JohnAdcox (09-04-2017)
During his start last night, Fried's FA topped out at 96.8, and averaged 92.1. It sat around 90 early, but he was able to ramp it up 2-3 ticks later in the start. This is good news.
He also threw enough changes that we could get an idea of how good it is. 7.5 horizontal and 4.4 vertical are both below average for a change.
The command is currently poor at the MLB level, but everything else he has done suggests he could have fringe average command with more reps.
I'll pretty much stick with my first impressions...
FF: 45
CU: 65
CH: 40
Command: 45
That looks like a long man out of the BP, or a very good LOOGY.
JohnAdcox (09-04-2017)
I think LOOGY is his floor. He should be very good there and could do it today and for cheap.
If we ever had the balls to go to a multi inning reliever model we would have a number of guys who I think would be NICE going through a line up once.
Scouts that watched him seem to think he had a very high ceiling. So we will see how he progresses. He's interesting given this is year two (?) off of TJ.
I don't see how he gets RH out w/o a better third pitch. As good as the curve is, it's going right into HR alley on the RH swing. Klaw seems to be very high on him despite his struggles in the minors.
Are you looking at his average for the year or as a starter? I'm not sure how big of a difference each integer represents- but his verticle movement on 8 CH ups yesterday was 8.45, compared to the under 5 verticle movement he had as a reliever.
Also worth noting that throughout his entire career he has generated a ton of ground balls, many of which seem to be the result of his FB which generates a ton of them. That could be a big boon to his FB success, no?
Aggression with prospects is fine, but being stupid is not. There should be a way to find a happy medium between a Pirates like idea of being overly cautious with prospects and going stupidly fast with prospects.
His injury was blisters. How was it incompetent for the Braves to allow him to get blisters and why would they have stopped him from trying to pitch through them.
His season was so lost that he has made his AA, AAA, and major league debuts as well as his first start of his career, a successful one. Ask him if he considers this a lost season.
Aggression with prospects is fine, but being stupid is not. There should be a way to find a happy medium between a Pirates like idea of being overly cautious with prospects and going stupidly fast with prospects.
Don't think anyone would argue that point in the least. But here's the more pertinent question - at what point in time do you stop letting your disdain for the front office stop clouding your judgement?
Fried's second start came against the Tennessee Smokies on Tax Day (April 15th), and he went 6 IP while giving up 1 ER on 4 hits with 4 Ks and 2 BBs. That looks A LOT like his line against the Cubs yesterday.
On the same day, Acuna was hitting .233/.281/.300/.581 with 1 XBH for Florida.
Nothing's changed since then, right???
Last edited by clvclv; 09-04-2017 at 07:44 PM.
Has there EVER been a statement and question a certain someone should absolutely never have made and asked publicly more than...
Kinda pathetic to see yourself as a message board knight in shining armor. How impotent does someone have to be in real life to resort to playing hero on a message board?
Thanks for the new stats Enscheff. Just from what everyone was saying Allard and Fried were my favorite Braves pitching prospects to end last year and early this year. Fried had some weird minors stats and looked so so out of the bullpen, but as his start progressed I was very impressed.
I have no idea how he gained a few mph on his fastball as the game went on. It seemed to me that he was throwing some sort of sinking fastball early, it started getting hit and he went to a straighter harder one. The first one that shocked me induced a double play and suddenly jumped up to 96 on the TV radar. This start moved Fried past Newcomb and Sims in my mind. We don't have many off days the rest of the way, I'd like to see us go to a 6 man rotation. Or tell Dickey we are picking up his option for next year (which I think we should) and dropping him from the rotation unless something comes up.
I too wish we could have the balls to go to a multi inning reliever model. Since we really haven't developed that top of the rotation starter yet, but have a lot of serviceable pitchers, going with a multi inning reliever model would be amazing. Imagine having Folty start a game a go through the lineup once, then having Wisler or Blair come in and go through once, then have Fried come in and go through once. By only throwing (hopefully) 40ish so pitches they'd be able to go again in a couple of days. But we are so far behind the eightball on analytics and rely too heavily on outdated stats that we'd never give up on the ability for the starter to get the "win".
Honest question, because I'm not entirely sure.
Aren't arm speed and change in velocity the primary two factors in a changeup's quality? Certainly movement is going to be important, but it seems like deception would be key in how useful a pitcher's changeup is. What was the average velocity on his change, and do we know if he's able to keep his arm speed the same while throwing it?
Nobody is doing it b/c they all want dominant 1 inning guys.
I think there is a market inefficiency on pitchers who are good enough to get through the lineup once but not multiple times. 2 pitch starters. A lot of analytic people have said it's a good idea but someone has to be first. "Nobody" was using their "closer" outside of the 9th inning until last year.
Ultimately it's up to managers to start doing it, and who is willing to go there? Pretty much all managers are still old-school guys at heart, even somebody like Maddon. You're starting to see some bending of the traditional RP roles, especially in the postseason with guys like Andrew Miller. I think we'll get there eventually because I think you're right. Starters are going shorter and shorter, and we're starting to see some managers willing to go beyond the (actually modern) rule of no more than an inning at a time. Especially with the rise of guys who just get 1-2 outs as well, something has to give at some point so that your longer relievers aren't worn thin. The answer is to have more guys who are able to go more than an inning at a time.
I'm not sure we're anywhere close to a time where a team will go with the '3 pitchers pitching 3 innings' idea, but I do think we'll start seeing some relievers who typically go 2+ innings every few days.