Morning Mound Visit: Sinclair is making it harder for cord-cutters to watch Royals games

Max Rieper | Royals Review: In 2019, Sinclair bought Fox Sports Kansas City and 21 other regional sports networks. Since then, these RSN’s have been dropped from streaming services like YouTube TV and Hulu. Sinclair is trying to develop their own streaming service which will incorporate gambling, and in the meantime, they have little incentive to reduce their asking price for broadcasting rights.

RJ McDaniel | FanGraphs: In his first appearance since undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2019, Jordan Hicks had to throw 22 pitches to one batter: Luis Guillorme. Guillorme surpassed Brandon Belt’s 21-pitch at bat from 2018, and unlike Belt, Guillorme won in the end.

Matthew Trueblood | Baseball Prospectus $: The sabermetrics community has mostly gotten away from cheering on teams avoiding big contracts, but the phrase “dead money” is still in use. A handful of players with “albatross” contracts have revitalized themselves, and are proving that the money being paid to them isn’t dead after all.