I was an umpire when Braves’ pitcher Max Fried was a Little League pitcher here in Santa Monica. He was the best pitcher and hitter in the league. He was very tall for his age and very thin. He was 10 years old.
I umpired 3 games that he pitched. All no hitters. He did walk at least 2 guys in each game though. His fastball was overpowering. He is a lefty and modeled himself after Sandy Koufax. Same throwing motion. He even wore #32, Koufax’ number. What shocked me was that he threw about 50% curve balls. I couldn’t understand why. No one could hit his fastball and he was 10 — in my opinion too young to be throwing curves. Especially since it was a totally overhand curve like Koufax used to throw. Everyone probably remembers what that curve did to Koufax’ arm.
He didn’t play the next two years. My understanding is that he played in a “more competitive” league in Los Angeles. It was a shame since the next year was Josh Rosen’s first year in the league. Rosen wasn’t quite as good but also was unhittable. If they had pitched against each other, I think the rule would have had to be changed to be first team to get a hit wins. But, Rosen didn’t throw any curves. All fastballs.
Fried was a first round draft choice of the Padres. I never saw him pitch in high school because his parents sent him to a private high school in Los Angeles. In fact, watching him in TV tonight is the first time I have seen him pitch since Little League. I read up on him and saw that he had Tommy John surgery in 2014 and missed almost two full seasons because of it. I’m not surprised. With the stress on his arm from throwing curves with that motion, I’m surprised he made it that long without surgery. I saw from TV that his motion is much different now. No longer a copy of Koufax. Obviously, in the minors his motion got changed to put less stress on his arm. It’s just too bad that didn’t happen when he was 10.
I umpired 3 games that he pitched. All no hitters. He did walk at least 2 guys in each game though. His fastball was overpowering. He is a lefty and modeled himself after Sandy Koufax. Same throwing motion. He even wore #32, Koufax’ number. What shocked me was that he threw about 50% curve balls. I couldn’t understand why. No one could hit his fastball and he was 10 — in my opinion too young to be throwing curves. Especially since it was a totally overhand curve like Koufax used to throw. Everyone probably remembers what that curve did to Koufax’ arm.
He didn’t play the next two years. My understanding is that he played in a “more competitive” league in Los Angeles. It was a shame since the next year was Josh Rosen’s first year in the league. Rosen wasn’t quite as good but also was unhittable. If they had pitched against each other, I think the rule would have had to be changed to be first team to get a hit wins. But, Rosen didn’t throw any curves. All fastballs.
Fried was a first round draft choice of the Padres. I never saw him pitch in high school because his parents sent him to a private high school in Los Angeles. In fact, watching him in TV tonight is the first time I have seen him pitch since Little League. I read up on him and saw that he had Tommy John surgery in 2014 and missed almost two full seasons because of it. I’m not surprised. With the stress on his arm from throwing curves with that motion, I’m surprised he made it that long without surgery. I saw from TV that his motion is much different now. No longer a copy of Koufax. Obviously, in the minors his motion got changed to put less stress on his arm. It’s just too bad that didn’t happen when he was 10.
