| PING!BASEBALL SPOTLIGHT PLAYER
Christian Friedrich
Eastern Kentucky Colones |
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Unless you’re from the ilk of Lindsay
Lohan, Britney Spears or the ever increasingly shirtless Jesse
Metcalfe, finding your name mentioned in a national magazine
isn’t an everyday occurrence. Thus, when Eastern Kentucky
University star lefty Christian Friedrich was perusing a recent
ESPN the Magazine looking to read up on MMA monster Kimbo
Slice, the last thing he expected to see was his name listed
amongst the nationally known athletes that he’d seen
on over and over on Sportscenter.  Yet
there it was in a feature article on the upcoming Major League
Baseball First-Year Draft. The Evansville, Illinois native
found his name in print as “The Mag” declared
him, “the most polished LHP in the draft” and
projected him to be a first round selection. Friedrich was
staggered to see his name mentioned, but considering his successful
amateur career in Richmond, it was only a matter of time before
he found his name listed alongside the game’s elite.
As prognosticated, Friedrich was indeed snatched up in the
first round of the draft, selected by the Colorado Rockies
as the 25th selection.
His first year on campus Friedrich quickly
became the EKU ace as he was named a Baseball America Freshman
All-American and was awarded the Ohio Valley Conference Freshman
of the Year after going 10-2 with a 1.98 ERA. His frosh totals
also included a bewildering 118 strikeouts in just 82 innings
pitched as he shut down opposition, holding teams to a .204
batting average against him. He continued to impress as a
sophomore, recording a 2.09 ERA and reaching the century strikeout
mark with 101 K’s despite only pitching 81.2 frames.
Over the summer he pitched in the Cape Cod league for Falmouth
where he teamed with fellow 2008 first round draft picks Aaron
Crow, Conor Gillaspie and Shooter Hunt (not mention Aaron
Shafer, Matt Hague, Kyle Gibson and others on a stocked Commodores’
roster which amazingly didn’t win the league title).
The wood bats of the Cape allowed Friedrich to experiment
with perfecting his changeup, slurve and slider without worrying
about an Easton powered linedrive ripping his head off after
it failed to have the intended movement. He also was tested
against some of the top players in the country. In a CCL playoff
game he struck out Gerald Posey (drafted by the Giants, fifth
overall), Jason Castro (Astros, 10th overall) and Gordon Beckham
(eighth overall, Cubs).
Success continued into his junior season
in 2008 as he was named the Ohio Valley Conference pitcher
of the week thrice in route to an All American season for
the Colonels. He finished his final year at EKU with a 5-1
record, finishing second in the nation in earned run average
(1.43), first in hits allowed per nine innings at 4.41 (40
in 81.7 innings – just one of which was a homerun) and
eighth in strikeouts per nine innings at 11.9 (108 K’s).
He was a finalist for several national player of the year
awards, including the Brooks Wallace and Roger Clemens Awards,
as well as the Golden Spikes and Dick Howser awards.
There is no secret to Friedrich’s success
on the mound. He’s armed with a 12-6 curve that drops
like Cuba Gooding Jr.’s post Jerry McGuire career (from
an Oscar to underwear ads!) and fastball that rushes into
the mid 90’s. He’s also developed a slider-slurve
hybrid that’s set’s up his other pitches. Plus
he has a mental approach that keeps him driven. “He
got that little extra drive and preparation that is second
to none,” explains his EKU coach Elvis Dominguez, “there
is no reason why someday he can’t be playing in the
bigs.”
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