Lucas Giolito, Kevin Gausman, and Ryan Pepiot on Game Prep and Conversations

Starting pitchers prepare for games in three-stage fashion. A few days after taking the mound, they throw a bullpen session under the watchful eye of the pitching coach, typically with a Trackman recording each throw. At the start of every series, there is a pitchers’ meeting with all arms present, as well as the catchers and pitching coaches. On the day of a start, the pitcher will go over that day’s game plan with the catchers and coaches.

And then there are the talks pitchers have among themselves. While informal, they can likewise play a meaningful role in preparedness. Every time a hurler takes the hill, he brings with him knowledge gleaned from his peers. That was a big part of what I was interested in when I approached three starters — Lucas Giolito, Kevin Gausman, and Ryan Pepiot — to learn how they get ready for an outing from an information perspective.

Here are excerpts from my conversations with the pitchers:

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PRE-SERIES AND PRE-START MEETINGS

Giolito: “You go over a lot of things in the pre-series meeting. You go over guys who like to run — stealing bases and things like that — and you obviously go over the hitters. Considering that you have a bunch of dudes in the room that have wildly different stuff and attack plans, that’s more surface level. You’re not going down the line and saying, ‘This is how we’re going to attack this guy,’ because we’re all different. That’s for when you have your pre-start meeting.

“In the pre-start meeting — that’s with the coaching staff and the catchers — we go over each hitter, talking about strengths, weaknesses, and attack plans. The attack plans are based on the individual pitcher’s stuff.”

BULLPEN SESSIONS BETWEEN STARTS

Pepiot: “It kind of depends. Sometimes the start before felt pretty good, so you kind of just stick to where you’re at. You also know who you’re playing next, so maybe you go through a few of the hitters who can cause trouble, do damage, and how you want to sequence those at-bats.

“In other bullpens, it can be, ‘OK, my slider wasn’t where I wanted it to be the other day, so let’s throw a few more.’ The pitch count in your last start, or whether it’s a normal five-day [schedule] or an extra day [of rest], can affect your bullpen, too. You might lighten the load with fewer pitches or throw more pitches, depending on what’s needed.”

Giolito: “It a mix. This past week — my last bullpen — it was completely for mechanical purposes. I was working on mechanical adjustments, so it was all about trying to feel my body with the adjustments I was trying to make.

“I have bullpens in between starts where I’m already in a good mechanical place, so I’ll actually simulate some at-bats against the team I’m going to face. There are also pens where you’re throwing pitches and seeing the data that comes out from each pitch, and how it felt out of your hand.”

Gausman: “I pretty much focus the same thing in all of my pens. That’s primarily fastball command. I use my sides to hone in on throwing my fastball up and down, in and out, looking to then translate that to the game. I don’t even throw my splitter in my bullpens. I’ll throw sliders and changeups, but not that many, and no splits. It’s primarily fastballs. If the team I’m going to face next is primarily righties, then maybe I’ll throw a couple more sliders in that bullpen, because I know I’m going to be throwing more sliders that start.

“I don’t visualize the hitters I’m going to be facing when I’m throwing my pens. For instance, I’ve faced Aaron Judge maybe more than anybody else in my career, so I know what he looks like in the batter’s box. If I’m going to be facing a guy that I’ve never faced before, say Roman Anthony, I’ll look at what he looks like on video. The night before is when I’m doing my visualization stuff. Having seen him on video, I’ll have an idea of what his swing looks like.”

CONVERSATIONS WITH TEAMMATES AND FELLOW PITCHERS

Giolito: “We get into kind of everything — and we’re always talking. Working on stuff this past week, I was talking to Walker [Buehler] about it. We were throwing together, giving each other feedback. I’ll talk to [Garrett] Crochet about it. He saw me back in the ‘prime years’ of my career, in Chicago. I was talking about the stuff I was working on — he also saw me throwing a little bit — and was like, ‘Oh, yeah, I see that. Keep up with that.’”

Gausman: “I’m a little bit different than most, because I’m primarily a two-pitch guy and my secondary pitch [a splitter] is one that the majority of the league doesn’t really throw. So, I’m not going to be talking to [Chris] Bassitt about his sweeper or his curveball. I do like to know the way guys think about it, and go about doing it, but it doesn’t really translate to my game.

“For me, it’s more so talking about hitters, things like what a guy’s swing path is like. Max [Scherzer] has been really awesome to talk to, just kind of where guys want to hit the ball. If they really handle the ball away, that opens up the inside. You also might be trying to get a guy out away, because that’s where his weakness is, but you’ve got to pitch in at some point. So, how are we going to set up to make away an even bigger zone for us to go to? Max is really smart when it comes to how to set hitters up, change speeds, and recognize what a guy is looking for based on how they are moving in the batter’s box.”

Giolito: “Guys are talking pitch mixes and sequencing all the time. I also talk to [Alex] Bregman. You’d think Bregman is a starting pitcher the way that we talk about pitching. He always has advice.

“His understanding comes from being a hitter, and from his understanding of hitting. He’ll go to a guy and be like, ‘Oh, you should do this, this, and this. This is what makes you really good. Do more of that.’ That kind of stuff. He might say, ‘When I faced you, you did this and it was unhittable. When I faced you and you did that, it was easier to hit you.”

Pepiot: “They lean more toward lineups and how so-and-so might attack that hitter, how in the past they may have gotten the guy out. If I’m throwing the last game of the series, I’ll be watching the games prior. [Drew] Rasmussen would be two games ahead of me, and then [Shane] Baz the day before, so I’ll ask them what worked and what didn’t work. It will be, ‘What did you use against this guy, and what did you use against that guy?’ Along with the visual aspect, I want to know what they saw.

“We watch each other’s bullpens and see all of the starts, so we pick each other’s brains on what might work. It might be, ‘Your four-seam is different than mine, but it should play in this situation,’ or might be, ‘Your changeup is going to work against this guy and this guy. I don’t have that, but I wish I did.’ As a pitcher, you’re always tinkering with stuff. You might ask one of the guys, ‘How do you hold that?’ Or maybe it’s, ‘OK, you seam-shift this; what is your thought process? What is your release point?’ Those conversations are fun.”