All signs indicate Wheeler is ready
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Zack Wheeler admits he’s still working things out, as is the purpose of Spring Training.
But the indications from Friday’s start by the Phillies righty is that he’s pretty far along in that process.
Wheeler threw four solid innings, allowing two earned runs in a 6-2 win over Baltimore. While he’s still working through some mechanical tweaks, the results are there, even on the more granular items of his to-do list than the scoreboard can accommodate.
“Physically I’m there,” Wheeler said via Zoom. “I feel fine, feel great. Just a little mechanical, trying to figure some things out when I’m out there. I think every inning today I was changing it up a little bit to find more consistent fastball control really. Off-speed was there. Curveballs were a lot better today and just trying to find that fastball.”
Wheeler had struggled a touch in his first two outings, allowing four earned runs in 4.1 innings pitched. More indicative to him than the ERA are four walks, which is uncharacteristic.
Friday, he walked one and struck out three. He was touched by what he called “light contact” in the untelevised game, which sounded acceptable given the experimentation.
“Wheeler was good today,” manager Joe Girardi said. “I liked what he did today. He tried some things, but I liked his curveball, I liked his fastball. He does what he does. He does not give up a lot of runs. He does a good job of keeping his pitch count down. He gets double plays. He was just Wheeler today, which I like.”
The fastball sets everything up for Wheeler. He used his fourseamer 42.1 percent of the time last year and his sinker 23.7 percent, particularly early in the count. With an average velocity of 96.9 miles per hour, it’s one of the best fastballs in the game for a starter.
Wheeler painted any issues as mechanical. He said he has some ideas of what needs to be adjusted and he’ll use his remaining spring outings to dial it in.
“I think it’s just a little mechanical I’m trying to figure out,” Wheeler said. “I’m not a big video guy, but now’s the time where I need to go back and look at what
I’ve done in the past and sync it up so that I have command of my fastball. It’s my biggest pitch and getting ahead of guys is a big thing for me, just getting quick outs. I haven’t really been able to do that this spring.”
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A game — any game — in which the bullpen allows zero runs is something to be celebrated, for anyone who can cast their mind back to the train wreck of 2020.
So Friday’s succession of five
perfect innings from the ‘pen is nothing but encouraging for Girardi.
Jose Alvarado, Connor Brogdon, Archie Bradley, Hector Neris and Enyel De Los Santos handled the Orioles, 15 up, 15 down. No hits, no walks, eight strikeouts.
Girardi picked out positives from each: Neris’ slider, Brogdon and Bradley attacking the strike zone, De Los Santos’ increased velocity. One number stood out, though.
“I thought they all threw the ball really well,” Girardi said. “They were all pretty efficient. They didn’t throw a lot of pitches. Whenever you see a guy (Alvarado) throwing 100 and 101, that’s going to stand out to you, with movement. That’s the amazing thing.”
Girardi isn’t yet allowing himself to get to excited about the rebuilt bullpen. First comes an arduous cutdown of what he reckons is 10 arms for eight spots.