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Zack Wheeler Just Had One of the Greatest Months From a Phillies Player Ever
By Kyle Pagan
Published:
Zack Wheeler shoved the entire month of June. He finished with a 0.58 ERA and only gave up two earned runs:
Those are video game numbers.
As we sit here today, this has to be Wheels’ best chance to win the Cy Young right? Right now Paul Skenes is the betting favorite at NJ betting apps, but Wheeler is leading the league in WAR, wins, and strikeouts. Skenes is the leader in ERA and WHIP. The Phillies are marching to the playoffs and the Pirates will most likely be golfing in October again. Obviously, Skenes is one of MLB’s golden boys so we’re going to have to fight that stigma for all of the votes we can get, but lets be real, Wheeler deserves a Cy Young Award before his career is over at 37. Everything he’s doing is crazy. Especially when you remember that he’s allergic to the gym. He’s the everyman’s Cy Young via Matt Gelb at The Athletic (with ads):
Wheeler, a balding dad who cherishes his baggy shorts, is none of that. As he’s aged, he has all but eliminated in-season workouts. He celebrated 10 years in the majors with postgame McDonald’s for everyone. “He eats like an absolute child,” Realmuto said. Wheeler does not obsess over video or advanced metrics. Other people do that for him. Once inside Wheeler’s circle, the trust is absolute.
…
The last time Wheeler worked out was the second week of April when the Phillies were in Atlanta. Earlier in his career, with the New York Mets, Wheeler did a lower-body workout the day after a start and an upper-body one on his bullpen day. He was often injured. He went through years of monotonous workouts as he recovered from Tommy John surgery in 2015. He kept a similar routine when he returned to New York’s rotation.
Until he didn’t.
“I don’t know why I stopped doing it,” Wheeler said. “Maybe it’s just because I didn’t want to. Or because I just wanted to switch something up. And I started having more success. If you think about it, man, we’re out there doing our upper-body workout 90 to 100 times — if not more between the bullpen and warm-up pitches. That’s a core workout. That’s a back workout. It’s a shoulder workout.”
A guy that rewards himself with a Diet Coke every time he works out is my kind of pitcher. What’s more relatable than that? You get me in the gym for 30 minutes and I’m rewarding myself with a big bowl of ice cream. How about the sportswriters take that into consideration? Paul Skenes is out here doing pilates in peak shape while Wheels is looking for a 2 for $5 soda deal in a Wawa. He celebrated his 10 years of service by getting McDonalds for the clubhouse for god’s sake. He’s got the same diet as your six year old and he’s pitching lights out at 35 years old with no signs of stopping. Give the man his trophy!
P.S. 2011 Cliff Lee was inhumane. The fact that the Phils had three pitchers in the top-5 of Cy Young voting that year and limped out of the playoffs early will never sit well with me:
Kyle writes blog posts and does Man on the Street-style videos all around Philadelphia. He graduated from Temple University (a basketball school) in 2015. contact: k.pagan@sportradar.com