Kyle Freeland Addresses His November 2016 FanGraphs Scouting Report

Kyle Freeland is scheduled to make his 206th start for the Colorado Rockies on Friday night, and when he does, he’ll tie Aaron Cook for the most in franchise history. The 31-year-old southpaw began building that number when he made his major league debut in April 2017. Three years earlier, he’d been drafted eighth overall by the NL West club out of the University of Evansville.

When our Rockies Top Prospects list was published in November 2016, Freeland was ranked no. 6 in a system that Eric Longenhagen then described as “both interesting and complex,” as well as excellent and underrated. Our lead prospect analyst assigned the lanky left-hander a 50 FV.

What did Freeland’s scouting report look like at that time? Moreover, what does he think of it all these years later? Wanting to find out, I shared some of what Eric wrote and asked Freeland to respond to it.

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“Freeland missed a huge chunk of the 2015 season dealing with bone chips in his elbow and shoulder fatigue, and he looked bad in the Fall League when he returned.”

“That is completely inaccurate,” Freeland replied. “I led the Fall League in ERA. I was a Fall League All-Star. My first start was not good, but every start after that I was nails.

“[The bone chips and shoulder fatigue] was accurate, though,” he went on to acknowledge. “I came into camp — my first spring training, in 2015 — with shoulder impingement. We got that cleaned up. I stayed back for extended spring trining and continued to build up so I could break with our High-A team. Then my elbow started bugging me. It locked up. I got an MRI, there were loose bodies, so surgery.”

“Freeland’s command is his finest attribute, garnering some future plus-plus grades from scouts. It allows him to get the most out of what is a deep but relatively pedestrian repertoire.”

“I would agree with that,” said Freeland, whose big league ledger includes 60 wins, a 4.49 ERA, and a 4.58 FIP. “I’ve always prided myself on commanding the zone, and on commanding my pitches in all counts. I’m well aware that I don’t have any blistering pitch in my arsenal that is truly going to blow guys away. My fastball is low 90s. I do have some sharp breakers, but nothing that is really turning heads.”

“His upper-80s slider is short and cutterish, but Freeland locates it very well to his glove side both to left- and right-handed hitters and it projects as plus at maturity.”

“Very accurate,” the southpaw said. “That’s a pitch I’ve had for a very long time. I learned it when I was young — how to manipulate it, [get] great depth with it, and also create more and more cutting action. I trust throwing it in any count. It really hasn’t changed in any meaningful way over the years.”

“Projection on Freeland’s changeup is limited because of the length in his arm action, but he maintains his fastball’s arm speed when he throws it and it could grow to average.”

“Somewhat accurate,” Freeland said. “My changeup is something I’ve worked on my entire career, and I’ll continue to work on it for the rest of my career. It’s the pitch that I’ve struggled with the most, trying to harness it, trying to figure out how to throw one with good arm speed. There are times my arm will slow down, trying to manipulate that pitch off my fastball. That’s something we continue to work on: making it look like a fastball coming out, and create depth and movement with it.

“As for the length in my arm action… to be honest, I don’t know what that means. I don’t shorten my arm in any way with my changeup, nor do I lengthen it. I really just think like I’m throwing a fastball, only with a different grip.”

“His low-80s curveball is a fringe-average change of pace on his slider that works situationally.”

“Back then, accurate,” Freeland said. “I really had no curveball. It was mostly just a show-me pitch to let a hitter know, ‘Hey, I have this in my arsenal.’ I probably wasn’t going to be using it in any advantage counts. But it’s since morphed into one of my more elite pitches. I can throw it in any count, and I really like to use it.”

“Reports peg Freeland as a no. 3 or 4 starter, with most placing him on the low end of the range.”

“I mean, me being me, I’m going to say that’s inaccurate,” Freeland responded. “People can say what they want, but I’ve always had it in my head — and I’ll continue to have it in my head — that I’m a no. 1 starter in a rotation. That is what I’ve worked for. It is what I’ve strived for.

“I do think there was a good amount of stuff [in the scouting report] that was accurate at the time. My pitch arsenal. How I went about my business. My fastball was harder — it had more velocity to it — back then. Getting older, things slow down. You don’t move as fast. But overall, I’d say that was pretty accurate. I was in the developmental stage, trying to learn, trying to be healthy, trying to be a big league pitcher. It was all about soaking up as much as I could.”

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Previous “Old Scouting Reports Revisited” interviews can be found through these links: Cody Bellinger, Matthew Boyd, Dylan Cease, Matt Chapman, Erick Fedde, Randal Grichuk, Ian Happ, Jeff Hoffman, Matthew Liberatore, Max Scherzer.