More Top Picks Best Automatic Watches For Women Under 200
player ready...With Lucas Giolito, it’s never a matter of stage fright.
He insists his confidence didn’t even waver Sunday at Wrigley Field, when he was firing pitches all over the lot, issuing four-pitch walks and allowing the Cubs to steal four bases.
“I didn’t feel helpless at all,” Giolito said Wednesday. “I’d try to throw to one location and it would be a complete misfire, but I was able to forget about it and keep working. What helped me was having complete confidence in myself.”
Giolito has been an ace pitching prospect since he was about 16. He threw in the high 80s as a freshman at Harvard-Westlake, a prep school in Los Angeles. In the first start of his senior year, he hit 100 mph on the gun.
On top of that, Giolito hails from a family of performers. His mother, Lindsay Frost, appeared regularly on “As the World Turns” and was seen frequently on many other television shows, including “Lost,” “Boston Legal” and “Frasier.”
“I talk to my mom a lot about the similarities of acting and playing baseball,” Giolito said. “You’re out there entertaining people and you want to perform at your best in that moment. You don’t get a second chance, so you want to be as prepared as possible.”
Giolito’s last non-baseball performance came when he had to recite a Shakespearean sonnet in front of his entire eighth-grade class. He memorized it and did fine.
“My class voted me best delivery,” he said.
If only pitching in the big leagues were so easy.
Giolito is 2-4 with a 6.91 ERA that is the highest among starters in baseball. He has issued 32 walks, tied with the Cubs’ Tyler Chatwood for most in the majors.
“I don’t want to be at the top of that list; I shouldn’t be,” Giolito said. “I can’t change anything I’ve done this season, as negative as it might be. I recognize the need to improve.”
Giolito’s next start will be Saturday, when he duels the Rangers in Chicago.
At 6-foot-6, he’s trying to refine the mechanics that have betrayed him at times.
“Stay tall, stay back, stay closed,” pitching coach Don Cooper said. “Those are the keys. The mind can race, and when the mind is racing, the body races. He has major-league stuff he has to command.”
Giolito said he has not watched video of his start against the Cubs.
“I already know (what’s wrong) and it’s a matter of fixing it in the gym,” he said. “It’s not stuff I’m going to fix in bullpen (sessions). It’s movement patterns. I need to rebuild the athleticism I’ve lost.”
Giolito said he’s confident — there’s that word again — he can accomplish that between starts.
“I can’t wait until I put it all together,” he said.
Twitter @TeddyGreenstein
http://embed.sendtonews.com/player2/embedcode.php?fk=MgMyoC4n&cid=4591
More Top Picks Pole Saw