throwing I did was very reasonable,” Fried added. “Guys are throwing yr spherical proper now. They’re throwing on a regular basis. They’re doing velo packages. I just about simply… I imply, we did throwing packages, and we performed a pair video games within the winter, however I used to be additionally nonetheless taking part in outfield my entire senior yr. I wasn’t on a strict pitching program.”
“The Braves acquired him from San Diego this winter because the headliner within the Justin Upton deal.”
“I used to be shocked,” Fried stated of the December 2014 swap. “That was the primary yr A.J. Preller was the GM, and I feel the primary time that I spoke to him was when he advised me I used to be getting traded. I’d simply had Tommy John, after which I acquired traded to the Braves. However every little thing occurs for a purpose, and I used to be in a position to have a number of actually good years there. I grew lots.”
“Fried was shut down early in 2014 as a precaution; his subsequent MRI was clear and he went on an extended rehab program, and when he went again to the mound, his elbow popped just a few begins into his return.”
“On the time, I used to be advised it was clear,” the southpaw recalled. “I most likely had another stuff in there that wasn’t healed, and typically it occurs the place you simply get surgical procedure.”
“Even in these few begins earlier than his elbow popped in 2014, Fried’s stuff was nonetheless fairly near his peak stuff: 90-93, hitting 96 mph with a plus curveball and an bettering, above-average changeup.”
“My velocity was truly very down,” stated Fried. “I feel my first outing within the AZL that yr I used to be like 84-86, touching 87. At that time, I had been rehabbing so lengthy, and it was identical to, ‘Ship me on the market.’ I feel I ultimately acquired as much as like 88-91, touching a 93; the day I blew out, I feel I touched 93. However that yr my velocity was down, for certain.”
“His stuff will range begin to begin and his changeup flashes 60 for some scouts, however not typically and by no means similtaneously his curveball.”
“Yeah, it was a foul changeup,” acknowledged Fried. “I modified my changeup after the 2019 season. I used to be extra of like a Vulcan cut up between my center and ring finger, and it wasn’t an excellent pitch. It might be good when it was down, however after I left it up, I might surrender a number of injury. I gave up too many homers in 2019, so I modified the grip going into 2020.”
“The upside is big, with shades of Cole Hamels at his finest.”
“That’s a very nice praise,” replied Fried. “I’ve gotten to know Cole rather well, and to have the ability to have his profession could be an unbelievable accomplishment. If I’m in a position to stay as much as that, I really feel that will be fairly good.”
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Earlier “Outdated Scouting Experiences Revisited” interviews might be discovered via these hyperlinks: Cody Bellinger, Matthew Boyd, Dylan Stop, Matt Chapman, Erick Fedde, Kyle Freeland, Lucas Giolito, Randal Grichuk, Ian Happ, Jeff Hoffman, Tanner Houck, Matthew Liberatore, Sean Newcomb, Bailey Ober, Matt Olson, Austin Riley, Joe Ryan, Max Scherzer, Marcus Semien.
