Kansas City’s Alec Marsh Weighs In on His Bizarre Fastball

Red Sox hitters shall be dealing with an enigmatic fastball after they host the Royals at Fenway Park tonight. When Eric Longenhagen put collectively our Kansas City Royals Top Prospect record final month, he wrote that Alec Marsh’s fastball “doesn’t hop even though it has the approach angle and spin axis of a fastball that typically does; it has below-average vertical break and might be surprisingly hittable against big league bats.” Calling the pitch “weird,” our lead prospect analyst additional described it as a “flat-angled, high-spin sinker,” including that the 25-year-old right-hander, whom he assigned a forty five FV and a no. 3 rating within the system, is not touching triple digits as he did in his preliminary seasons of professional ball.

Intrigued, I confirmed the 2019 second-round select of Arizona State University what my colleague had written, and requested him a easy query: How correct is that this?

Here is Marsh’s response to that, in addition to a smattering of different questions.

Alec Marsh: “I’d say 100%. Two years in the past, once I was throwing that arduous… I imply, I bumped into velo for a few yr earlier than I acquired harm [a biceps injury in 2021], however I by no means actually touched 100 [mph]; I touched 99 perhaps as soon as a begin. My vertical and horizontal had been fairly elite again then. I might contact 20s and be round 8–10 horizontal. When I got here again from harm, I began actually chopping the ball. I don’t know if it was due to a belief issue of pronation and stuff like that, however once I was in Double A final yr, I gave up a ton of hits and residential runs on fastballs, simply because I used to be in that tremendous hittable zone of 93–94.

“The vert being down… I imply, it will go all the way down to 12 generally. I believe I used to be chasing the vert numbers a lot that it virtually made it worse. That sort of haunted me all season, as a result of it was the one factor I used to be in search of. I didn’t need to work on different pitches or repair anything; I used to be simply centered on making an attempt to repair the fastball.

“I finally let it go and came to terms with ‘It is what it is, and you’ve got to be able to use your other pitches, because the fastball is more hittable right now.’ That doesn’t mean it won’t get better. It was more about not putting so much stock into, ‘You have to get this better or you can’t pitch.’ Basically, I changed my mindset to, ‘You have four good pitches and can utilize them to get deep into games; you can use the fastball more effectively by making the command better.”

“So I believe [Longenhagen’s] was an ideal take. Before I acquired injured, the fastball was extra hoppy. I acquired extra swing-and-miss, I acquired extra foul balls, even once I left it over the center of the plate. Now once I go away my fastball over the center, it often will get hit.

“Coming back from injury and not being able to pronate as much… I mean, I can’t get to the back of the ball, so I’ve kind of been releasing it on the side. A lot of my pitches are almost that cutter-look fastball, but it’s more of like an up-shoot vert ball. It was actually really good against the Rays [on July 15], though. I dominated them [11 strikeouts and five hits allowed in six innings] with fastballs. I didn’t get much swing-and-miss on other pitches, but the fastball was good.”

Laurila: So it has been good at instances this season?

Marsh: “I’m beginning to determine some issues out with the four-seam. I simply threw a bullpen and had numerous 20-inch fastballs on the market. The numbers within the ‘pen are a lot better than they are in games right now. I assume that’s simply due to adrenaline chopping it off a bit of bit in video games. I do know it’s going to translate finally. It’s a matter of getting there constantly and doing it in video games.

“Hopefully the velo will start to come up a little bit, too. My average velocity this year [94.7 mph in 28 big league innings] is maybe a tick better compared to last year, but the end range isn’t as high. I’m not touching 99. But do I think it will be there some day? For sure.”

Laurila: And it’s a four-seam, and never a two-seam?

Marsh: “Again, what he wrote is correct, though it’s not a sinker. I believe it’s like a vertical method angle… it’s like an up-shoot fastball with bizarre metrics: excessive spin charge [2,486 rpms] however low vert. My horizontal is again to regular. Last yr it was 5, as a result of I used to be chopping it loads, and this yr it’s again as much as seven or eight.

“So yeah, I’m not throwing a two-seam or a sinker. At least not yet. I had a sinker when I got drafted, so I might add it back in the future and be a five-pitch-mix guy. For now, I just need to work with what I have.”