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It has been 10 years since a prospect of Daniel Lynch’s caliber made his debut for the Kansas City Royals. See, Lynch isn’t just a good prospect—every team has good prospects—Lynch is one of the best pitching prospects in Major League Baseball, ranked by Baseball America as the 21st overall prospect as well as the second-best left-handed pitching prospect in the game.
Sure, Brady Singer was a top 100 prospect when he debuted last year. But Singer wasn’t one of the top 20 or so best prospects in the league. We have to go back to the days of Danny Duffy, Eric Hosmer, and Mike Moustakas in 2011 to get to a similar level of hype.
What should we expect from Lynch? Upper-90s heat, for one. Lynch could touch 100 MPH tonight from adrenaline and I would not be surprised. Also expect a changeup and a breaking ball, and unlike Singer, you can expect Lynch to throw both.
As far as Kansas City’s opponent, well, Cleveland hasn’t done very well but has a better run differential than the Royals. Still, if the Royals could sweep Cleveland over the next four games, they would hold a seven-game lead over them with May’s days still in the single digits. That would be quite a feat.
Cleveland lineup
Greetings.
— Cleveland Indians (@Indians) May 3, 2021
Some housekeeping moves:
+ Reinstated OF Franmil Reyes from the Paternity List
+ Recalled OF Harold Ramirez from the Alternate Site
- Optioned OF Daniel Johnson to the Taxi Squad
- Optioned LHP Kyle Nelson#OurCLE pic.twitter.com/ru6Js4sD4I
Royals lineup
Here's how we will line up behind Daniel Lynch to open the homestand.#TogetherRoyal pic.twitter.com/G2NGOkb0D8
— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) May 3, 2021
If the Royals succeed in this rebuild, they’ll need Lynch to be a lynch-pin of the rotation. Tonight, we hope that the fire-throwing lefty will start with just that.