High Hopes: A Phillies Podcast - Zack Wheeler Details His New Pitch (And Throws Shade At The Mets) | WIP Midday Show

Episode Date: March 22, 2024

Zack Wheeler joins Joe and Hugh in Clearwater to talk about his new contract, adding a splitter to his arsenal and takes a shot at his former team. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome back. Midday show live from Clearwater Baycare ballpark. Hugh Douglas, Joe Gilliam joining us right now. Phillies starting pitcher Zach Wheeler. Zach, how you doing, man? Doing well. Thanks for having me, guys. So, Zach, how important was you to get this deal done before the season started? want to be um you know family and all that everybody's happy here and um you know it's it's a place that i've come to love and um that i'm happy at i'm comfortable here with staff and players and we win so um you know this is where i want to be so it was never thought for you ever like it during the beginning potentially of going there was never thought for you to go anywhere else there's always that potential i guess you could say yeah if that's the right word but yeah i mean you know if we don't get it worked out yeah i'm gonna hit the free agent market but um this is where i wanted to be so i definitely made a effort to uh to you know tell my agent to try to make it work you know

you know it's funny i'm sorry about that joe but You know what's funny? I'm sorry about that, Joe. But you know what's funny because I'm curious. There's been a lot of talk, especially with this team, about the camaraderie and how everybody feels good being around one another. How much do you attribute that to the success that you've had thus far? Yeah, we're a close-knit team. We love to compete. We're a little bit older, so we've all been around a while now. And we know what losing is like. We know what winning is like, and it's fun to win. So, you know, once

we get out there between the lines, it's time to play and bear down, but, you know, in the clubhouse, we keep it light. We kind of police ourself. We're able to do that. Rob trusts us with that, and, you know, anybody who comes up or comes to our team, we want them to be themselves. That's when people are the most comfortable. That's when they perform the best. And, um,

I think that's when we, as Phillies are our best. Zach, when did it click for you? Uh, you know, following your career, I mean,

first round pick, and then you come up with the Mets with, with some hype, with all those great pictures you guys had. And you had some moments, obviously injury issues. You come here and I believe your first year first year here was the pandemic year, right? So only got to see like 12 starts or whatever it was for you.

When did you start to feel like, all right, I'm feeling good physically, and I've got the mental part down? Because for me as a fan, like 2020, 2021, I started realizing, wow, Zach's really gone to a different level in his career. When did you start feeling like like I figured something out here? It's hard to tell. Just because me personally, I felt better after my injury, after I came back. It took me a while.

I was trying to change my arm angle and arm motion, so that took me a minute. But I was feeling better. So I would say 18, 19, I did have better second halves, but I felt good. I felt like I was on the right path. And then finally, I signed a big deal. You have to live up to that, but I felt good. I felt like I was on the right path. And then finally, you know, I signed the big deal. You have to live up to that. Being in Philly, I think putting those two together, you know,

made some more confidence in myself maybe. And I felt like I had to live up to that. I had to be the number one and pitch like that. So that's what I was going to try to do my best at. And yeah. Let's talk about expectations. We've been talking about all offseason. We want and expect you guys to win the World Series.

I mean, that's where you guys have graduated to, in our minds, as fans, based on the team you have and where you've been the last couple years. How much do you guys talk about that? The expectations, the goal to go win the World Series. Is that something you and your teammates talk about? I wouldn't say we necessarily talk about it. I think we know that. I think we kind of, I wouldn't say snuck in a couple years ago, but people weren't really expecting it,

and we made it to the World Series. Last year, people expected us to be there, make a deep run. We did. We didn't end up where we wanted to be, but it was still a deep run. It was fun. And that was a successful year. You know, whether fans don't think so or not, that's a successful year. But at the end of the day, you play to win and you want to win a World Series, bring it back to Philly, no other place like Philly. You know, you want to be going down Broad Street like Harper always says. So, yeah, I mean, it's we know what we want to do. And that's that's when, you know, I've been hearing a lot about this nasty ass splitter that you have.

My question to you is this. How long does it take for you to develop that pitch and get comfortable enough to go out there and debut it a little bit it's different with different pitches um so last year i kind of debuted the sweeper and whatever you want to call it slider sweeper um but i was working on it the year before so that took me you know year year in the works to really get it game ready. Sometimes I can throw a pitch in the bullpen and take it out the next start. That's kind of what I did with the cutter back in the day. But the splitter, I kind of always had it in my back pocket. I kind of always switched around between a change-up,

a traditional change-up and a split. And I probably threw it like five times a year the past few years. And that's to like Freddie Freeman, like a 3-2 count, please swing at it, that type of thing. So, no, this year I made a conservative effort to really work on it, literally sit on the couch during offseason. Say, oh, I'm going to kill him with this one. Play around with some grips.

And Caleb, our pitching coach, he's really awesome at, you know, hand manipulation with the ball. And he's made my off-speed pitches a lot better. And he's helped me out with the split. And it's been hit or miss this spring, but it's always moving, which is fine with me. As long as it's not floating up there in the middle of the zone, I'm cool with it.

Sometimes I've cut it. Sometimes it's done split things. So either way, as long as there's that velo difference and it's moving, I'm cool with it uh sometimes i've cut it sometimes it's done split things so either way as long as there's that velo difference and it's moving i'm cool with it right now i want to get it nailed down though where it's consistent hey joe do you see what i'm seeing he's he's excited oh i can see he's excited about that you know speaking of that you know you get the starting day picture how how exciting is that for you to get that nod to be the starting day pitcher? Yeah, it's exciting. I've never done it before. I thought it was always been pretty cool.

It's a great honor, you know, just coming up over the years and seeing the guys that get that nod for it. It's always been the guys, right? Like, you know, Randy Johnson and Holiday and, like, those guys. Like, it's always the dude. It's pretty cool to be in those shoes and be able to take the ball open in day. Knowles, he could be right there doing it too.

It's definitely a privilege, and I don't take it for granted. We're talking to Zach Wheeler here, Philly starting pitcher at Philly Spring Training. Zach, you mentioned Knowles. You and he at the top of the rotation, it's kind of rare what you guys have because both of you go seven innings routinely. And you mentioned Roy Halladay, he used to go nine, then it became like most guys go five. You guys go seven into the eighth. Is that something that is a mentality? Is that something that you train for? When you're in the

mound on the first inning, are you thinking about finishing seven? How how do you get there because it feels like so many starting pitch these days don't go as far as you guys going to games yeah it's it's just how guys are coming up these days i don't think organizations are letting them go deep in the games in the minor league so they aren't used to it when they get up here um you know once you get a little more tired deeper in the games you gotta know how to pitch and they aren't getting that experience down in the minor league so when they get up here they just they aren't ready for it um so you know we're a little old school with that i guess you could say but um you know that's what we take pride in we kind of know that coming in and we kind of talk about it um this time of year hey like we're

gonna go 200 innings again or at least very close to it. That means taking the ball every start, fingers crossed, we're healthy, and getting 200 strikeouts plus. Our goal is 200-200, and that's what's going to save our bullpen arms for that push that we need at the end of the year. Even if it's just me and him going 200, that saves, what, 30 innings for the bullpen. So we need them fresh at the end of the year. Zach, what's more fun for you? We talk so much about the great atmosphere at Citizens Bank Park,

especially in October. More fun for you, a home game at Citizens Bank Park in October, which you've had those, or silencing the road crowd? We were down there in Atlanta. We were down there at the beginning of that series. Joe almost got beat up in Atlanta for his Phillies gear. I was wearing a Phillies overalls, and you were shutting them down, and they were not happy with me.

But you silenced that place because that was the best offense baseball has seen in years. They select like 500 of the team, and they couldn't touch you. What's more fun, silencing a crowd on the road or pitching at home? That's a tough question. Both are awesome. I don't know. But it got to feel good being in Atlanta and had that crowd.

Because let me tell you from our perspective. So we're there and they're going bananas. And you start pitching and then it just got silent. And I remember telling Joe, I said, Joe, it's probably time to leave. It was probably time to leave. It's a good feeling to go into somebody else's ballpark and just quiet down the crowd. But you got to do it from literally pitch one.

You got Hakuna coming up there. He's swinging. And he's trying to hit a home run the first at bat of the game. And you can't let him do that. So you got to get him out. And then you got to worry about Riley. And then it's definitely a mental game when you're up there. You're mentally exhausted at the end of the game.

But that time of year when you're able to quiet the crowd and kind of contain a lineup, that's really good. It's a really good feeling. But there's nothing like pitching at the bank in October also. How hard is it to – say I'm going to paint a scenario for you. Say like if you get out there on the mound and you get off to like somewhat of a rough start, because I feel like being a pitcher, that is the absolute loneliest place to be because you're out there by

yourself. So, so say if you got off to a rough start, how, how hard is it for you to kind of like rein it in, settle down and get back into a groove when you've had, say like like you got dinged for a home run like right out the gate. How hard is that to do? It's tough. It literally depends on what you have for that day because mentally you could be like, all right, like whatever. Yeah.

They're probably going to score at least one run during this game, right? That's whatever. Just flush it and move on. But if you don't have your stuff that day, that's a whole different story. You've got to try to maybe do some things that you don't normally do. Say your fastball doesn't have that pop on it that day, you've got to be able to command it and try to get some swings and misses maybe at the top of the zone, maybe throw your off speed a little bit more.

But if you just don't have your stuff that day, it's really tough to try to get that going. But mentally, you're always like, alright, let's flush that. They're probably going to score one, at least. You don't want them to, obviously, but it's probably going to happen. It's a really good lineup, and it's a big league hitter. That's their mentality, is go out there

at those seven shutout innings, but sometimes they're going to score. How much does it help having a catcher that's pretty much out there with you every time? JT, we had on a little bit earlier, and he talked to us about he wants to play 130 again. So most of your starts, he's going to be your catcher. Most teams don't have that. I mean, maybe half and half, maybe one guy plays 90. I mean, you have a catcher that plays 80% of the time, basically.

How much does that help you, the familiarity with him for years, and just knowing he's probably going to catch most of your starts? It's, you know, that's one of the reasons I signed here originally. What's the tone of JT? Excuse me. You know, I saw him, played against him when he was in Miami, and then obviously with Philly. So he was always a tough out for me, and I always loved watching him catch.

He's a bigger target, which I like. He receives the ball well, and he also does it with the bat. So there's all that, and he's a bigger target, which I like, he receives the ball well, and he also does it with the bat. So there's all that. Um, and he's consistent. He calls a great game. I literally, I don't do much scouting myself. I kind of leave that up to him because I trust him that much with it.

And, um, you know, he does his homework. You, I literally walk in and he's sitting there on on his iPad writing the scouting report for the day. And he's going over each hitter, video, and his handwriting is very small because he has a lot of notes underneath each hitter. And that takes time, and he has a family. But he also puts in the time at the field, and I really appreciate that as a pitcher.

Jay, excuse me, with Zach Wheeler. Zach, let's end with this. Opening day against the Braves next week. You're on the mound. We've been saying, at least I've been saying, and a lot of us have been saying, we want to win the division this year. Not only get to the World Series and win it,

but retire watching the Braves win the division. No pressure. Our producer Kyle has said he's picking the Phillies wire to wire in the division. We need that opening day win for you. No pressure. How about the division? Does that matter to you guys?

Because you obviously haven't needed to win the division the last two years to get far in the playoffs. But, boy, I'm tired of watching the Braves win this division. We want you to win it this year. Is that a goal? It's a goal. Yeah, definitely. Winning the division gets you into the playoffs.

If you don't win the division it's a it's a throw up I guess you could say right anybody can get hot at any time at the end of the year you can not do very well at the end of the year and somebody can jump in front of you winning the division definitely gets you in and that's what you want to do it's tough, it's a tough division

a lot of people overlook the Marlins I think of them as a very good team every year just because we've got to pitch against them. They're not just a Marlins to us. They're actually a good team. They have really good pitching. They've got some good young hitters. Nationals give me a hard time. They're an all-star team against me. The Mets, it's just a tough division all around. We definitely want to win it

so we get that for sure into the playoffs. That's definitely the key. Great stuff. Zach Wheeler, Philly starter pitcher. Zach, we appreciate you hopping on. Appreciate you. Good luck this season, and we're excited for a big year.

Thank you, Zach. Thanks for having me, guys.