Phillies

Is it a Hot Take to Say that Zack Wheeler is Having a Roy Halladay 2010-ish Season?

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Jul 7th, 2025 · 11:37 AM EDT

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Luke got roasted a bit for this:

Zack Wheeler is the most dominant Philadelphia athlete I’ve ever watched.

Just absolutely unbelievable. What a day. pic.twitter.com/YKUSuo01LW

— Luke Arcaini (@ArcainiLuke) July 6, 2025

There was a lot of “I guess you never saw Roy Halladay (or player X)” in response, which is funny because Luke is 23 years old. So the answer, indeed, is no. He did not see Roy Halladay’s Philadelphia seasons the same way we did because he was eight years old back then. Eight! Another reminder of how old we’re all getting.

But speaking of Doc, it’s an interesting topic, this idea of dominance. Wheeler looked like Halladay on the mound Sunday, just mowing down batters left and right en route to his first complete game since 2021. 35 years old, by the way. Seems like people forget that when talking about how good he’s been this season, and during the entirety of his Phillies tenure.

For what it’s worth, Wheeler’s current numbers really aren’t that far off from what Halladay did during his 2010 Cy Young season in Philadelphia (via Baseball Reference) –

Wheeler has the edge in ERA, ERA+, and strikeout percentage at this point in time. Doc barely walked anybody and ate up so many innings as a machine-like grinder. He actually threw nine complete games during that 2010 season, which contributed to the 250.2 innings. Wheeler’s career high is 213.1 innings, which took place in 2021. It was such a different game back then, just 15 years ago. Charlie Manuel wasn’t pulling Doc off the mound after 95 pitches in the sixth inning. He regularly went deep into games and continued to be effective, so there’s a bit of an apples and oranges comparison there. For what it’s worth, Doc threw 108 pitches per start back then, and Wheeler is throwing 100 on average now. Doc threw 68.4% of his pitches for strikes and Wheeler’s number is 65.3.

Looking a bit further at the statistical comparison, Halladay allowed 10 stolen bases and didn’t have a pick off that season. Wheeler currently has 0 and 1, respectively. The slashlines are much different though, with Doc allowing .245/.271/.373 for an opponent OPS of .645. This year, batters are only hitting .177 against Wheeler and getting on base at a .229 clip. They’re slugging .299 for an OPS of .528.

Advantage, Wheeler. Zack is also on pace to allow fewer extra-base hits and fewer total baserunners, so we’ll see how it all extrapolates over the second half of the season.

Halladay also had to hit back then. This was long before the universal DH, so something to think about when you compare the two players. Doc wasn’t Carlos Zambrano at the plate, but imagine throwing regularly into the 7th and 8th innings while going up to bat at the same time. That’s a lot to manage.

But yeah, incredible stuff from both guys. I don’t think it’s a hot take to say that Wheeler is having a Halladay-esque season. Cliff Lee was right there, too, around the same age as well. All of these guys had/are having amazing Philly years in their 30s and it’s been a privilege to watch, whether you are 40 years old, or eight.