Dax Fulton, LHP, Beloit Skycarp (Miami Marlins Prospect)
Dax Fulton is one of the top pitching prospects in the Miami Marlins system and for good reason. For starters, he’s young (20), left-handed, and stands 6’7” which still gives him plenty of room for projection. Fulton was a High School Perfect Game All-American in 2019, and he was considered the best prep left-handed pitcher in the 2020 draft class. However, he missed his high school senior season with Tommy John surgery.
Despite that, the Marlins front office saw enough of him in 2019 to still draft him in the 2nd round in 2020 and give him a bonus that was a record for a pitcher who hadn’t thrown a pitch his entire high school senior year. His stuff is starting to get back to what it was pre-Tommy John. Currently, his fastball will usually sit around 93-96 and he’ll mix in a curveball that has a chance to develop into a plus pitch in time as well as his changeup. Fulton does a good job of mixing speeds while still having the power to generate plenty of swinging strikes. He has had some trouble with his control at times, (something that’s not uncommon for young pitchers his size) however his potential combined with his current swing and miss stuff in the zone gives him a chance to be the best young left-handed pitcher in the Midwest League and he very well could be a special pitcher in time if everything comes together.
Baseball Q & A
James Weisser: What got you interested in the game of baseball?
Dax Fulton: I’m not exactly sure but I’ve always enjoyed the game of baseball. I always enjoyed pitching because I feel like I get the opportunity to control the game depending on how I did. If I did well my team usually played better behind me and I always liked that feeling of being able to control/help my team out.
JW: Did you have a favorite player?
DF: Clayton Kershaw. I always liked watching the way he’d go out and compete on the mound and he was also left-handed like me so he was a good one to look up to. He was a lot of fun to watch, especially when he was dominating.
JW: How old were you when you first realized you had a special talent for pitching?
DF: When I was in high school I started realizing that my velocity started to naturally get better and that it was easier for me to throw hard. I started working harder and everything really started to come together, but it wasn’t until after I got my first collegiate offer that I realized that I have a chance to really make something out of it.
JW: What does it mean to you to be considered one of the top players in your organization?
DF: It means everything, it’s cool, but I really try not to look into that too much because everyone inside the clubhouse is just like me. I live with those guys, and they are like my brothers so I try to surround myself with guys that are as good as me and I think that the rankings are cool to look at but they don’t mean everything because everyone’s a really good player in professional baseball.
JW: What are you working on to help improve your game?
DF: I’ve really been working hard this year on the mental part of the game, trying to maintain the same focus on every single pitch and every hitter I face. In the past, I’ve had tendencies where I haven’t had the same focus and so that’s something that I’ve been working really hard on to improve.
JW: What motivates you?
DF: I feel like I’ve always been self motivated. I know that I have a gift from God, I look at it as I’m blessed with the opportunity to play a game for a living and that’s what motivates me to do my best.
JW: Are there any goals you have?
DF: One of the goals that I have that I know will help take my game to the next level is being able to execute pitches. Last year I had some trouble with walking too many hitters and this year I feel like I’ve done a lot better but my goal is to continue to do more than just throw more strikes, I want to be able to hit my spots.
JW: What's your favorite thing about the game of baseball?
DF: I love how a hitter can fail 7 or 8 times out of 10 and still be considered a good hitter, that you can make good pitches and still give up a hit. That’s my favorite thing about the game is that no matter how hard or how soft a hitter might hit the ball anything can happen. I think that the game of baseball is different from any other game because you can have players that are 40 years old and close to 300 pounds and they can still hit the ball and you can have players that are 20 years old and in great peak shape and they both can go out and compete and play the game. There’s no other sport where you can do that.
Interests outside of Baseball
JW: What do you like to do outside of baseball?
DF: I enjoy playing the guitar, both me and my roommate Evan Fitterer play the guitar and he teaches me a lot of things and I’ve really enjoyed that. I also like playing video games, but when I’m back home in Oklahoma in the off season I enjoy hunting and fishing. I really enjoy the outdoors.
JW: What's your favorite food?
DF: I really enjoy chicken alfredo and I’ve recently started to really enjoy seafood.
JW: What's your favorite kind of music?
DF: I’m like a human jukebox, I listen to everything except for classical music. If I had to choose one genre, I really like pop/alternative, country, to me it really just depends on the day.