White Sox’ Lucas Giolito using MLB The Show to get ready for real games
Lucas Giolito of the White Sox pitches in the first inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates during inter-league play on Opening Day at PNC Park on April 7, 2023 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)
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TORONTO — Here’s something you don’t see every day in this age of metrics, analytics and oodles of available data in baseball clubhouses:
The use of a video game to prepare for a pitching performance. That’s what Lucas Giolito likes to do, as he shared on The Chris Rose Rotation podcast.
“I do my like video game thing with MLB: The Show, so I can really like kind of commit that stuff to memory and like practice like my sequences,” Giolito said. “Oh, I’m in this situation, what are the pitches that I feel very confident to get this guy out, get out of this situation.”
Because the former All-Star had a down year in 2022, the video game makers dropped his rating. And he has to pitch with that character.
“I had a down year last year, so they made me like a 70 overall,” Giolito said. “So it’s like way harder to pitch with myself than it used to be. I think on MLB: The Show, I used to be like in the low 80s for my overall rating and I could like throw a slider and it would like go in the general direction that I aimed.
“Whereas now, since they made me really [bad] when I was preparing for my Twins game, it was actually hilarious because I knew that the slider would be an important pitch for me against the Twins.”
Giolito is 1-2 with a 4.50 ERA after pitching seven innings of one-run ball against the red-hot Tampa Bay Rays Sunday.
He was placed on the Bereavement List Monday.