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Atlanta Braves Top 100 Prospects Scouting Report: 15. Max Fried

By Benjamin Chase

Oct 9, 2015; Kansas City, MO, USA; A general view of a ball and glove on the field before the Kansas City Royals and the Houston Astros play in game two of the ALDS at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 9, 2015; Kansas City, MO, USA; A general view of a ball and glove on the field before the Kansas City Royals and the Houston Astros play in game two of the ALDS at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports /
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Aug 7, 2015; Kansas City, MO, USA; A general view of a ball and glove prior to a game between the Chicago White Sox and the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports
Aug 7, 2015; Kansas City, MO, USA; A general view of a ball and glove prior to a game between the Chicago White Sox and the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports /

Scouting Report

More from Tomahawk Take

Fried has made 5 starts so far this season, but he only has one available on milb.tv so far, so I just have that one to go on for this report, and in that start, he went 5 innings, allowing 3 runs (2 earned) on 3 hits and 1 walk while striking out 4.

Fried is listed on Baseball-Reference at 6’4 and 185 pounds. He is long and lean, with long arms and legs, so the 185 pounds wouldn’t be surprising if it is still fairly accurate. Fried has a fastball that sits 92-94 and touching 95-96. His curveball is what many notice in his arsenal, a looping curve that is more of an angular curve in the 1-7 variety than a straight 12-6 curve. He has a change up that he uses as well, but I would say that’s a pitch that will be a work in progress this season as the typical recovery from TJS is that you regain velocity first year back and not until the second year back does the top end of control come back. I noted that he either utilizes two types of curves, one looping like I mentioned earlier, and one that is more sharp and has a short, hard break, or else he’s using a slurvy hard slider as a fourth pitch. Either way, when he had control of that pitch, it was a very hard pitch for hitters to get ahold of.

Fried likes to work his fastball up in the zone, which can be good, but it can also get him in trouble if it drifts on him just a bit because that’s in most hitters’ favorite area to hit hard. The game I watched saw the Giants’ Lucius Fox take a high fastball and meet it and the result was a 2-run home run that left the field in a hurry. He tends to bury the curve low in the zone and locate the change up more in the middle of the zone on either side of the plate. This keeps the batter’s eye levels always adjusting.

Fried’s wind up is calm and steady with nothing to raise any flags about for sure. When he goes to the stretch, he does stay a bit more upright on his curve and gets more down into his legs on his fastball, so that could be a bit of a tell with his pitches for batters out of the stretch, but he certainly doesn’t have such a “tell” in his wind up. He releases from a high 3/4 arm slot.

Fried does have a tremendous pick off move to use, and he’s used it to pick off one batter in every single game this season. This should help Fried for sure as he works going forward in this season regaining his control.

Next: Future outlook

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