North Side Sox Podcast 16: What’s Eating Lucas Giolito?

White Sox ace Lucas Giolito did not start the year the way we would have wanted. His strikeouts have fallen, fastball velocity has dropped, and he’s also getting hit hard — a recipe for disaster. He’s had OK starts, and bad starts — he’s also given up nine home runs this year, already well past his eight in 2020’s shortened season.

We think that Giolito is a much better pitcher than his 3-4 record and 4.35 ERA implies. Michael Ajeto of PitcherList and our Seattle Mariners sister site, Lookout Landing, agrees, and explains why in this excellent piece written earlier this month.

In this in-depth conversation about Giolito’s mechanics, Mikey discusses what small adjustments Giolito needs to make to get himself right again. He may already be on the way to getting back to his old self, as his last start on May 19 he pitched eight innings, holding the Twins to one run off of two hits and striking out 11.

We also discuss Mikey’s PitcherList article on Tony La Russa (yeah, yeah, him again) and the problems surrounding his hiring, and the nefarious implications behind the statements he made regarding Yermín Mercedes taking Willians Astudillo of the Twins deep on a 3-0 count last week. We’re always pro-player, always pro-fun.

Listen below, on our built-in Megaphone player:

or follow along with this and every episode of our entire family of South Side Sox Podcasts at Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

You can follow @NorthSideSoxPod and host @scuriiosa on Twitter for more updates; follow and read our guest Michael Ajeto’s excellent work over at @dysthymikey.