Tigers Land Alex Faedo The Second Time Around
Alex Faedo (photo by Cliff Welch/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The Tigers like righthanded pitchers. And they clearly like Alex Faedo. After all, they’ve now drafted him twice.
The Tigers selected the hard-throwing righthander out Florida with the 18th pick of the 2017 draft. The Tigers previously drafted Faedo out of high school in the 40th round in 2014, but he opted to go to college.
The Tigers were happy to find Faedo still on the board.
“We had Alex ranked high on the board where, quite honestly, we weren’t sure he was going to get to us,” Tigers scouting director Scott Pleis said. “We were hoping we’d have a shot at him and didn’t think it was really realistic.”
The 21-year-old Faedo, who listed at 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds, was regarded as a potential No. 1 overall pick when the 2017 college season started. His fastball sits around 93 mph but touches 95 with some consistency. His slider is his secondary pitch.
“Alex has got great stuff,” Pleis said. “I see him as a little more advanced than maybe some other guys, but his development, it’s not going to be something where we’re going to be pushing Alex to do anything to speed up the process. I don’t think it’s really fair to put that pressure on a kid, to tell him he’s going to be a fast-mover.”
Faedo, whose Gators team is headed to the College World Series, believes he has made strides since his high school days.
“I think I’ve matured,” he said. “I was more two pitches in high school. I developed a changeup this past summer, and I’ve just figured out how to get deeper into ballgames.”
This is the third consecutive year the Tigers have drafted a righthanded starter in the first round. They took Beau Burrows (2015) and Matt Manning (2016) in the past two drafts. Both were drafted out of high school.
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