What to do about Fried?

S

Slippyjms

Well-known member
Fried has been going through a rough stretch lately and I think it’s about time to ask the question what should the Braves do about it? I know some think he should be moved back to the pen. The thought process being that if he’s only throwing two pitches that’s where he’ll need to be.

Some I’m sure believe we need to show patience and he’ll turn it around no problem and will slot right back in as one of our top 3 pitchers.

I myself have a middle ground approach. Fried needs to start making an effort to throw his slider more to keep people off his curve. I think this is something he’ll really be able to work on in the offseason but may have trouble making an adjustment to mid year. I think we should commit to Fried in the rotation and let him be the 4/5 we thought he would be when we started the year and allow him to continue to grow. In the meantime though I’d like to see the Braves use an opener in Fried’s starts as it would provide protection for him from the top of lineups. Then next year hopefully we see Fried take his game to the next level.
 
Fried needs to stay in the rotation, but he's gonna needs some rest as the season wears on. Skip a start and let him pitch out of the pen to keep him fresh.
 
The plan should be not to overreact to a few games of poor results just like they didn’t overreact to a few games of good results. Everyone already knows what Fried is, and a good or bad stretch doesn’t change that.

Fried likely sticks in the rotation at least until Gausman is ready. At that point it will be someone else’s turn to take a 10 break, and that guy may very well be Fried.

We’ve seen the Braves manage a pitching staff under AA for a couple seasons now, so this type of maneuvering shouldn’t surprise anyone.
 
Enscheff said:
The plan should be not to overreact to a few games of poor results just like they didn’t overreact to a few games of good results. Everyone already knows what Fried is, and a good or bad stretch doesn’t change that.

Fried likely sticks in the rotation at least until Gausman is ready. At that point it will be someone else’s turn to take a 10 break, and that guy may very well be Fried.

We’ve seen the Braves manage a pitching staff under AA for a couple seasons now, so this type of maneuvering shouldn’t surprise anyone.
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I’m a little surprised you’re not more of a proponent of my opener thought
 
Slippyjms said:
I’m a little surprised you’re not more of a proponent of my opener thought
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I’ve said for a while now that the Braves are well positioned with a lot of good but not great SP options to come up with some creative way to leverage guys who are good enough to face 9-18 batters, but aren’t good enough to be true TOR guys.

Whether that’s some sort of opener or piggy backing or new strategy we don’t even have a name for yet I don’t know. Fried paired with Touki. Gaus paired with Newk. Letting Minter open for Folty, or Webb open for DK. The number of talented arms is there for someone to figure something out.
 
Enscheff said:
I’ve said for a while now that the Braves are well positioned with a lot of good but not great SP options to come up with some creative way to leverage guys who are good enough to face 9-18 batters, but aren’t good enough to be true TOR guys.

Whether that’s some sort of opener or piggy backing or new strategy we don’t even have a name for yet I don’t know. Fried paired with Touki. Gaus paired with Newk. Letting Minter open for Folty, or Webb open for DK. The number of talented arms is there for someone to figure something out.
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I’ve wondered about something like this and I’ve also thought that it might be good for some relievers who wouldn’t constantly have to warm up and would know when they were pitching.

Piggy back starts might also be slightly shorter and could possibly be slightly more frequent.

It would take some real stones though for a contender to experiment with this. I’m not sure we’re a likely organization to start messing with new things.
 
Fried is fine. His K rate is good and his BB rate is good. His HR rate is high but that's inflated due to a very unsustainably high HR/FB rate.

Essentially he's getting very unlucky on flyballs leaving the park.
 
ERA almost exactly in line with FIP/xFIP.

BB/9 creeping up towards 3 as suggested by his peripherals.

An xwOBA of .308 is a bit better than MLB average.

The 20% HR/FB is a little high, but every stat tells us Fried is what folks with half a clue knew he was after he added the SL...a solid 3/4 SP. Let him be until his workload has to be managed.
 
I've seen Fried a couple times in the last 2 weeks and it looks like to me he's getting a little unlucky with balls finding holes and gaps. It's just one of those things. I'd love for him to develop and use his changeup more. He used it sparingly in the first month but he got some nice results from it.
 
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Frieds average FA is 93.7.

I’m not sure where “94-97 from the left side” comes from, but its a needless exaggeration of his stuff.
 
nsacpi said:
I'm concerned Fried might have found himself a shiksa who is distracting him from baseball
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Unsurprising. Looks like a freakin movie star.

Why a shiksa, though? Couldn't he find a nice Jewish girl in Atlanta? Maybe with a "Shalom, y'all" plaque in her kitchen?
 
thethe said:
That clearly means every one of his pitches registers at 93.7 mph.
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If he was 94-97 his average wouldn’t be under 94, as dictated by simple arithmetic.

I do think most posters here have it right though. Let Fried go until he hits whatever workload limitations the organization has set for him.
 
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