Giolito’s Debut, Credit Jon Feng
Tuesday, in one of the most eagerly anticipated debuts in franchise history, the almost 22-year-old Lucas Giolito took the mound for the Washington Nationals for his major league debut. The Nationals’ #1 prospect and one of the top prospects in baseball, Giolito received this opportunity after Stephen Strasburg was forced to the disabled list with dislocated ribs.
On this evening, Giolito went 4 innings against the New York Mets before being pulled due to a lengthy rain delay in the bottom of the inning. Giolito needed only 45 pitches (29 strikes / 16 balls) to get through these 4 innings, allowing 1 hit and 2 walks against 1 strikeout. Giolito featured an impressive 3-pitch repertoire, throwing 33 fastballs, 9 curveballs and 3 changeups on the evening. Per BrooksBaseball.net, Giolito averaged 94.78mph on his fastball, 85.17mph on his changeup and 81.14mph on his curveball.
This particular best levitra price enzyme stops the blood from flowing backwards again. There are so many pills in the market soon after the launch of the original branded drug. other cialis cost As you can see, it is important for the person to face proper blood supply to the genital cialis online cialis areas. This combination cheap viagra no rx provides energy and strength to the body. It is difficult to watch this outing and not come away impressed with Lucas Giolito. He is a mountain of a man, built to throw 200+ innings in the major leagues and capitalizes on his height by throwing on a noticeable downward plane. He possesses an easy plus to plus-plus fastball and curveball that can illicit expletives from scouts and fans alike. In addition, his changeup was better than advertised, replicating his arm speed well and showing a 9-10mph separation in velocity from his fastball. Finally, for someone in his big league debut against a division foe, Giolito showed outstanding poise on the mound, seeming to embrace the moment with an air of tranquility.
The only real negatives to this outing were his mediocre fastball command and inconsistency pitching from the full windup. Of his 33 total fastballs thrown, only 19 went for strikes against 14 balls (57.5%), with several pitches far from the strike zone. Furthermore and even more alarming, of his 20 fastballs throws from the windup, only 9 were strikes (45%). He looked slightly uncomfortable throwing from the windup, with extraneous movements with his arms and right-hand as he took the ball from his glove. These slight hitches seem to effect his balance and timing, causing him to struggle locating. Some offerings looked smooth and tended to have solid results, but when there was some excess movement, the ball tended to fly away from the intended target. On the other hand and from a positive perspective, Giolito threw 13 fastballs from the stretch and 10 went for strikes (77%), so there is likely a small flaw or flaws in his windup hindering his command.
Considering Strasburg’s injury is supposed to be a short-term thing and Gio Gonzalez pitched well Thursday, Giolito’s time in Washington for the moment could be brief. And it would behoove him to return to the minor leagues to continue to refine his delivery and gain more confidence in his windup. Another 30-60 minor league innings would do wonders to polish his overall game, but this Armchair Evaluation leaves me confident that Lucas Giolito is nearly major league ready. Assuming his command and control issues can be improved (and he stays healthy), there is no reason Giolito does not develop into a front-of-the-rotation starter as soon as next season.