Breaking down Max Fried’s mad dash to home for the Atlanta Braves

It wonderful, joyous, and scary… all at the same time.  But what was this story of Mad Max’s wild ride around the bases on Sunday?

Normally – as if there’s anything ‘normal’ about this situation – the Atlanta Braves will use Julio Teheran in the role of emergency pitcher-specialist.

Teheran wasn’t available for this duty in the 10th inning on Sunday – he had fulfilled his other role of ‘starting pitcher’ and thus was taking in the rest of the contest from the comforts of the visiting team clubhouse underneath Marlins Park.

So instead, Max Fried was called upon.  However, even at the outset of his entry into the game, there should have been a couple of eyebrows raised.

Why the Change?

Josh Donaldson was used as a pinch hitter in the top of the 10th ininings on behalf of Josh Tomlin.  That much seemed routine:  he had been given Sunday as an ‘off day’… except that he’s been ‘off’ quite a bit lately due to a (new) right calf ailment…

• April 29 – full game, 4 plate appearances
• April 30 – did not play
• May 1 – did not play
• May 2 – did not play
• May 3 – full game, 5 PA
• May 4 – full game, 6 PA
• Sunday – 1 PA in a pinch-hitting role.

Donaldson coaxed a walk out of this appearance, but didn’t stay on 1st base very long.  He was immediately replaced by Fried.

Donaldson isn’t the most fleet-a-foot of runners.  Statcast has him measured at 26.0 ft/second.  That’s a bit below the league average speed of 27 ft/sec, but it’s not terrible either.

They actually have him measured a tick faster than Johan Camargo (25.9) and a tick slower than Freddie Freeman (26.1).  Could you envision either of them being taken down for a pinch runner in that situation?  Maybe if the World Series were on the line, but not so much this game.

Thus it appears that Donaldson may be hurting a bit more than we’re hearing formally from the Braves.  That’s info worth hanging on to for consideration over the next few games (at least), but isn’t the main thought I wanted to get.

The Call Obviously Worked

What ensued after Fried tagged up with Donaldson to replace him on the bathpaths was almost remarkable… particularly for those who might recall how ungainly Mike Soroka appeared while running the bases against San Diego last week.

During that trip, Soroka ran from first to third like he might have needed directions along the way.  It was awkward enough looking that the Padres opted to appeal at second base to find out if he had hit the bag along the way.

The replay showed that his considerably large foot nailed the pillow square in the middle, but even San Diego was obviously confused about how his running looked.

No such concern for Fried.

When Ender Inciarte slapped the ball down the left field line, he was off like a wide receiver on a fly pattern.  He cut both the second and third base bags exactly as a “real” base runner should.

And yeah… he was fast.

Okay, a couple of things about this 28.9 number.

Statcast tracks averages for players.  Clearly, runners aren’t running out balls like they are The Freeze on every play, so the averages can be a bit misleading at times.

The 100 meters world record is 9.58 seconds, held by Usain Bolt.  That translates to 34.24 ft./second.

Byron Buxton is getting credit for 30.3 fps as the fastest MLB player right now.  Billy Hamilton ‘only’ has a 29.6 fps speed rate, which may tell you what you need to know about averages.

Still, the fastest Atlanta Braves player is Ronald Acuna Jr.at 29.3 fps.  By that reckoning, Fried would be right on his heels in a race as the second fastest on the team.

Honestly, I’d have to think that both Ozzie Albies and Dansby Swanson would give him a strong run for his money (at least), but that’s the thing about a single, all-out sprint like Fried did vs. the averaged numbers Statcast gives us (and they don’t released a result without at least 10 data points – thus you won’t find Fried on their chart linked above).

But… Maybe?

The tweet above was in response to a question posed… and the answer didn’t really answer the question.

We know from the replay that Fried was barely hanging on at the finish line as he dove (cringe!) into home plate.  We don’t know how much speed he lost after rounding third, or whether the tweeted info covers his entire trip from first to home (the questioner wanted to know 1st-to-3rd only).

That part was not made clear.  So it’s plausible that he’s actually a bit faster than the 28.9 report if the last 90 feet was included.

Still:  it was an impressive run either way – particularly given the lack of base running that he’s been able to take part in during his pro career.

As I’ve noted during multiple designate hitter discussions in these pages, minor league pitchers simply don’t even get to bat much at all, and thus my concern that they could either hurt themselves (by swinging and using muscles not normally exercised fully) or get hurt by being unable to adequately protect themselves from close pitches.

Base running is something I hadn’t even brought up in those discussions.  Yet it appears there are a lot of “haves” (Fried) and “have nots” (Soroka) when it comes to pitcher base-running skills.  Obviously, there’s a vast chasm in between!

Still… you gotta hope that Snitker picks his spots carefully in the future…

This is true… but they’re pitchers… not hitters and not base runners.  Though Fried certainly applied himself well in this lap about the diamond on Sunday – except for that slide, of course (you should have seen the look Donaldson gave him even as he was still getting High-5’s!).

Gag me… did I just talk myself into the National League DH?  Oh my.