Gibson has a new pitch; Adley praise

[justD]

3 hours ago, Frobby said:

Yeah, I’d like to know exactly what he said.  

Ask and you shall receive. 

Below is a transcript of an interview he did with Mike Ferrin and Jim Duquette just after they lambasted John Angelos for lashing out at Dan Connolly...

Anyway, it's available on SiriusXM or on the app, on demand from the Power Alley show from 01/17/2023. 

(Skip down 8-9 paragraphs to get into the good baseball stuff)

Quote

Kyle Gibson on MLB Network Radio Power Alley, Jan 17 2023

Broadcasters Mike Ferrin and Jim Duquette

 

MF: Intros…

KG: Glad to be here stuff....

JD: I have a whole new respect for you now. You have fourth child as of last month, congratulations! That is impressive, man, impressive. How’s it going?

KG: I appreciate it, man. It’s going good. My wife’s a rock star! I’m actually driving right now to get some soft-tissue work done with a local PT and she took the two littlest ones to gymnastics, so she’s put herself through a lot to expand our family to a fourth, and I’m realy appreciative and she is absolutely awesome, so thankfully [the new baby] is healthy and she’s doing good!

MF: So, like, now obviously she’s not quite mobile yet because she’s a newborn, but how do you guys play defense? I mean, you already went from man-to-man to zone, right, going from 2 to 3? So have you thought about strategies of trying to manage four children?

KG: You know what? I have to say we’re extremely lucky. Hayden, our oldest, she is an extension of Elizabeth’s hands, like she always wants to help, whether it’s – anything, she always wants to help. Mills, our middle boy, same way. He’s just the sweetest thing with her. If we need him to grab a couple of things or pick up something, he’s always doing it. And apparently, our 3-year-old cleaned her own floors the other night! So I’m not sure how Elizabeth talked her into that! But they’re all helpers, and they’re awesome kids and we couldn’t do it if they weren’t so incredible.

JD: Wow, those are great stories right there! Well, good to hear that the transition’s been going well. Obviously you’re in the middle of getting yourself ready for Spring Training as well, you mentioned the soft-tissue stuff. How’s the winter been going? You have a new destination, we’ve got a lot to catch up on with you.

KG: Yeah, the winter’s been going pretty good. I’ve gotten a chance to talk to a lot of people about how the offseason was a little bit shorter than normal and that’s always exciting, so it’s a little bit different getting used to not being done until November 4^th or 5^th but I’d like to do that again here very soon!

But that obviously changes the offseason a little bit. You know, it delays just a few things with what I’m trying to do, but it’s been a good offseason. I’ve been off the mound a couple of times and arm and body are feeling good, and excited to be heading down to Sarasota here in a few weeks.

It really is exciting to see, you know, kinda the buzz around the Orioles. You know, I didn’t know a whole lot about them, obviously, just being in the National League for the last year and a half, but the more I read, the more excited I get. And we’ve got a good young team that’s going to be an exciting team to watch, just like they were the second half of last year.

MF: What, if anything, are you looking to do maybe differently? I mean, every team, right, has different ideas on how to make your stuff play, right? Minnesota had ideas, Texas had ideas, obviously the Phillies did as well. But now that you’ve maybe had some conversations with Chris Holt, the pitching coach there, what, if anything, can you tell us on what they want you to emphasize this season?

KG: You know, I think some of it is probably just keying and honing in on some pitch usage to different locations. You know, there’s no secret, it’s not like I’m out there throwing 96-98 and can just throw the fastball wherever I want. I feel like, for the most part, I had pretty good control last year. I think it was close to my lowest walk total, if it wasn’t. So I think I did, I really worked on a few things with the Phillies on that. So I’m going to carry that into this year.

But I’ve got this new slider that I’m working with that I used toward the end of last year, in the last two starts and then in the playoffs. I made it go right-to-left quite a bit more. So Spring Training, I’ve already told Holty that Spring Training is going to be throwing a lot of those to hitters, especially lefties, and just seeing where the location is going to play best, with two strikes and early in the count.

You know, with the offerings I have, a lot of it is just trying to make sure that I’m using all my pitches in the right locations. You know, sequencing them correctly and to the best of my ability. And then getting on the same page with Adley and seeing what we can do to…you know, listening to him. Because obviously he’s a stud catcher. You know, listening to him on what he sees and then trying to get game plans together to go out there and execute and then win games.

JD: Take us through that new slider that you mentioned, you know, from maybe the design part of it, right? You decide, okay, I want to add this, you’re adding it in the middle of the season – which doesn’t always happen, but some guys like yourself, you’re capable of doing that – and now to the point where it seems like you’re trying to tweak it. How did you come to that determination to maybe, I don’t know if it’s a change of a grip? Or how did you kinda go about this with the slider?

KG: So it was something I talked with [Phillies pitching coaches] Caleb [Cotham] and Kap [Brian Kaplan] and Lundy [David Lundquist] about earlier in the year. The sweeper-slider is something that some pitchers are starting to throw, and if you’re able to execute it right then obviously it’s been a really successful pitch. I was a little reluctant early in the year to just completely change my slider, because it’s been one of my bread-and-butter pitches my entire career! So what we did try to do is add a little bit of movement to the left, some horizontal movement, and I was able to do that throughout the year and do it successfully.

And then I want to say it was right around the middle of September, maybe after a start in Miami, I was about to face the Braves, I think on 6 or 7 days’ rest, you know, whatever, I think we had two off-days. And Caleb came up to me and was like, “Hey, what do you think about tweaking with your slider grip today? In a bullpen?” I said Caleb, you know me man, I’m up for anything, let’s do it. So he was like, “Alright, I want you to try to hold it here, and here’s the goal: we’re going to try to take some of the depth out, and we’re going to try to make it go as far left as possible.”I’m like, alright. So I was right in the horseshoe, kinda hooked it a little bit, and man! That was a fun day! Because you know, when you can take those types of adjustments and make the ball do what you’re trying to do? Most of the time, that doesn’t happen, you know, at all, you know, quickly.

So I didn’t have control of it by any means.

But then the next three days, just kinda worked on tweaking it. Each day I got off the mound I threw a few of them. And then against the Braves that day, Garrett “Stubby” was catching and I was warming up, and I told him going out there, I said, hey, I’m going to throw a few of these warming up, and then we’re going to throw some when I take the mound before the game. And if it’s good, then we’ll work it in. If it’s not, then we’re going to wait.

And I threw a couple good ones (chuckling) warming up for the game, out on the game mound, and I looked at Stubby and I said, “Alright, let’s use it!”

And first inning on, we used it.

Some of that is just figuring out the start line: because it moves left more, you gotta obviously make sure you keep it in the zone longer and start it more to the right.

So it was a lot of fun. I’m thankful that Caleb took the time to look into that and really, you know I feel like that was a big step for him, you know, coming up and asking a guy to change his slider that he’s known his entire career.

MF: Yeah, that can’t be easy! [“We’re talking to Kyle Gibson of the Orioles”] It can’t be easy for him, and certainly he’s trying to build a reputation with you, or a relationship with you, to be able to do that. But then, like listen, I know you’ve been adaptable throughout your career. You said you’re up for anything. You’ve changed pitches before, right? You went from sinker to 4-seam? Like, you’ve done those things. When you hear somebody come up to you and make those changes, are you caught off-guard at first? Or is the first reaction – I know you said you’re up for anything – but do you have to process it all? Or do you just like, yeah man, whatever’s gonna get me better, let’s go!

KG: So I’m trying to think how that start against Miami went. Normally, Mike, if I’m coming off a start where, you know, I struggle, then I normally have something in mind that I really want to work on and trying to make sure I’m ready for the next start. I think the start in Miami was okay, so I probably was in more maintenance mode, late in the year. So at that point, I’m not there trying to have a little fun and work on whatever those guys feel is important but it just so happens that day.

Those things are fun to do.

And when you can take a ball and just see if you can make it do something, you know, try to take a pitch and kinda create something out of it? It’s really fun to do. And really, at that point my bullpen’s just trying to make sure my arm stays loose and stays ready. So it wasn’t too big of a thing for me to try to do that.

But I’m sure Caleb and the staff thought, “Alright, listen, if we’re going to ask him to change his slider here in September, we probably oughta have an idea of why we’re doing that.”

And it worked! I mean, it was something that I used those last two starts and probably got as many K/9 and as many swings-and-misses on my slider as I had, you know, my entire career.

JD: One more I want to ask you. At the end there, you got a World Series experience under your belt, you got a couple of outings under your belt. Do you feel like that helps you at all moving forward, for either the upcoming season, or just maybe the hunger? I know you’ve been to the postseason before, but maybe the hunger to get back there?

KG: You know, pitching in the NLCS and the World Series, absolutely I feel like, that’s obviously the goal, right? I mean, every year is to be on a team that’s doing that. And then to be able to go into Free Agency right after that? I mean, it was a topic of conversation with multiple teams. And not because I’ve been there, but because the question is alright, how are we going to get back? Because I just got out of it, and I want to get back. So what are we going to do as a team to make this team ready to do that?

And I think, for me, you know, you ask what that kinda does? I think hopefully if I’m lucky enough to get the chance to go back, it gives me experiences to draw on, it gives me the feeling of being in front of that kind of a crowd – whether you’re at home or on the road. And I think any time that you’ve been through something and have done something, hopefully the next time you do it you have a little bit different confidence factor and you’re able to do it well again.

And I think that’s in life, that’s not just in baseball.

So hopefully that experience, like I said if I’m lucky enough to get a chance to go back, I’ll kinda have my feet wet and maybe there will be a little less jitters, maybe? And I’ll still be able to enjoy it and have a lot of fun.

MF: Before we let you go, I’m curious because they’re a really young team in Baltimore, and there is going to be a lot of young pitching that’s coming up. I mean, at some point Grayson Rodriguez will be making his debut this year, and there are some young guys that are just starting to get established there. And obviously you’re such an easy guy to talk to, I’m sure you’re going to be a great resource for them.

But what was it like when you broke into the Big Leagues? Did you have guys in that clubhouse that you could turn to for help? And if you did, what were some of the things that you learned from them?

KG: Yeah, I was extremely fortunate. At the time when I came up in Minnesota, I think on the team at the time was Phil Hughes, Mike Pelfry, and Kevin Correia. All three of those guys had been around and accomplished a lot in the game. And all of those guys were approachable. You know, Pelfry being one of those guys that I still talk to and have been close to for a while. So yeah, whether it was…

One story I tell people, and hopefully I have time, but one story I tell people is – and this is not even on the baseball field – but I come from triple-A, just came up probably just a couple weeks before, and in the 3^rd or 4^th inning I’m hungry. So I go in and make myself a turkey-and-cheese sandwich, whatever, I thought that was normal, that’s what we did in Rochester. So I’m in. So I get in there and I’m about ready to take my first bite, and Pelfry comes in and he goes, “What are you doing?!?” I’m like, “What do you mean, I’m hungry!” He goes, “No, you need to eat before the game, rook. Go out to the dugout and watch the game! If one of the other veterans comes in and sees you, they’re gonna rip you a new one! Throw it in the trash and go watch the game!”

And it’s just little things like that, that can make a big difference, and can help a guy kinda get on the right track. I thought I’d kinda learned how to be a professional, but there are certain things you just don’t do!

So, on the mound, countless things from guys like that as well.

So I’m looking forward to that opportunity also.