Royals Rumblings - News for March 1, 2023

Jordan Lyles was working on his slider and curve in his start yesterday, per Anne Rogers:

Lyles had one strikeout and one walk while throwing 35 pitches. He used the outing to work on his changeup and his two breaking balls, a slider and a curveball. He threw three sliders.

“I need both those pitches,” Lyles said of the breaking balls. “Last year, I relied more on the slider. When I am at my best in my previous years, my curveball has been on point, and that’s what I can rely on.

“This Spring Training, my main focus is trying to dial that back in and get that retooled and have two good breaking balls.”

A command-and-control guy, Lyles allowed only 2.6 walks per nine innings last season, his lowest ratio since 2011 and one that ranked in the 65th percentile of qualifiers.

A Royals organizational update: I am still going to get a second source to confirm this, but I believe the “Yankees rules” for Royals minor leaguers will be gone this year. Players at all levels will be allowed to wear facial hair other than mustaches for the first time in at least 15 years.

Evan Drellich at The Athletic noted a movement in Florida trying to exempt MiLB players from minimum wage laws, similar to how the Save America’s Pastime Act worked at the federal level. Minor leaguers are unionized now, and will be negotiating a CBA:

Wages are a mandatory subject of bargaining. The new CBA is highly likely to include minimums that meet, if not exceed, different state requirements.

Why, then, if the new CBA will set player salaries, is MLB still pursuing further wage-related legislation at the state level? Theoretically, an exemption, or the potential of one, could give the owners leverage in CBA talks with the minor leaguers. If a state like Florida doesn’t require players to be paid during, say, spring training, then MLB could try to leverage that in the negotiations.

A league spokesperson, however, said, “This is not about collective bargaining.”

At the least, MLB appears to be seeking a different effect: future lawsuit protection.

At FanGraphs, Kyle Kishimoto says people will get used to the pitch clock and after a while, fans won’t really notice it.

Shortstop Gavin Lux of the Dodgers tore his ACL and sprained his LCL, and will miss the whole season.

Rays righty Tyler Glasnow will miss 6-8 weeks with an oblique strain.

Here’s Luis Garcia’s new windup, now that his rocking-the-baby motion will be enforced as a balk:

Padres righty Joe Musgrove dropped a kettlebell on his foot and will miss a few weeks with a broken toe.

At FanGraphs, Dan Szymborski tries to find the window for the Reds to be competitive.

LaMelo Ball will miss the rest of the season with an ankle fracture, in rough news for the Charlotte Hornets. (And a rough stretch for the Ball family, as it’s only been a week or so since Lonzo was shut down for the season as well.)

Giannis Antetokounmpo refuses to talk trash about other NBA stars even when set up for it, because Giannis Antetokounmpo is the most wholesome.

A recipe for homemade Big Mac sliders.

Updates from a deadly head-on collision between two trains in Greece.

Do you have any of these nine extremely niche mobile apps on your device?

Dave Grohl is wonderful:

My favorite Ask a Manager letter of the week is the person whose company randomly sent them a giant TV, and they never mentioned it to anyone until they were about to leave that job. (Letter #2 at the link)

Have you ever met a love interest at Home Depot?

Today’s Reddit question: What is a subtle sign someone isn’t a good person? (Besides if they don’t like baseball.)

SOTD: Blink 182 - Anthem Part Two