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The Minnesota Twins are a 40-win team this season and they currently sit at first in the MLB American League Central standings. Twins pitcher and Greenfield, Indiana native, Kyle Gibson, joins JMV to give his take on the season and more. Kyle discusses how the strong offensive output drives the team’s confidence, how he has developed as a pitcher, his career thus far and the people that have contributed to helping him, Rocco Baldelli as a manger, cold weather and how the conditions affect the team, and his recovery from Tommy John surgery.
On the type of pitcher he is now compared to the pitcher he was in earlier years:
“As I have realized how my stuff plays in the strike zone and how I can use my fastball a little bit better to sit up on my off-speed pitches, has allowed me to be a bit more aggressivly in the strike zone and has allowed me to use all my pitches in the strike zone. As you do that, and you show your ability to throw stikes with your off-speed, that really is what allows you that off-speed down below the zone.”
On weather conditions and the effects they have on a team:
“I think the one thing that gives us a distinct advantage over the cold is that we get a month and a half in the warm weather to actually prepare for the season whereas in Missouri we spent three weeks in our indoor facility playing scrimmage games and then we traveled to play our first actual real game outside in February. We get to play 30-or-so games and really get ready outdoors before the cold. I don’t really mind the cold, I actually like pitching in it. I am probably the warmest guy on the field because I am moving all the time. No hitter, especially a right-hander like to hit an inside sinker so I end up throwing a whole lot of those. I think that is where the college game and the professional game, lends the advantage to the professionals because we get to spend a month and a half in Florida where it is always hot and always humid and it gives us a chance to get outside and get ready.”
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