Lucas Giolito, Kevin Gausman and Ryan Pepiot in game preparation and conversation

The starting pitcher prepares for the game in a three-stage manner. A few days after picking up the mound, they did a bullpen with the attention of the pitching coach, usually track and field athletes recorded each game. At the beginning of each series, a pitcher meeting will be held, with all weapons present, as well as the Watchmen and the pitching coach. On the day of the start, the pitcher will work with the catcher and coach to complete the game plan for the day.

Then, there is a conversation between the pitchers. While informal, they can also play a meaningful role in preparation. Every time the thrower climbs up the mountain, he takes away his knowledge to collect from his peers. As I approached three starters, Lucas Giolito, Kevin Gausman and Ryan Pepiot, it was a big part of my interest to see how they were ready from an information perspective.

Here is an excerpt from my conversation with the pitcher:

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Preliminary and pre-start meetings

Giolito: “You traverse a lot of things in pre-match meetings.

“In the pre-launch meeting – with the coaching staff and catchers – we browse every hitter and talk about strengths, weaknesses and attack plans. Attack plans are based on something that individual pitchers.”

A bullpen meeting between the two starts

Pepiot: “It depends. Sometimes the beginning feels good, so you just stick to your position. You also know who the next person is playing, so maybe you’re going through some batsmen that can cause trouble, cause damage and how to sequence those bats.

“In other bullpens, yes, ‘Okay, my slider isn’t where I wanted it to be the previous few days, so let’s throw a few more.” In the pitch count you started last time, it was still a normal five-day [schedule] Or an extra day [of rest]will also affect your bullpen. You might lighten the load with less pitch, or throw more courts, depending on what you need. ”

Giolito: “It’s a mix. This is my last bullpen over the past week – it’s all for mechanical purposes. I’m doing mechanical adjustments, so it’s all about trying to feel my body through the adjustments I’ve tried to make.

“The bullpen between me is already in a good mechanical position, so I’ll actually simulate some bats with the team I’m facing. There are also some pens throwing the court here, seeing the data that comes out on each court, and how it feels.”

Gossman: “I focused the same thing on almost all my pens. It’s mostly the command of the fastball. I honed my fastball up and down with my side and threw my fastball up and down and hopefully translated it into a game. I wouldn’t even throw my diffuser into the bullpen. Then, I don’t even give a lot more, but if I’m going to give more footsteps, I’m not going to send a pair anymore. The sliders in that bullpen because I know I’m going to throw more sliders.

I am not like anyone else in my career facing Aaron’s judgment, I am not like I am facing Aaron’s judges.

Talk to teammates and players

Giolito: “We got into everything – we’ve been talking about it all the time. The work of the past week, I’m talking to Walker [Buehler] about it. We are getting together and giving feedback to each other. I’ll talk [Garrett] Crochet. He saw me in the “golden age” of his career in Chicago. I was talking about what I was working on – he also saw me throwing a little – and it was like, ‘Oh yeah, I get it. Keep up with that one. ‘”

Gossman: “I’m a little different from most people because I’m mainly a guy with two kids and my secondary ball [a splitter] It’s the one that most people in the league don’t really throw. So, I won’t [Chris] Bassitt about his sweeper or curveball. I do want to know how men think about it and then do it, but it doesn’t really translate into my game.

“For me, it’s more about talking about batsmen, like a man’s swing path. [Scherzer] It’s great to talk to, just where men want to play. If they do take the ball away, open the inside. You may also try to take someone away because that’s his weakness, but you have to invest at some point. So, how will we set up to get rid of a larger area for us to go to? Max is really smart when it comes to how to set the batsman, change the speed and recognize the way a man moves in the batsman box. ”

Giolito: “The guys have been talking about tone mixing and sequencing. I’m talking to it, too. [Alex] Bregman. You would think of Bregman as the starting pitcher for the way we talk about pitching. He always has advice.

“His understanding comes from being a batsman, and his understanding of bats. He’s going to go find a guy and like, ‘Oh, you should do that, this. That’s what makes you really great. That kind of thing.

Pepiot: “They tend to be more to the roster, and to some extent, it might attack that batsman, and in the past they might throw that guy out. If I throw the last game of this series, I’ll watch the game before. [Drew] Rasmussen will be better than me in the first two games, then [Shane] Buzz the day before, so I’ll ask them what works and what doesn’t work. It would be, “What did you use with this guy, what did you use with that guy?” Besides the visual aspect, I wonder what they saw.

“We look at each other’s bullpen and look at all the starting points, so we choose each other’s brains on what might work. It might be, ‘Your four slits are different from mine, but should work in this case, or maybe it’s, ‘Your changes will work with this guy and this guy. I don’t have that, but I hope I did.’ As a pitcher, you’re always tinkering with something. Maybe, what’s your thinking process? These conversations are fun.”