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Erick Fedde returned stateside in 2024 and had a career-best main league season. One yr after going 20-6 with a 2.00 ERA for the KBO’s NC Dinos, the 32-year-old right-hander logged a 3.30 ERA and a 3.86 FIP over 31 begins between the Chicago White Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals. His earlier huge league campaigns had been comparatively rocky. From 2017-2022, Fedde original a 5.41 ERA and a 5.17 FIP with the Washington Nationals.
Fedde, whom St. Louis acquired finally summer time’s commerce deadline as a part of an eight-player, three-team swap, entered skilled baseball with excessive expectations. He was drafted 18th general in 2014 regardless of having undergone Tommy John surgical procedure throughout his junior season on the College of Nevada Las Vegas. When our 2017 Washington Nationals High Prospects record was printed in March of that yr, Fedde was ranked third within the system, behind Victor Robles and Juan Soto.
What did Fedde’s 2017 scouting report appear to be? Furthermore, what does he consider all of it these years later? Wanting to search out out, I shared a few of what our lead prospect analyst Eric Longenhagen wrote, and requested Fedde to reply to it.
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“As a junior at UNLV, Fedde was a possible top-10 decide till he blew out in Might.”
“Fairly correct,” Fedde stated. “Going into my junior yr, I used to be projected to go on the finish of the primary spherical, and simply type of saved climbing because the yr went. Sadly, I used to be damage simply earlier than the draft. I feel I had TJ two days prior. Nevertheless it all labored out. I used to be nonetheless in a position to go within the first spherical, which was actually cool.
“Jeff Hoffman, who was drafted [ninth overall] by the Blue Jays, was type of the massive right-hander forward of me. He blew out earlier within the yr. I feel he was type of up there with me and Aaron Nola at one level. We had been probably prime 10, though I don’t know if there was a selected workforce.”
“Fedde’s fastball largely sits 90-94 and can contact 96 with a little bit of sink and run.”
“I’d say that’s fairly spot on,” Fedde replied. “I didn’t actually begin throwing onerous till that sophomore-to-junior summer time; that’s once I began getting up there. I used to be a constant 92-93, however the huge factor I bear in mind was that I’d maintain velocity, if not acquire it, as the sport went on. That’s one thing I feel scouts loved.”
“Fedde’s out pitch is a slider, largely 81-84 mph, that flashes plus however can get slurvy and lose chunk when he doesn’t get on prime of it.”
“Yeah, 100%,” he acknowledged. “I feel I used to be throwing a sweeper earlier than I knew what a sweeper was. A few years in the past that grew to become the whole rave — it grew to become the belle of the ball within the sense of pitching — and it’s type of what I threw. At the moment we’d name it slurvy, however in as we speak’s world it’s a sweeper.”
“His arm slot can get slingy and low, making it onerous for him to drive the ball down.”
“I imply, at that time my life all I did was throw the ball down within the zone,” Fedde countered. “No less than mentally, that’s what I used to be making an attempt to do.”
“Not all scouts are enamored of Fedde’s supply. His decrease half is frail, typically unbalanced, and at occasions performs no position in his supply in any respect.”
“I used to be a skinny man,” recalled Fedde, who now stands 6-foot-4 and weighs 205 kilos. “I feel I left for the draft at like 175 kilos. So, I suppose I most likely relied on whip and quickness as a substitute of power. I don’t know. Perhaps that got here into the concept of my having an absence of leg use.”
“If Fedde can enhance his at the moment fringy, mid-80s changeup, he’ll have a viable three-pitch combine and above-average command of it.”
“Yeah, I really feel like I’ve all the time been fairly good with command,” he stated. “It’s one thing that I’ve leaned on all through my profession. The changeup actually stunk all the way in which up till a few years in the past. In order that’s very true. I lastly really feel like I’ve an honest changeup. After which, as I acquired into professional baseball, I realized a cutter so as to add to my combine. Now it’s a four-pitch combine.”
“He tasks as a sinker/slider mid-rotation arm.”
“I feel it’s been type of east-to-west that means,” Fedde stated. “I’ve been in the course of rotations. I undoubtedly would by no means say that I’ve been a primary. However yeah, simply continue to grow and hopefully push to the highest finish of rotations. Final season was my greatest up to now, for positive. I had plenty of struggles early, plenty of studying. However like [the scouting report] stated, if I can get a superb changeup… I imply, I feel the changeup actually modified my profession.”
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Earlier “Outdated Scouting Reviews Revisited” interviews may be discovered via these hyperlinks: Cody Bellinger, Matthew Boyd, Dylan Stop, Matt Chapman, Ian Happ, Jeff Hoffman, Matthew Liberatore.
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