Jewish boy Max Fried, who played Juniors Boys’ Baseball at the 18th Maccabiah Gamess, has been drafted 7th overall by the San Diego Padres.
The Padres went big Monday in the First-Year Player Draft — big as in 6-foot-4 left-hander Max Fried, a hard-throwing pitcher from Harvard-Westlake High School in Studio City, Calif.
The Padres later added two more high school pitchers — Zach Eflin with the 33rd overall pick and Walker Weickel at No. 55 — in addition to a college outfielder, Travis Jankowski, with the 44th overall selection.
“We wanted upside, impact guys. … Vanilla wasn’t going to be good enough,” said Chad MacDonald, the Padres’ assistant general manager of player personnel.. “Every club thinks they had a good day. I know we did.”
Fried was rated the fifth-best player on the Padres’ Draft board going into the day, and they were happy to get him with the seventh overall pick.
“It’s loose, athletic, 6-foot-4, a downhill delivery and good arm action,” MacDonald said. “It’s the way it’s supposed to look. We were tickled to death to get our lefty at seven.”
It’s enough to make Denis Leary proud.
Update: Cool.
The teen, who wore the number 32 at Harvard-Westlake High School in honor of Jewish Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax, told the Los Angeles Times that Koufax is his baseball hero. His curveball is also similar to Koufax’s.
