Lucas Giolito is seeking to return to type following elbow surgical procedure that value him all of final 12 months. Now 30 years previous and in his first season on mound with the Boston Pink Sox, Giolito has made a pair of begins — one strong, one other squalid — wherein he has surrendered 15 hits and 9 runs over 9 2/3 innings. At his finest, he’s been a top-of-the-rotation pitcher. From 2019-2021, the 6-foot-6 right-hander common a 3.47 ERA and a 3.54 FIP whereas making a team-high 72 begins for the Chicago White Sox.
Flip the clock again 10 years, and Giolito sat atop our 2015 Washington Nationals Prime Prospects record. Our then-lead prospect analyst Kiley McDaniel was understandably bullish about Giolito, writing that the 2012 first-round draft decide had true no. 1 upside.
What did Giolito’s FanGraphs scouting report seem like on the time? Furthermore, what does he give it some thought all these years later? Wanting to search out out, I shared a few of what McDaniel wrote and requested Giolito to reply to it.
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“Giolito was nationally recognized by scouts all the best way again to when he hit 95 mph at age 15.”
“I all the time threw onerous,” Giolito mentioned. “I used to be one of many hardest throwers in Little League and all the pieces like that. I began lengthy tossing rather a lot across the time I obtained to highschool, and simply stored constructing and constructing. I feel I hit 90 once I was 14, after which 95 possibly nearer to my sixteenth birthday. So yeah, it stored going up till I blew my elbow out.
“Most likely,” Giolito responded when requested if the speed was an excessive amount of, too early. “There wasn’t an excessive amount of understanding on the medical facet, like strengthening, stability — all of the stuff that we’re doing now to keep up the little muscle groups, the large muscle groups, to help your physique when it’s outputting that a lot power. I used to be additionally very skinny. My shoulder blades winged out. I didn’t have a lot muscular growth at that age, however I used to be shifting very quick. It will definitely caught as much as me.”
“[He] was within the working to go 1-1 as one of many prime prep pitchers of all time, till he was shut down with a sprained UCL in his elbow. This led to an anticipated Tommy John surgical procedure one outing after he signed for an $800,000 overslot bonus because the sixteenth total decide.”
“I keep in mind having an outing the place I feel the Astros’ GM got here to see me pitch in particular person,” Giolito mentioned. “I pitched very well that day. I used to be on prime of the world. It was like, ‘Oh my God, I may be the first-overall decide if I simply proceed what I’m doing for the remainder of the season.’ It was the subsequent outing, or possibly two outings later, the place I damage my elbow. I needed to shut down. We didn’t need to do the total TJ but, as a result of we thought that may damage me within the draft. Plus, if I used to be going to get TJ, I needed to be in knowledgeable group the place you get entry to the perfect care. I attempted to rehab it.
“Going into the draft, I had no thought,” added Giolito, a product of Harvard-Westlake Excessive College. “I believed I’d be picked someplace within the first three rounds, {that a} group would take a flier on me. I didn’t know I’d be within the first spherical. That was sort of the start of the pre-draft-deal period, however I actually was watching the draft on the TV once they mentioned my identify. That was once I came upon I used to be drafted within the first spherical.
“The Nationals picked me. I used to be a prep arm with a blown-out elbow, which is a giant, large danger. I’ve Stephen Strasburg to thank, as a result of he was a giant prospect who got here up, blew his elbow out, obtained Tommy John, and had a comparatively profitable restoration from that. The Nationals sort of noticed me in that very same vein. It was, ‘OK, we’ll get this man. He’ll have TJ, however we really feel assured with this.’”
“The stuff was all the best way again this 12 months as he dominated Low-A at age 19/20 in his first full 12 months coming off of surgical procedure. The Nationals had been understandably conservative with pitch and innings counts.”
“My first full season again they’d my innings depend at 100,” Giolito recalled. “I obtained to 100 innings and so they shut me down, and that sucked, as a result of our group was so good. Our beginning rotation consisted of me, Reynaldo López, Nick Pivetta. Austin Voth was within the rotation, however he obtained despatched as much as Excessive-A sooner or later that 12 months. We had a very nasty one-two-three with me, Reynaldo, and Nick, however then I obtained shut down with a couple of weeks left within the season and needed to be a cheerleader. We ended up dropping within the playoffs.”
“His knockout curveball, which will get 65 or 70 grades from scouts, is his signature offspeed pitch.”
“Not any extra,” replied the righty. “I nonetheless have it, however I don’t throw it as usually. I all the time say that Tommy John gave me my changeup. After I was recovering I messed round with changeup grips rather a lot and located one which was snug. I threw it rather a lot in that very same season you talked about, that Low-A season. I threw a ton of changeups, as a result of the curveball made my elbow damage that first season again.
“My curveball was good within the minor leagues — I nonetheless used it — however we blended that changeup in rather a lot. Over time, particularly once I developed the slider, the changeup actually turned the large pitch for me.”
“He has true no. 1 starter upside.”
“Yeah, I imply, I had that with the White Sox for a few years,” Giolito mentioned. “I nonetheless trust that I’ve true no. 1 starter upside. I simply have to return again from this factor and develop some good consistency.”
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Earlier “Outdated Scouting Stories Revisited” interviews could be discovered by way of these hyperlinks: Cody Bellinger, Matthew Boyd, Dylan Stop, Matt Chapman, Erick Fedde, Kyle Freeland, Randal Grichuk, Ian Happ, Jeff Hoffman, Matthew Liberatore, Sean Newcomb, Bailey Ober, Max Scherzer.