Kansas City Royals: Prospect rewind and interview, Alec Marsh

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Drafted in the second round of the 2019 MLB draft by the Kansas City Royals, Alec Marsh put together a solid season with Idaho Falls.

It’s easy to see why the Kansas City Royals liked the Arizona State hurler, enough to select him with their Competitive Balance pick in the second round. Alec Marsh put up terrific numbers in his final season with the Sun Devils, tossing 96.2 innings with 92 strikeouts and a 3.17 ERA. He limited opponents to a 0.241 batting average but he also walked 33 batters.

Once signed, the 21-year-old was assigned to Idaho Falls, where he made 13 starts to close out the regular season. In those starts, Marsh tossed 33.1 innings with 38 strikeouts while allowing just 4 free passes and an opponents’ batting average of 0.238. We had the chance to catch up with him about the draft and his time with the Royals thus far.

Q: Coming out of Arizona State, what was the draft process like for you and had you met with anyone from the Royals prior to being selected? After the draft, can you walk us through how the Royals determined that Idaho Falls would be the best place to start?

A: The draft process was stressful, to say the least. Being a prospect going through my junior year it was all about winning for me especially the first half of the season. As it got closer to the draft, the pressure started to kick in but I loved it. I love being in high-pressure situations and I think the draft always was in the back of my mind as it is everyone’s but learning to cope with that made me such a better player because I was able to put it in the back of my mind and focus on the task at hand.

Before the draft, I met with Kenneth Munoz who is a scout for the Royals and it was great talking to him. We spoke briefly but the Royals were not a team that showed the most interest going into the draft so it was a big surprise when it happened. After the draft, we reported to the Surprise Stadium and did all of our physical testing and what not and they asked me how my body felt and arm after throwing 105 innings for ASU that year and I said great I was pretty much ready to rock and get back on the field.

We had a brief meeting and they said I was going to go to Idaho Falls to start the short season and I was very excited because there was some speculation that I might have been shut down due to what they have done in the past with some higher draft pitchers. I was sent off the next day and drove by myself to start a day later for the Chukars. Not nervous at all just ready to play baseball and help a team win once again. After a disappointing postseason with ASU, winning a championship for Idaho Falls was much needed.

“The biggest thing for me is learning how to tunnel and make all my pitches come out of the same slot.”

Q: Speaking of Idaho Falls, you made 13 starts there this season and displayed terrific command. Just 4 walks and 38 strikeouts in 33.1 innings. What have you found to be so successful for you in limiting the number of free passes?

A: Going into my first pro season, I had some goals and one of them was to really limit the walks. I’ve always had good command but at ASU. I let it get the best of me because some times instead of pitching I would like to throw and just throw hard and not care where the ball went. I learned fast that, that is not who a pitcher is or needs to be to win. I went in with goals and felt like I exceeded my own expectations just because I worked very hard in that short 3 months to be as competitive and dominating as I could. The most successful thing for me was being able to command not 2 or 3 but all of my pitches in any count.

I was able to trust myself to throw off-speed behind in counts in order to get back into the count which I think is almost an advanced way of pitching, when you see guys pitch in the big leagues they aren’t throwing fastballs to these hitters behind in counts all the time because that’s what gets hit. Another way to think about it for me was I made it a point and it was the main focus that free 90 feet are not how you win, so I told myself I was not going to walk that person in the box if it was a situation where he might walk. Staying ahead was very important and I will only get better as my career carries on.

Q: In one of your final games of the season, you struck out 6 batters in just 3.0 innings of work. What pitches were working for you that day and what pitches, in general, do you feel still need some development?

A: It is pretty hard to tell which game this was because they all seem to morph together sometimes but if it is the game I am thinking of, everything seemed to be working together that day. That is another point I am making in my progression is to have consistency on all my pitches because some days one pitch might be better than the other but when all are working and I can use all my weapons, that’s when I am most effective. The biggest pitch for me that needs development is my 2-seam or sinker fastball. It is the only pitch that is inconsistent at times but has gotten 100 times better while I was in Idaho. Some times it flattens out and moves like a normal fastball rather than diving under a right-handers barrel and that’s what I am trying to do with that pitch. The more I work on it, the better it’s going to get with time.

Q: Were you exposed to any pitching analytics tools in college and at Idaho Falls? I am sure at some point you will be utilizing the Rapsodo machine to help improve spin rates, movement, etc.

A: I have worked with Rapsodo in college very briefly we just started using it in my junior year and I don’t think it was used very aggressively but I am very interested in it and I think it is cool to see how your pitches work together and what movements that make. The biggest thing for me is learning how to tunnel and make all my pitches come out of the same slot. I was not in Surprise long enough to use it with the Royals but I do know they use that technology and am excited to learn more about it and myself.

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I roughly know my spin rates. I know my 4 seam is on average 2300 RPM and has been up to 2500 ish. I could not tell you my spin rates on other stuff, they are all pretty close together low 2000 to mid-2000s. The goal is to make off-speed higher and figure out how my pitches work and make them as efficient as possible.

“I don’t just want to lock down a future rotation spot I want to be one of the best the game has to offer as a starter”

Q: I noticed that you had played in wood-bat leagues during the summer of 2017 and 2018. Was there anything in either year that you were trying to specifically develop?

A: My freshman summer, I played in the Northwoods league and it was my first chance at starting as a college player. I came off a pretty rough freshman year and just wanted to get as many innings as possible, so the goal was to basically go out there and compete and win. I didn’t have a good idea of mechanics and my pitches at that time. I was, like I said, a thrower. I grew up and became a pitcher around my sophomore year when I went into the Friday night role at ASU and then that summer played in the Cape Cod League where I mainly served as a reliever and closed because I was on a short innings limit.

I then came across a pitching coach, Christian Wonders, who really helped me mentally and physically improve my mechanics and mentally on the mound. That summer is when baseball was becoming fun for me again and I was able to find what it took for myself to compete at my best level. I had a really bad curveball coming into that season and my main focus was figuring that out. I was first introduced to trackman and spin rates that summer and it allowed me to see how my curveball worked and what it meant to spin the ball. This let me completely revamp my curveball into a way better pitch and an effective pitch at that.

Once I got that down before I left the Cape (Cod League), I developed a slider in a bullpen just messing around with grips and became a better pitch than my curveball very shortly. That is what I think allows me to be a good starter because I have a good 4-5 pitch mix that are all different pitches. Another big point that summer was learning how my body worked on the mound and getting the most out of every pitch, so I believe that summer I turned into a complete pitcher and had a base to work off of for the future.

Q: A lot of the media attention for pitching prospects goes towards Kris Bubic, Jackson Kowar, Brady Singer, etc. Does that provide any fuel for you to become better as you progress and what would that mean for you to one day lock down a future rotation spot with the big league roster?

A: This gives me so much excitement and drives when people talk about these guys because not only do I want to be put in that group, I want to be the best. So I have a natural desire and drive to beat even my own teammates in whatever category it might be. I have only heard great things about those guys because they are all complete pitchers and have an elite level of competitiveness, which I feel we have in common and I can’t wait to be sharing the field one day with them.

My goal has always been to be one of the best in the game and that’s what I strive for. I don’t just want to lock down a future rotation spot I want to be one of the best the game has to offer as a starter, so it would mean the world to me once I make it and get called up. It will probably be the best day of my life but that would only be the beginning because the biggest challenge is staying there and then competing there for years to come.

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It is nice having those guys to look up to as they are paving the way right now in the minors and tearing it up it just gives me more motivation to catch up.

A special thank you to Alec (@AlecMarsh8) for taking the time to speak with us!

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Drafted in the second round of the 2019 MLB draft by the Kansas City Royals, Alec Marsh put together a solid season with Idaho Falls.

“The biggest thing for me is learning how to tunnel and make all my pitches come out of the same slot.”

“I don’t just want to lock down a future rotation spot I want to be one of the best the game has to offer as a starter”

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