Rangers pitcher Kyle Gibson joined the Hang Zone on Sportsradio 96.7 FM/1310 The Ticket [KTCK-AM] to discuss his career season, the Rangers’ victory trophy and more.
Here are highlights of the conversation, edited for clarity:
What happens with “Mr. Hat,” the Rangers victory trophy, on road trips and after games, is the person who won in charge of it?
Kyle Gibson: “When you get the hat, especially when we’re at home, like right now we’re at home for 10 days ... Jonah [Heim] has the hat right now and I think it’ll be in his locker. Then if he gives it away tonight, then that person will have it in his locker until he gives it away.
“When we go on the road our head clubhouse manager Brandon will put it in a box. They’ve got a nice, fancy hard-case box for it, and it travels with the team under lock and key.”
So you’re not responsible for “Mr. Hat” if you have it?
Gibson: “Oh no, that would be a nightmare. The hat would be ruined and probably wouldn’t make it to half the places we go.”
What do you think of the idea of robot umpires and do you think umpires are terrible?
Gibson: “No, I do not think all umpires are terrible. I think every umpire is like every other human being and every now and then they have bad days, and every now and then they have really good days. I think most of the time they’re pretty good. I would guess most of the time, and I don’t have the numbers on this, maybe half and half of the pitches go for the hitter and the other half go for the pitcher.
“That might lean to the pitcher a little bit from time to time, but it’s probably pretty close to half and half.
“It’s hard when you’re watching one game. I don’t know what you look at but you probably get more frustrated when it’s your team hitting because it seems like it impacts hitters more than the pitchers in that scenario.
“I think there’s other things that we can do to still give umpires a chance to make the call and not have the automated strike zone. I think the automated strike zone is going to change how hitters have to hit.
“I think hitters will have to move up in the box to catch the pitch at the front of the strike zone because that’s where it hits the box on the TV. Normally their front foot is close to half-way of the back of the plate. They’re going to have to move up and take away the edges because that’s why the ball seems so far away from them on sliders and pitches that are moving side to side.
“I personally think I would like to see the umpire know what is coming and be able to make the call that way. I don’t know if there’s a way we could do that. But I think if the umpire knows a breaking pitch or a fastball is coming, I think they’re going to make more consistent calls on the edges.”
What did the offseason look like for you to go from having one of your worst seasons to your best season?
Gibson: “Last year in general, obviously it was a crazy year, but after the start in Houston when I made an adjustment to my delivery and stop being so wide and spread out I turned to Julio [Rangel] and Doug [Mathis] and [Chris Woodward] and I was like ‘wow I wish I had 20 more starts right now because this feels awesome.’
“My offseason started right there with those last three starts. I felt so much more comfortable on the mound and actually I’d argue [opening day] was not the worst start to a season I’ve ever had.
“I know that might be amazing but in 2017 I had eight starts to start the year and I had an eight ERA but I ended the year with a low-five. So not spectacular, but once I got called back up I had to make an adjustment and stuff like that.
“Last year was just weird with how short it was. A few starts can dictate what the year looked like for just about every player. But the offseason started with those adjustments in those last three starts.
“Everything I did throughout the offseason kept those adjustments in mind and then figured out how I could make them more consistent and get my best delivery out every single time.
“One thing that our pitching coaches talk about is trying to get the pitchers to throw their best version of every pitch they throw. That might sound a little technical, but for instance my best sinker is horizontal and vertical movement is right around five to six vertical movement, it averages eight to nine [inches], but my best is right around six to seven [inches] with 15 or 16 horizontal [inches]. So I want to have a delivery that allows me to throw my best sinker as much as possible.
“Last season that number was way worse. I think I averaged like 12 [inches] of vertical on my sinker, which means this year it’s sinking double as much as last year. So that’s a big difference for this year.
“And a lot of that is just delivery. Getting my hand and getting my body in a better position to deliver and a better-executed pitch that has better movement on it.
“I’ve talked with the guys at the Florida Baseball armory that I originally got my shoulder program from in 2017, and he just took me through a lot of workouts that made my delivery more consistent, made me stronger in my delivery so that the changes that I made were going to be long-lasting because the muscle I was building was specifically developed for my delivery.
“So those two things I could go into a plethora of things that could take up probably the rest of your radio show, but maybe that’s not what we want to do. But those two things right there were what I really keyed on in my offseason.”
Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.