Max Fried’s advanced stats are video game worthy

Max Fried’s advanced stats through seven starts will blow your mind.

It’s been established the Atlanta Braves have themselves a second ace pitcher in Max Fried.

Atlanta already had one in NL Rookie of the Year runner-up from a season ago in Mike Soroka. Fried played second fiddle behind him in the Braves’ rotation. But once Soroka tore his Achilles’ tendon earlier in the season, Fried new he had to rise to the occasion and carry the loathsome burden that is the rest of the Atlanta rotation. How has he done? Check out his advanced stats.

Is Max Fried playing baseball or a video game? We’re not entirely sure.

In seven starts, Fried is 5-0 with a 1.35 ERA. He leads the National League in wins (5), starts (7), ERA+ (355), home runs allowed per nine innings ( 0.0) and average exit velocity (82.9 MPH). Fried also ranks second in innings pitched (40.0) and fWar (1.5). With 40 strikeouts and a 2.4 WAR, Fried has to be in the mix to the Braves’ first Cy Young winner since Tom Glavine in 1998.

Naturally, Fried draws comparisons to the 305-game winner and National Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher. They starred for the Braves, they’re crafty left-handers and they’re dominant. While Fried uses a big sweeping curve to minimize contact, Glavine was all about working the outside corner with his patented circle change. However, both have the feel of big-game pitchers.

Glavine famously pitched eight shutout innings in Game 6 of the 1995 World Series. In the history of Atlanta professional sports, his greatest moment on the mound is the best the southeastern metropolis has ever seen. Fried has a way to go before he can approach the brilliance of Glavine, but you simply cannot deny what he has done in very challenging circumstances this season.

There are other outstanding pitchers in the Senior Circuit. Jacob deGrom, Clayton Kershaw and Max Scherzer immediately come to mind. While Fried is the best pitcher playing for the Braves right now, he may not even be the best pitcher from his high school. Two of his Harvard-Westlake teammates are fellow big league aces in Jack Flaherty and Lucas Giolito. What a trio of pitchers!

Is what Fried is doing sustainable? Probably not to that dominant of a degree, but he gives the Braves a chance to win every fifth day he takes the mound. It’s still early, but it’s starting to feel a bit like one of those many Cy Young seasons in Atlanta uniform for Glavine, Greg Maddux and John Smoltz, the biggest reasons there even was a “Team of the 90s.”

Fried’s dominance in the first 30 games are why the Braves are in first place in the NL East.