• Daniel Lynch will be making his 2022 debut tonight for the Royals when the big league club visits St. Louis for the first road trip of the year. After Bubic, Kowar, and Singer all got whacked around on Sunday afternoon against Cleveland, the 2018 draft class could use a bump of confidence tonight. A successful start from Lynch should help Royals fans lower their blood pressure for at least a few days. Another disastrous start could start to make things a little restless.
• Austin Cox looked fantastic through four innings in his first start of the season last week, but fell apart in the fifth. Omaha returns home for the first time in 2022 tonight so Cox will be the man in charge of helping the team get their first home win of the year out of the way. I know he’s not on the 40-man roster yet, but he’s probably only behind Ronald Bolanos and Jon Heasley for a shot in the big leagues if things get any worse for the current rotation.
• Down in Northwest Arkansas, Asa Lacy will make his AA debut tonight as the Naturals play their first home game of the season. Much was made about Lacy’s command issues last summer during his first professional season, but an injury midway through the season may have provided some answers about why Lacy was struggling so much. This is a big year for the lefty out of Texas A&M, and I’m sure most of you are as excited as I am to see how he fares tonight.
• Anderson Paulino gets his first High-A start tonight in Quad Cities home opener. The RHP has a big fastball but struggled at times last year in Columbia. If he can find a way to have some success this year, he’ll put himself back on prospect radars because he’s got some good raw stuff.
• Wander Arias gets his first start of the season for the Fireflies.

Photo Credits: Josh Franzen (@PrtTimeFranimal)