Let's catch up on Lucas Giolito's excellent spring

[bmags]

After a particularly dominant outing vs. the Cubs, Fangraph's Jeff Sullivan pointed out in this excellent article that Giolito appeared to have lowered his arm slot to 3/4ths. He compared this to when James Paxton made a similar motion before his emergence as a frontline, if oft-injured, starter.

 

It also may have led to giolito recovering his fastball velocity, showing up with 93-95mph fastballs:

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/lets-watch-...look-very-good/

 

Fast forward to today, Fegan of the athletic followed up on this article (which continues to make him my favorite sox writer ever):

 

https://theathletic.com/291143/2018/03/28/w...st-full-season/

 

In this, Giolito talks about how that drop to 3/4ths slot was not intentional, but natural placement after following Don Cooper's ever useful ethos of staying tall. He talked about how it has made his curve feel much more natural out of his hand and led to it being more consistent.

 

Also talked about how his drop in stuff the last two years helped him become a better pitcher, and led to the rise of a reliable and consistent changeup that he can lean on when his curve disappears.

 

And this great paragraph:

"If asked why, Giolito would be more likely to credit “pitching with conviction” than mechanics, while acknowledging both are a factor. The conviction bit sounds like a cliché until you remember that much of pitching, and especially getting off-speed pitchers to work, is deception. When he talks about pitching with confidence, he also means eliminating the hesitance that would cause him to shorten or slow up his arm action to guide his pitches in, which acts as both a tell while also costing him sharpness and location. Now that he has keys to fall back on, Smith thinks Giolito's curve can adapt to whatever approach he's taking."

 

I'm super pumped about Giolito, after a year of being optimistic but frankly hesitant and nervous. Stay health and take off. I can't wait until he's in the world series and we have to hear the story about how his uncle was in seinfeld for the 1000th time.

[justBLAZE]

I'm super pumped about Giolito, after a year of being optimistic but frankly hesitant and nervous. Stay health and take off. I can't wait until he's in the world series and we have to hear the story about how his uncle was in seinfeld for the 1000th time.

 

Also, if my math is right, he's on pace to pitch in the White Sox Home Opener, can't wait.

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

Jeff Sullivan had me super excited to try to get Giolito in my draft. Someone else nabbed him, but I traded Eugenio Suarez for him post-draft. Giolito and Paxton baby.

[Eminor3rd]

I've been super low on Giolito since he made it to the majors, despite the fact that seeing his curveball live and up close last year when he was with Charlotte was one of the most memorable baseball events I experienced last year. But I'm extremely encouraged by the the arm slot change and resulting velocity bump. I only watched one of his spring starts, and it may just be me WANTING to see it, but it really seemed like there was more horizontal movement on the fastball. Will be interested to see if that data backs that up.

Edited March 29, 2018 by Eminor3rd

[Dunt]

Gio will be appointment television all season. Hoping to hit as many starts of his as possible.