Chicago White Sox's Giolito looking to build off last season
If the Chicago White Sox want to hammer 6 homers and score 14 runs again Saturday night against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium, Lucas Giolito will happily accept the support.
But let's return to reality after Matt Davidson and the Sox tied major-league records Thursday for most home runs on Opening Day.
After an impressive showing in spring training - Davidson led the Cactus League with 19 RBI - the designated hitter/third baseman joined the Blue Jays' George Bell, the Cubs' Tuffy Rhodes and the Tigers' Dmitri Young as the only players in history to hit 3 homers in the season opener.
Tim Anderson cleared the fences twice in the White Sox's 14-7 win over the Royals, and Jose Abreu added a solo shot. The 6 home runs by the Sox tied the 1988 Mets for most on Opening Day.
Like we were saying, Giolito will be thrilled with a similar outburst when he takes the mound against Kansas City in the second game of the season.
But let's assume the White Sox's bats cool down, way down.
Quality starting pitching is going to be a big need for the Sox this year, and especially in the future.
James Shields, who started the season opener for the White Sox, is 36 years old and in the final year of his contract. He is obviously not a part of the Sox's promising future.
Giolito is.
Acquired in a trade from the Nationals at the start of the Sox's rebuild, Giolito scuffled early at Class AAA Charlotte in 2017. But under the watchful eye of Charlotte pitching coach Steve McCatty, who knew Giolito from his days (2009-15) as Washington's pitching coach, things started to click. The 23-year-old Giolito joined the White Sox's rotation on Aug. 22 of last season and was impressive, going 3-3 with a 2.38 ERA in 7 starts.
The right-hander's success carried into spring training, and Giolito was 2-0 with a 2.04 ERA in 4 Cactus League starts.
As he begins his first full season in the major leagues, Giolito is brimming with understandable confidence.
"At (Charlotte) later in the year, I started trusting going out and competing with whatever I had that day," said Giolito, the Nationals' first-round draft pick (No. 16 overall) in 2012. "That's kind of where it all began, and then I went up to the big leagues with that same mentality. When you go out there and are not able to get the curveball over, you're going to have to throw more changeups that day, or more sliders.
"You're going to have to throw pitches maybe you're not used to throwing in certain counts more often. You try things you haven't tried before. But that's part of being a pitcher. You call audibles with your catcher."
Giolito does not have an overpowering fastball, but he has good command of four pitches (fastball, curve, change, slider) and he definitely has a competitive edge.
The trade to the White Sox also helped his career.
"Sometimes, especially with high-profile guys coming out of the draft like Lucas was, you want to live up to those expectations so badly with the organization that showed faith in you," said Sox general manager Rick Hahn. "And then similarly, when you wind up getting traded, you want to prove that you were worth it to the new organization. Lucas had a lot of those things sort of working in between his ears at times, which I think could get in the way.
"He's a bright enough kid that he understood some of that was perhaps getting in the way and that helped allow him to unlock a little bit over the course of the season. The talent has always been there and I think the maturity has helped him sort of unlock that talent a little more quickly than a lot of other guys might have, given the expectations of a high draft pick's struggles and a trade."
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