Atlanta Braves Scouting Report on LHP Max Fried

Scouting Report

More from Tomahawk Take

• Atlanta Braves 2023 Preseason Top 30 Prospects List: 1-5
• Braves News: Braves acquire Diaz, moves around the division, more
• Atlanta Braves 2012 Top Prospects Review: J.R. Graham
• Atlanta Braves Acquire Lewin Diaz from the Orioles
• Atlanta Braves 2023 Preseason Top 30 Prospects List: 6-10

Size/Delivery/Control

Size – Fried is listed at 6’4 and 185. He could be a few pounds heavier than that, but he has a lean build, and he does have long legs and arms on his 6’4 frame.

Delivery – Fried stays fairly tall throughout his delivery. He starts by turning his body toward the plate without much of a step back.

Fried takes a slow lift with his knee to waist level, and then he takes a long stride toward home plate with his long legs, snapping his hips toward the plate as his lead leg hits the landing point.

While he typically stayed consistent in his 3/4 arm slot, I did note that his landing spot varied, and he tended to alter his upper body angle in his delivery when that happened, so the arm came through the same, but the ball came out at a different angle all the same as a guy who would lose his arm slot.

One thing of personal concern within Fried’s delivery is that he is fairly rigid in his upper body throughout his delivery until the ball is out of hand. That can help him to utilize his legs for power and other beneficial things, but it can also lead to some concerns in command and control that may not be able to be resolved while still holding that level of rigidity.

One thing of note for Fried is that he has a very solid pick off move that absolutely froze multiple hitters this season, even once on second base (though he didn’t get the out).

Control (50) – Adam Wainwright is the guy I quote on this often, but he’s by no means the originator of the line, but as a pitcher, it’s common that after TJS, in year 1 back, a pitcher recovers his velocity, and in year 2 he recovers his command.

Fried really worked on his approach last year, and he truly did struggle to hit his spots at time. From my view, it really didn’t have to do with a poor repeatability in his delivery like many guys with control inconsistency have.

In his last couple of starts on the regular season and definitely in his postseason starts, he really showed improved command, and that was impressive within his first year and could be an excellent harbinger of what is to come.

Pitches

Fastball (65) – In terms of pure velocity, there are few with Fried’s velocity from the left side. Fried was exhibiting 92-94 on the fastball, touching 96-97 consistently at the top end, and he even had a few reported pitches in the 98-99 range!

The fastball showed excellent location up and down in the zone, but he did struggle some with controlling the natural glove-side cut of the pitch, especially in the lower half of the zone, but that really could be as much a part of his surgery recovery as anything.

Change Up (50) – One of the mechanical things the Braves worked with Fried on this year was a bit of a “tell” with his change where he showed the pitch with his arm motion before releasing.

He’s made some strides in that area, but the big issue in the pitch now has become commanding the pitch as he often had control of the pitch by putting it in the zone, but he’d miss the catcher’s target into the meat of the zone, and a change in the meat of the zone is essentially a batting practice pitch.

Curve Ball (60) – Fried shows two movements to his curve. The one that you’ll see put into a .gif is the big breaking curve that works 11-5. That curve comes in with the slowest velocity of anything he throws and is near impossible for a hitter to square up, leading to a ton of swing and miss or grounders.

His second grip is the one that’s probably more effective as a pure strikeout pitch, and that’s thrown with a more direct break in the same 11-5 direction, but breaking from about the waist of the hitter to his mid-shin, which gives a sort of slurve look to the pitch.

That second look is thrown hard, and in multiple starts, I never noted that particular pitch put into the outfield, even on a weak pop up. Even getting it into the air for an infield pop seems an accomplishment.

MLB Player Comp

While he has a touch more in the tank on the top end, Fried does have a similar build and a similar approach on the mound to Cole Hamels.

Hamels has a similar frame (6’4, 190 is Hamels listed size), and though Hamels features a four-seam, two-seam, and a cut fastball, he does still feature the fastball/curve/change primary three pitch with change in how he moves the fastball being the added pitches in his repertoire.

Hamels, like Fried, has very calm, repeatable mechanics, and frankly, early on, Hamels had a bit of work he had to do with his change to make it more effective overall.

Next: Braves Minor League Database

Fried will be an interesting guy to see where the Braves place him this year. It was understandable to stay at one level for all of 2016 to get his bearings coming back from injury.

It would not surprise me at all to see the team challenge Fried by sending him to AA to open 2017, but he could also open in high-A with a quick promotion intention to AA with someone like Kolby Allard having the same plan, starting at low-A with a quick promotion to take his place.