BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Today we continue SamfordSports.com's series giving alumni, fans and friends an in-depth video interview focused on the lives of our student-athletes, coaches and staff in the wake of COVID-19. In Friday's 14th episode, Jonathan McAfoos visits with former baseball standout Branden Fryman.
 
Fryman played for the Bulldogs from 2017 to 2019. He was a key member of the 2018 team that won the SoCon Tournament, advancing to the NCAA Tallahassee Regional. He also was one of the leaders of the 2019 squad that won the SoCon regular-season title, a first for the Samford baseball program.


 
Following the 2019 season Fryman was selected by the New York Mets in the 21^st round of the Major League Baseball Draft. Fryman currently plays in the Mets minor league system.
 
Fryman and the rest of the professional baseball world were in spring training when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. He talked about how he and his teammates found out the season was being suspended.
 
"It kind of came to a screeching halt," Fryman said. "I think the Yankees were the first team that had some players diagnosed, and it was during spring training. And the Yankees are like two hours away from us (at spring training). Then everybody was starting to think, oh wait are we going to be sent home? Then the next day we had a big meeting with pretty much everybody that is involved with baseball there, and they told us we're going to have to take a little break and we don't know how long it's going to be."
 
Fryman is the son of former Major League standout Travis Fryman. He said being at home during the COVID-19 pandemic with his dad has helped him keep working out, but he is ready to get back to actually playing games.
 
"I've been lucky to have my dad at home to keep me busy with baseball and everything," Fryman said. "I've been able to stay around the game, but I'm definitely missing the actual games. I'm kind of tired or practicing all of the time."
 
Fryman later talked about the type of workouts he has been doing to stay in shape for when they are allowed to begin playing games again.
 
"I've just been trying to get a workout in, three or four every week and then try to hit or throw three or four times every week," Fryman said. "With not having much on my plate and with everything being closed down, that's pretty easy to do. It's just a couple of hours a day. I do it in the morning and knock it out and just keep going."
 
There has been a lot of speculation about how and when professional baseball will come back. Fryman talked about the way he is approaching the whole situation.
 
"It's definitely a little bit frustrating, at least for my personal self, going into my first full year and missing 500 ABs that I could have gotten," Fryman said. "But, it's happening for everybody. Everybody is missing all of those at-bats right now. I can't really look forward to too much because I don't know what's going to happen, so I really just try to focus on getting my work done, day-in and day-out. And that is helping me deal with everything. I want to feel optimistic about coming back and playing, but I think in reality it is going to be a long shot for minor leaguers. I think the Major League side will come around at some point, but who knows with the minor league side?"
 
Fryman praised the way the Mets organization has handled the entire situation.
 
"They've been great," Fryman said. "Somebody has contacted me from the Mets every two or three days. They've done a great job with communication."
 
The number of minor league teams is being drastically cut during this time. Even with the decrease in teams, Fryman said he is hopeful for the future of minor league baseball.
 
"I'm hoping that it grows, because with less teams, I think the quality of the stadiums will increase," Fryman said "I think that is pretty important for fan attendance, now a days, to get people to come. So, I'm hoping there'll be a growth in minor league baseball."
 
Fryman added one area he feels needs to improve for minor league baseball to move forward.
 
"I think the biggest change that there needs to be is, there needs to be better video coverage and video footage," Fryman said. "Samford is 10 times ahead of the minor league teams. I'm hoping that it grows, but I guess we'll wait and see."
 
Major League Baseball has been in talks about beginning its regular season, though the owners and players have been unable to come to an agreement so far. Fryman said he feels like they will eventually be able to agree to start the 2020 regular season.
 
"I think that everybody wants to play," Fryman said. "All of the players want to play and the owners want the players to play, they want to see games too. I know from a financial aspect the deal that I saw was not what was previously agreed to with the players. The players want to stick to the previous agreement. I think the owners will come around, but that is just a guess."