Lyons "Growing Up"

As the St. Louis Cardinals take the field for their Grapefruit League opener they will send Tyler Lyons to the mound against the Miami Marlins.

The left-hander has arguably his best chance to spend his first full season in the big leagues this year. He’s out of options, so sending him to Triple-A would require the unlikely task of him not being claimed by another team off waivers.

“At the end of the day I still have no control over what happens,” said Lyons of his situation. “I don’t really concern myself–obviously, I know that’s the case but there’s nothing I can really do about it so there’s nothing I’m going to different on the field. I’ll leave that up to everyone else.”

Engaged during the off-season, Lyons is keeping a mature perspective about life on and off the field.

“I feel like I’m growing up now, I do,” he agreed with a smile, noting that at 28 years of age it “should start coming together pretty quickly.”

Last season, Lyons made nine starts for the Cardinals but showed a particular effectiveness late in the season coming out of the bullpen.

“I feel fine doing either or,” said Tyler. “I think out of the bullpen is just–I don’t know. Whenever I’m pitching, I don’t really feel the difference of either one. It’s all about just getting people out and trying to keep it one pitch at a time, so I don’t really know what the difference is.”

That worked out well as in the course of final ten days of the season, Lyons delivered 3.2 innings of long relief then gave 7.0 innings as a starter before returning out of the bullpen for another 3.0 inning effort. It was not unlike the role his former teammate Carlos Villanueva had as the swingman.

“Carlos has made a living doing that and had the versatility to start, pitch in long relief, pitch short relief and so I think there’s some value to that,” said Lyons. “I feel comfortable doing any of those things, so if that’s what I need to do to stick around then sure, so be it.”

Arriving in Jupiter the beginning of January, Lyons has not added anything different to his arsenal for this season but has tried to refine his approach to finding consistent fastball command.

“Over the years I’ve just become better at playing catch, as simple as that is,” he shared. “Just playing quality catch. You look back years ago, if I wasn’t throwing a bullpen I was just throwing to throw to get my arm in shape. Now every throw I make, I’ve tried to make with a purpose. That’s something I’ve learned over the years watching other people and that’s just another way to keep working when you’re throwing. I would say it’s as simple as that–just playing catch, trying to keep everything the same.”

More than one person within the Cardinals organization has talked about the slider Lyons is able to throw, which may seem like the got to alternative when his fastball command isn’t there.

“It’s not that easy because you see people that have success–you’ve got to be able to pitch off your fastball,” explained Lyons. “As a reliever, it’s a little easier to get away with throwing slider, slider, slider. As a starter, I just don’t think you can sustain it that long throwing slider, slider. It’s a very high effort pitch. I think as a starter, it’s all about establishing that fastball command–that’s what makes everything better.”