Steve McCatty brings up Stephen Strasburg a lot when talking about 23-year-old right-hander Lucas Giolito. The longtime Washington Nationals and current Charlotte Knights pitching coach isn’t making a straight player comparison, but recalling a similar wave of unfair expectations.
“Everybody expected so much from him when he came out of college. Six starts in the minor leagues, came to the big leagues, did well and then he had his Tommy John,” McCatty said of Strasburg. “No matter what he does, how good he does, it’s never going to be what everyone thought he should have done.”
When White Sox general manager Rick Hahn said at SoxFest in January that the team's intent was to return Giolito was to his pre-Nationals mechanics, he unintentionally created the expectation that Giolito could just go back to throwing the way he was when he was considered a potential No.