First-rounder Fedde promoted to low Single-A, makes initial start

Right-hander Erick Fedde was promoted to the low Single-A Hagerstown Suns on Tuesday and started against Augusta. Fedde went 4 1/3 innings and allowed five hits and six runs. He had two walks and struck out three. The Suns lost the game 9-1.

Early on, Fedde allowed two runs in the second. He hung in there until the fifth inning where the Green Jackets tallied seven runs. Fedde was responsible for four of those runs. He was tagged with the loss but gained valuable experience up a level.

More importantly, this is just his first South Atlantic League start. The 2014 first-round selection showed well at short-season Single-A Auburn, going 4-1 with a 2.57 ERA in eight starts. He struck out 36 batters in 35 innings with only eight walks.

Just before Fedde was called up to Hagerstown, Auburn manager Gary Cathcart gave me the latest on the former UNLV hurler.

"Doing fine. The big key for anybody coming off of Tommy John that first year back on the mound is just monitoring health," Cathcart said. "He seems really healthy. He's been up to five innings since May, so he's working on three months of five innings, healthy and strong. 80, 85 pitches. He could easily, probably go another inning or two, but obviously we're not going to do that with him being a high-priority guy and coming off an injury.

"The big thing is he is healthy and taking the ball every five days and not missing a beat so it's good to see that. He's actually way ahead of schedule as far as the timetable for a Tommy John guy, so that's a good thing."

This is one reason why Fedde was moved to Hagerstown. The Nationals never worry too much about initial results just after a promotion. Fedde will get a chance to build innings at this higher level for the next three weeks and then get ready for instructional league. The bottom line is that this move to Hagerstown is very good news for the professional progress of Fedde.