{"id":12690,"date":"2016-06-29T08:37:00","date_gmt":"2016-06-29T12:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=12690"},"modified":"2016-06-29T08:38:24","modified_gmt":"2016-06-29T12:38:24","slug":"lucas-giolito-first-look","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=12690","title":{"rendered":"Lucas Giolito – First Look"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"WASHINGTON<\/a>

WASHINGTON DC, JUNE 28: Washington starting pitcher Lucas Giolito (44) makes his major league debut as the Washington Nationals play the New York Mets at Nationals Park in Washington DC, June 28, 2016. (Photo by John McDonnell \/ The Washington Post)<\/p><\/div>\n

Its been a while since I did one of these, but what better occasion than to eyeball our newest and biggest prospect on his MLB debut.<\/p>\n

Lets talk about Lucas Giolito<\/strong>‘s abbreviated debut. \u00a0Here’s what I saw.<\/p>\n

Smooth and easy delivery, almost effortless. \u00a0He seems like he’s just lobbing it in. \u00a0According to TV, FB at 94-96. \u00a0Here’s his Pitch F\/X link<\/a> on the night: they classified \u00a0his change-ups mostly as curves, had his average velocity at 93.9 and his peak at 95.9 (so the TV gun wasn’t embellishing). \u00a0In the first, He gave up a weak single to Granderson<\/strong> to lead-off, got the benefit of some high strikes against Cabrera<\/strong> before blowing him away with a “show me” 96 mph fastball down the pike. \u00a0Cespedes<\/strong> sat on a first pitch fastball and absolutely gashed it … right at Rendon<\/strong>. \u00a0Walker<\/strong> got a really nice change-up to start him off (nice to see that confidence to command his change-up 0-0), got him down 0-2 and kind of knew a a curve was coming and hit it pretty hard, but Murphy<\/strong> made a nice play to retire him and save the run. \u00a0Huge delta between his FB and change, and he controlled the change. \u00a0He only threw 2 curves in the first inning, one of which broke so sharply that the ump missed the call (it was borderline low anyway) and the second got hit.<\/p>\n

Second inning even though he’s “only” 93 Loney<\/strong> was way behind. \u00a0 You have to attribute that to his length and the fact that he’s releasing the ball probably a foot closer to the plate than a normal guy. \u00a0Loney then froze on a beautiful curve before flying out harmlessly. \u00a0The umpire’s high strike zone worked to Giolito’s advantage; his adreneline\u00a0was definitely working against him and his pitches were trending up. \u00a0 Flores<\/strong> got a good swing on his curve, better than I would have liked to have seen. \u00a0 Weak fly ball opposite field for Nimmo<\/strong> and Giolito is through 2 having retired 6 straight. \u00a0Interesting.<\/p>\n

We go into live blogging mode briefly: here’s some thoughts during the bottom of the 2nd:<\/p>\n