They say the first step to success is visualizing it in your mind, and that’s exactly what Lucas Giolito is attempting to do as he uses a baseball video game to prepare to take the mound. In a recent tweet by Rob Friedman, Giolito discusses how he uses MLB the Show to prepare for his real-life games.
“Visualization and scouting reports … an interesting way I do that is playing MLB the Show. I play MLB the Show as myself pitching against the team I will be playing against in real life the next day, doing my scouting report, ya know, taking my notes, applying that scouting report to the video game then seeing my video game self be successful the day before I go and pitch in a game.”
Lucas Giolito on using MLB The Show for visualization/enhancing his Mental game. pic.twitter.com/ST2iFU56Nd
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) September 29, 2020
You have to wonder what happened between the White Sox vs. A’s, in MLB the Show, the night before Giolito’s seven-inning gem in Game 1 of the MLB Wild Card Round. He allowed just two hits, one earned run, one walk and struck out eight. He must have had a pretty solid scouting report on himself the night before.
This postseason win comes just a month after Giolito threw a no-hitter against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Guaranteed Rate Field with a dominant 13-strikeout performance. Fun fact, he also threw a no-hitter in May 2017 against the Syracuse Chiefs in Triple-A.
It’s pretty cool to see Major League Baseball players connect with the fans like this. How many Chicago White Sox fans sit at home and play MLB the Show everyday pretending to be Giolito? Little did they know he is doing the same thing, except pretending to be himself.
The Law of Attraction states that a positive mindset will bring positive results. Giolito’s visualization techniques have apparently been working, the only question we have is what difficulty level he puts it on?
It may also be worth noting that Giolito was a participant in the MLB the Show Players League tournament earlier this year. He won the first round series against Bo Bichette, won the second round series against Ian Happ, but lost the championship to Blake Snell of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
The White Sox (1-0) will face the Athletics (0-1) in Game 2 on Wednesday at 2:10pm. The pitching matchup will feature Dallas Keuchel for the White Sox vs. Chris Bassitt for the A’s. If the White Sox win, they will move on to the Divisional Series.
Here are the Game 2 starters.
Game 2 starters, presented by @Wintrust! #ChangetheGame
⏰: 2:10 p.m. CT
📺: @espn
📻: @WGNRadio & @MLBonESPNRadio pic.twitter.com/lBnSC4wUtl— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) September 30, 2020