Lyles ready for first full minor league season

For the first time in his career, Jordan Lyles can concentrate on one sport.
The focus for Lyles, a former three-sport standout at Hartsville, is solely on baseball as he begins his first full season in the Houston Astros’ minor league system.
“It’s been different. It’s the first time I’ve been able to concentrate on baseball,” Lyles said by phone Friday. “I haven’t experienced things like this. I’ve hit the weight room harder than I ever have and it’s been pretty good so far.”
Lyles says he’s added 15 pounds and reported at 215 when he arrived at the Astros spring training facility in Kissimmee, Fla., at the end of February.
He says a typical spring training day begins about 9 a.m. with stretching. That leads into pitching and fielding drills before a break for lunch.
After lunch, games are played against other minor league squads.
Most of Lyles’ focus has been working on curveballs and changeups. He says his fastball has been clocked at 94-95 mph.
“(Spring training) has been everything that I imagined it would be, and I’m happy with the decision to turn pro and not go to South Carolina,” Lyles said.
Lyles is coming off a solid rookie season, which included stops at Class A Greeneville (Tenn.) in the Appalachian League and Tri-Cities in the New York-Penn League. He was 3-3 with a 4.23 ERA and 68 strikeouts in 55 1/3 innings.
Lyles’ best outing came in a win against Kingsport in which he struck out 10, allowed just two hits and didn’t walk a batter.
Lyles is likely to begin this season with the Lexington Legends of the Class A South Atlantic League. The Legends begin their season April 9 at West Virginia.
Lyles will get a chance to pitch close to home when the Legends play in Greenville, Charleston, Augusta, Ga., and Savannah, Ga.
The Astros made the 6-foot-4 Lyles the 38th pick in last June’s draft. He was one of 40 players in the organization to be invited to instructional league last fall.
Baseball America has named Lyles the sixth best prospect in the Astros organization and projects him to be the club’s fourth starter in the 2012 rotation.
“We were happy with his talent, his makeup and his athleticism,” Astros assistant general manager Ricky Bennett told MLB.com in September. “We were more excited with his maturity and ability to compete. He showed a lot more than other guys out of this year’s draft did. We felt he could be challenged and he responded well.
“I saw him make a start with Greeneville and the thing that stood out was his mound presence. He looked like he belonged, and you don’t see that in a lot of guys his age.”
Lyles says he hasn’t paid too much attention to the rankings or how quickly he’s expected to move through the Astros’ farm system.
“I try not to put any more pressure on myself. Everyone is equal and is their own person down here no matter what round they were drafted in,” he said. “I’m just looking forward for the season to start and get going.”