It’s time to give credit where credit is due.
Lucas Giolito’s stunning turnaround from being arguably the worst starting pitcher in baseball to perhaps the best is his to own. It was Giolito who made the effort last offseason, Giolito who made changes in his arm swing and Giolito who is executing pitches that have produced a 9-1 record, and 2.28 ERA that’s almost four full runs lower than what he posted last season.
But a personal catcher like James McCann has played a role, and that wouldn’t be mentioned so much if Giolito himself wasn’t crediting McCann after every one of his starts.
“I’m going out there with a very clear mind because McCann does most of the thinking back there,” Giolito said.
“He deserves a lot of credit. He has been fantastic.’’
Giolito trusts McCann’s pitch-calling and sequencing and, not unlike Mark Buehrle and Chris Sale in Sox uniforms before him, he is working faster and staying in rhythm.
“I don’t think I have shaken him the last couple [starts],” Giolito said. “I will if I’m super-set on putting a guy away with a heater or changeup. But especially early in the count he’s doing his research, he’s finding different patterns we can get to and ways to change them up.”
Giolito is a deep thinker who’s wheels are always turning but sometimes it’s best to think less and just throw the ball. A good catcher allows that.
“You can work faster,” Giolito said. “There is less and less time for your brain to get in the way. I get the ball back, see the sign, execute. Get the ball, see the sign, execute. Over and over.”
Implementing scouting reports, video and a numbers-crunching formula he learned from Brad Ausmus, a former catcher who was his manager with the Tigers, McCann formulates a plan before every series for that particular opponent. Then he tailors it for every pitcher.
It keeps Giolito in lock-step with McCann, which is big especially with runners on in high-leverage moments.
“He’s prepared for that situation instead of having to think it through on the fly,” McCann said.
McCann does a lot of the thinking, and “I get to go out there and have fun pitching,” Giolito said.
While McCann can expect a thank-you note at season’s end if this excellence continues, he won’t be the only one. Giolito credits Giants assistant pitching coordinator Ethan Katz, his Harvard-Westlake (Calif.) High School pitching coach, for indirectly altering a more compact arm swing that immediately caught the eye of the Sox coaching staff at Giolito’s first bullpen session of spring training.
“For introducing me to the drills I do now, yes,” Giolito said. “It was never his plan or my plan to shorten my arm action. It just happened because of the drills I was doing.
“In the offseason I was like, ‘Hey I know you have been trying to get my to try this stuff for a couple of years now and I have been stubborn and haven’t listened, but look at what I did last year. I have to change something.’ ‘’
Katz wanted Giolito to use weighted balls and a core velocity belt in drills.
“I was all ears,” Giolito said. “I’ll give it a shot, it’s not going to hurt me and I went from there. All the drills ended up being super helpful.”
It led to a more efficient delivery, one that has made pitching fun again for the former Nationals No. 13 overall draft pick.
“It’s fun because I have confidence that I am going to throw more strikes than not and get deep into games,” he said. “And it gets more fun as the game goes along. I’m challenging myself to get to the eighth inning. I’m out there thinking, ‘two run lead, let’s get more zeroes.’ It’s a ton of fun.”
