Nats prospect watch: Erick Fedde

We are continuing our focus on news from the fall instructional league at the Nationals training facility in Viera, Fla. The first two capsules were on hitters Blake Perkins and Victor Robles. We will volley back and forth now between hitting and pitching and turn our attention to 2014 first round selection Erick Fedde.

Fedde, at 6-foot-4 and 180 lbs., pitched a total of 64 innings between short-season Single-A Auburn and low Single-A Hagerstown. He moved to Hagerstown on Aug. 11.

In his final appearance of the season for the Suns, he earned his first South Atlantic League victory in a 6-2 dispatch of Lexington. Fedde, 22, tossed five innings, allowing two hits, no runs, one walk and struck out seven with one wild pitch.fe

Overall, he went 5-3 with a 3.38 ERA between the two ballclubs. In 14 games he recorded 59 strikeouts and surrendered 16 walks.

But as we have learned in the past with all of the prospects who are recovering from Tommy John, it is never about the numbers.

"He graduated from the post-Tommy John first year," said Nationals minor league pitching coordinator Paul Menhart. "I needed him to get through the year healthy, and he did. He made me so happy.

"He was awesome in instructional league. I'm really looking forward to seeing what he does next year in a full season and where he is a year removed from Tommy John, a year plus, the year under his belt of pitching after Tommy John. Because that's usually when you can tell and see what exactly made him a first rounder."

Menhart knows how hard of a worker Fedde is. His toughness was well documented while pitching at less than 100 percent in college for Nevada-Las Vegas.

Fedde would never let up or give in for UNLV coach Tim Chambers. The Nationals are fully cognizant of preventing post-Tommy John hurlers from overdoing anything in that first season.

"Absolutely," Menhart said. "With all our injured guys, when they come back, we want to make sure that that first year, whether it's three months or two months of live pitching, that they get through it. That's the goal, period. There's no other goal but to get through it. We don't put much stock in how they do and what they do. We know that we are a year away or the following year away from seeing who they really are."

Now the Nationals can take the harness off a bit with Fedde and let him go. He demonstrated in instructional league that he is healthy enough to be ramped up next season and get going in the system, with a likely move up and starting point at high Single-A Potomac.