The next in our series around the Minor League affiliates of the Washington Nationals is a chat with Erick Fedde (Top Prospect #4) who ranks behind only Lucas Giolito in the Nats top pitching prospects. Fedde was the Nats 1st round pick at #18 overall out of UNLV. Fedde was a teammate of Bryce Harper at Las Vegas High, and chose to go to college and forego the draft out of High School when he was picked by the Padres.
In 2014, Fedde was 8-2 with a 1.76 ERA in 11 starts for UNLV when he had excruciating pain in his right elbow. An MRI revealed a torn right UCL right before the draft. That did not scare away Mike Rizzo and the Nats gladly took the hard throwing righty, and entered him into the Tommy John protocol .
Fedde went up the levels in a late season rehab finishing in Hagerstown Low-A, and then got his promotion to start the 2016 season in Potomac High-A where Fedde has had 4 starts. Fedde is still working through mechanics, and it is a work-in-progress.
While this segment is on Erick Fedde (Top Prospect #4) we will have other segments coming up on Osvaldo Abreu (Top Prospect #12), Drew Ward (Top Prospect #14), Raudy Read (Top Prospect #27) Chris Bostick (Top Prospect #30) and Minor League Player of the Year Jose Marmolejos-Diaz and dozens of others.
Let’s begin this segment with the Nats with Erick Fedde as Part 4 of our installment:
Erick Fedde is a large 6’4″ twenty-three year old and probably weighs in near 200 pounds with flowing blonde/brown hair tucked under that P-Nats cap. He has that California look and a Nevada desert heater. Fedde told us his velo is just about what it was back in college where he will top out at 96mph, and he sits 93-94mph.
#22 pictured from behind is Erick Fedde as Nats Director of Player Development, Mark Scialabba looks on from the PNats dugout
Fedde said,“Mostly everything works off of my 2-seam fastball. Mix in a 4 every once in a while. Slider and change-up (circle change) is the rest of my arsenal. Work in that [front hip 2-seamer] to the lefties.”
As far as inning limits are configured, Fedde said they have not given him an innings limit plan and will see how it goes. He said he could go 7 innings in a game with a pitch count in the 90’s. He said he feels good and just working on his mechanics, and getting better.
