Kansas City Royals: Diving into each of draft picks

With the 4th Pick, LHP Asa Lacy

Martin and Lacy both fell to Kansas City, which was a dream scenario no one thought would happen. However, it was one Dayton Moore and the other front office members seemed to get information on a couple of hours before the draft, causing them to change directions. Moore said they were fully ready to take a position player before they received this intel information, causing them to have conversations on what they would do if this happened.

In an interview with Royals MLB beat reporter, Jeffrey Flanagan, assistant general manager Lonnie Goldberg said:

"“We made the advance decision,” Goldberg said, “that if that scenario happened, we would take Asa Lacy. … There just aren’t that many [people] on this earth with his kind of talent."

What are they getting with Asa Lacy?

To put it simply, the Royals are getting a workhorse. He’s a power pitcher who will eat innings and could easily dominate hitters. He has a fastball that touches mid-to-upper 90s, a hard slider and curve in the low-to-mid 80s, and his favorite pitch an above-average changeup. All four of his pitches are solid pitches as well.

During the shortened season, Lacy posting a 0.75 ERA over 24.0 innings with 46 strikeouts and just 8 walks. Probably more impressive than that is the fact that he allowed just nine hits. Meaning only 17 hitters reached base, resulting in his .0708 WHIP. That is impressive.

But Lacy hasn’t been good for just one year. Over Lacy’s three years at Texas A&M, he posted a 2.07 ERA over 152.0 innings. He struck out 224 hitters and walked just 68 hitters. He’s sporting a career 1.013 WHIP, 13.3 SO/9, a 4.0 BB9, and a 5.1 H9 as well.

Why you should be excited

When looking at what Lacy brings to the big-league level, he has a couple of comparisons. One, Clayton Kershaw. Another is Blake Snell.

Lacy grew up idolizing Kershaw, which would make sense as to why he has some similarities to Kershaw. While Snell had an off-year last year, his 2018 season was a very impressive season, resulting in him winning the American League Cy Young.

Lacy has the makings of leading an already impressive pitching wave while moving quickly through the system.