Atlanta Braves: Max Fried shined on the mound in April

It’s been a tough month for the Atlanta Braves bullpen, and the starting rotation is just now starting to take shape. However, there were some bright spots in the first month of the 2019 season. Who shined the brightest in the month of April?

In a month where the bullpen and starting rotation had many inconsistencies, one pitcher stood above the rest and solidified their spot on the 2019 pitching staff for the Atlanta Braves.

With Mike Foltynewicz and Kevin Gausman both out to begin the season, the Atlanta Braves turned to youngsters like Kyle Wright, Bryse Wilson, and Max Fried to lead the rotation.

Unfortunately, Wright and Wilson each struggled to find much of the success they had in Spring Training.

However, Max Fried has taken full advantage of his opportunity and has been the Braves best starting pitcher so far in 2019.

A lot of us knew that Fried was something special coming into this season, but I don’t think many of us expected the success he has found so far.

A tough road to the majors

Max Fried has been a prized possession for the Atlanta Braves since he was acquired as a part of the Justin Upton trade to San Diego in 2014.

The trade sent Justin Upton and Aaron Northcraft to the Padres in exchange for Max Fried, Mallex Smith, Jace Peterson, and Dustin Peterson.

Smith and Peterson never panned out for the Braves and each of them are no longer a part of the organization.

The same goes for Dustin Peterson who was designated for assignment by the Braves at the end of the 2018 season. Peterson found some success in Detroit in Spring Training and early this season but he has recently been optioned to the Tigers Triple-A affiliate.

That trade almost looked to be a bust because Max Fried missed two full seasons recovering from Tommy John surgery that was performed in 2014 just before being dealt to the Braves (ESPN’s Buster Olney had a great conversation with Max recently on his podcast that I encourage you to check out).

Max Fried has come back full force and any pressure he may have felt is gone.

This success stems from the mentality he gained pitching in the postseason for the Atlanta Braves in 2018. Fried wasn’t afraid to attack hitters and that’s part of the reason he only allowed 1 earned run on 1 hit to the Dodgers in the NLDS.

How good has Fried been in 2019?

For starters, Max Fried has shown an improvement in the command of his fastball. While Max has an amazing curveball, it’s important that he is able to command his fastball to keep hitters honest.

In fact, he has thrown his fastball 60 percent of the time and the average velocity has been around 94 MPH.

Max has located that fastball extremely well and his first pitch strike percentage has risen dramatically in two years.

In 2017, Fried’s first pitch strike rate was 49 percent and has risen to 64 percent in 2019. That right there shows exactly why the 25-year-old is having so much success.

The Atlanta Braves left-hander currently has a 3-1 record with a 2.30 ERA across 31 1/3 innings pitched.

Fried has found himself in the top 10 in ERA across all of Major League Baseball. He has only allowed 8 earned runs on 27 hits and only 7 walks with 26 strikeouts.

His strikeout total may not be as high as many think it should be, but pitching to contact is the strength of Max Fried. Strikeouts will come, but Fried is more concerned about getting outs and you’ll take those however you can get them.

Batters make contact with Fried’s pitches 79 percent of the time, while they only swing and miss around 10 percent.

That isn’t too alarming to me because the more comfortable Max becomes on the mound, the more he is going to start striking guys out.

Max’s final start in the month of April saw him throw 5 1/3 innings allowing 4 earned runs on 7 hits. That’s not the best start we have seen from him but what’s encouraging is that he didn’t walk a single hitter and struck out 8 of them.

Those 8 strikeouts were a season-high for Max Fried and four of them were via breaking balls.

There’s no denying just how good his curveball is. The average spin rate in MLB is around 2,590 RPM and Max Fried’s curveball averages at 2,907 RPM.

According to Baseball Savant, this curveball spin rate is in the 93rd percentile across all of baseball.

For a guy that idolizes Sandy Koufax, I’m not surprised that his curveball sits in the upper echelon of MLB.

I’m not surprised at all to be writing about how good Max Fried has been for the Atlanta Braves. He’s the one guy that consistently improved last season and has shown the tenacity for starting games at the big league level.

This won’t be the last time you hear about the success of Max Fried. After being the team’s best pitcher in April, he gets things started in May as he goes against the Padres Wednesday night.