Baseball Prospect Report

By The Baseball Beginnings Guy
May 30, 2012

Max Fried is seen here in Max-a-palooza, three different clips: Spring 2012, Area Codes 2011, Aflac or whatever it’s called nowadays, 2011. Hey look, you want the working arm, the arm speed, the curveball, the physical projection, then this is your guy. But I want to see him in a different setting now before I decide what kind of pro or big leaguer he’s going to be, because he never proved that to me in all the looks I saw of him. I’ve seen him micro-manage his starts, I’ve seen a guy with great stuff look bad. Then he’s had some very good starts I haven’t seen, frankly, because I got sick of going out to see him because I didn’t want to waste my day if he was going to come out and not be his best. I don’t want to hear about any mind games, I don’t care about “imagining yourself on the mound,” I care about guys who show me start after start what they are made of. I don’t need the radar gun anymore. So we’ll see. I’ve said this before — these big arms, these guys gotta show me enough as kids so I can dream about what kind of guys they are going to be. Amateur baseball is for kids. Pro ball is for grown men. Which one will it be. Somebody will pay a few million to find out.  (more…)

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Tags: Max Fried, Max Fried Video

By The Baseball Beginnings Guy
May 23, 2012

Lucas Giolito and Max Fried are seen here joined at the hip one last time, throwing flat out on the backfields. They actually both grab for the same ball on the last throw back. Talk about two dogs after the same bone. Hey all you Harvard-Westlake people, do me a solid and buy my books. I mean, come on, who else do you know covered Austin, Gio and Fried as much and as well as I did. Help out a brother. One for Dad and one for the kid. Trust me, it’s worth it. Hardcover or e-copy, don’t matter. I’m writing for Thomas Dunne Books/St.Martin’s Press/MacMillan these days, straight up 175 Fifth Avenue New York, when I’m not tapping away at this goofy little site. 

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Tags: Lucas Giolito, Lucas Giolito Video, Max Fried, Max Fried Video

By The Baseball Beginnings Guy
April 24, 2012

Max Fried has pretty much everything you want in your top-shelf high school left-handers. The height, the arm strength, the size, the stuff. What he needs is to develop consistency and to not take the mound like he is afraid to get hit. That’s a tough love statement but its true — in more recent looks, he has shown the ability to put that aside and shove baseballs where the sun don’t shine. Then in other looks he pitches like a guy afraid of his own shadow.

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Tags: Max Fried, Max Fried Video, UCLA

By The Baseball Beginnings Guy
March 13, 2012

Number 4 on the Compton Countdown, it’s a philosophical pick: left-handed pitcher or raw power. Teenage lefty who can touch 94-95 and pitch at 91-93 or bat speed kids with raw power.

I love pitching, I do, I really do, but can you name me 10 guys in the major leagues with plus, plus raw power? Good, neither can I.

Therefore, Max, who on some lists in SoCal this year is probably two, goes four for me on this list. And it’s still rough, because I like Fried. But let me explain how I think and understand that I think the top four guys on this list are all going to be major league regulars.

It’s gutty and even risky and probably an unconventional pick in this industry, but it’s fine by me. I gotta have hitters with raw power in an age of pitchers. I just do. This is a damn good pitching draft and there are very, very few hitters I have seen who are major league regulars with power for me. Hey, I’m sorry, blame my old boy Bob Zuk for teaching me to respect power when I see it. (Alas, he wanted Ryan Klesko and got cross-checked into some other dude instead. Damn, Bob was pissed.)

I have to go with the raw power at 3 and 2, which means Max Fried slips to 4 in this itty bitty little countdown which makes great content but really means a whole lot of nothing.

And this reminds me, I never used to do lists on this site, why did I start now? Serioulsy, preference lists inside the baseball industry are savage — draft table discussions are brutally honest and cut-throat. Machiavelli could be in some draft rooms and say, “Damn, guys, take it easy.” I hate rankings because it makes me say why I don’t like players, which I HATE doing. So this is it. From now on, I’m keeping all my rankings in-house.

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Tags: Max Fried, Max Fried Video, Other Events

By The Baseball Beginnings Guy
December 23, 2010

Max Fried is seen here in the summer between his sophomore and his junior year. You can see the arm speed, but also the inconsistencies in his delivery that hinder his velocity, off-speed stuff and control. Now that said, this is pretty typical of left-handers at this stage of the deal. I hate to keep bringing up Henry Owens, but he had many of the same things to work past just a few years ago. At this stage, college and pro scouts alike just want the arm speed and the arm power. They can add the polish later. In my notes, Fried was 85-89 and I felt his 73-75 curveball was his best pitch, showing proper 12/6 rotation and bite. The change-up was seen in flashes — a good one I recorded at 73, a fringe one I recorded at 78. His college commitment is to UCLA and he’s part of what is shaping up as a very strong year for Southern California high school left-handers in 2012.

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Tags: Max Fried, Max Fried Video, UCLA