Lucas Giolito: Looking Back, and Looking Ahead
"It's a brand new season," Lucas Giolito told gathered media in a conference call yesterday. "Everything we did up to this point doesn't matter anymore. It's all about the game tomorrow, and the game after tomorrow, and so on and so forth."
Today, Giolito will pitch in his first career postseason game as he takes the hill for Game 1 in Oakland against the A's. "It’s an honor," he said. "This is what I’ve been working for. I’ve been really looking forward to pitching in the postseason, and I couldn't ask for a better squad to be doing it with."
Though he expressed excitement for being able to play on this stage, Giolito, along with teammate Tim Anderson before him on the interview dais, recognizes that it's still the same game. Though Giolito's mentality is understandable as he focuses on preparation for Game 1, it's worthwhile revisiting his 2020 season, as it was accomplished and praiseworthy.
You may have heard once or twice from various outlets that he threw the 19th no-hitter in White Sox history, and the first of the 2020 season. On top of that accomplishment, Giolito also tied his career-high 13 strikeouts twice, finishing fourth in all of baseball in strikeouts and second in the American League.
Life comes at you fast
If you're unfamiliar with what kind of pitcher Lucas Giolito is, this section is written for you. If you are familiar with Giolito and need a refresher, this section's for you, too. It's for everybody!
Giolito seemed to reinvent himself for his 2019 All-Star season, finishing at 14-9 and a 3.41 ERA, but most impressively, a 1.06 WHIP and 32.3% K%, placing him in the top 10% in all of baseball. This success, a revitalization from his 2018 season, was attributed to an adjusted arm action, re-adjusting himself mentally, and revisiting his high school pitching coach.
Also integral to Giolito's revival was pretty much abandoning the use of his sinker in 2019, and more recently, his curveball, as it was thrown a measly 12 times in 2020.
His best pitch is absolutely his changeup, which I refer to as his "down-b" pitch, a joke anyone who plays Super Smash Brothers (Giolito included) would understand. The changeup had a whiff percentage of 41.4%, and was hit only 14 of 409 times it was thrown in 2019.
Recently, Giolito has seemed to find success with going strictly fastball-changeup, with a recently-tweaked slider sprinkled into the mix. Though he throws a straight fastball and changeup, the velocity difference is enough from a hitter's perspective for the pitches to look nearly identical, which causes some very entertaining swings-and-misses to pad Giolito's strikeout numbers.
2020 is hindsight
Though just second in the American League to Shane Bieber with 97 strikeouts, Giolito finished his 2020 season at 4-3 and a 3.48 ERA in 12 games and 72 innings pitched. His 2020 K% was 33.7%, improved from his already-impressive K% from 2019.
Giolito relied a great deal on fastball location to nab hitters, as he was also the pitcher to hit the top of the zone the most:
Though Opening Day seems like a distant memory, that date on the schedule some 60 games ago didn't go so well for Giolito, as he only lasted 3 ⅔ innings against the Minnesota Twins, notably taken deep by Max Kepler on the first pitch.
However, he began to rediscover his success in inning-eating starts against the Milwaukee Brewers, Detroit Tigers, and Cleveland, eventually whittling his ERA down to 3.09, where he'd tie his career strikeout total twice, the second time as he no-hit the Pittsburgh Pirates on August 25. Did I mention that Giolito threw a no-hitter?
As the White Sox enter the postseason, the first inning may be an area of concern for Giolito; in 2020, he's given up eight runs off nine hits in his 12 starts. Attacking hitters early to get through the top of the lineup will help Giolito establish confidence early, keep his pitch count low, and set the tone for the rest of the game.
Giolito's success can also be attributed to the synergistic relationship he has with catcher James McCann. The two appear to function beautifully together, with McCann calling one heck of a game for Giolito, with the no-hitter being special evidence of that good work.
Giolito's 2020 season was memorable and at times dreamlike, but the time to reflect for now, at least, is over. White Sox fans are excited to see Giolito pitch in the postseason; he has put in the hard work to establish himself as the team ace, and it certainly shows in his demeanor as today's game approaches.