Breaking down what made Zack Wheeler so good on Friday vs. Marlins
Ricky Bottalico breaks down Zack Wheeler's start against the Marlins on Friday night, where Wheeler struck out eight over six innings.
Breaking down what made Zack Wheeler so good on Friday vs. Marlins originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Video Transcript
Tonight's film session presented by the Penn State Great Valley MBA in Artificial Intelligence.
Ricky's over at the big board taking a closer look at Zach Wheeler and what he did so well tonight.
It was very interesting, 'cause the things I, I wanted to come true in this game really came true for, for, Zach Wheeler.
First of all, first pitch strikes, 18 for 23.
That's pretty good.
He was 70% in the first game, goes up a little bit in this one.
That, that's first.
Secondly, he was able to expand the strike zone.
Why?
Because he was getting ahead in counts.
You know when you have young hitters, you could kinda toy with them.
You can kinda go outside the zone, go inside the zone, go up top of the zone.
Let's take a look at what Zach Wheeler, did in this one tonight ag- against the Marlins.
And th- this is comical, because this is an 0-2 pitch right here.
0-2 fastball right off the bat.
I'm gonna strike out with 95 up top.
How you feel about that?
You can't feel pretty good about that.
Here you go again.
This is what I was talking about.
You know I was talking about chasing and making them chase outside of the zone.
You saw that there.
What does he do there?
I'm gonna lift your eye level again.
And th- that's something Zach Wheeler does so well, and he has pitches kind of on all ends that he can go.
That one he actually misses his spot, but it's a good, ends up being in a good spot on the inside part of the plate.
Here he comes back with a splitter.
We told you he kinda lost control of his breaking pitches for a little while, so he went back to that splitter.
And because he was throwing the fastballs up top of the zone, those splitters get, they're impossible to hit.
Because what you're seeing are pitches coming down the middle of the plate, and then all of a sudden just dropping away.
You can't hit them.
You only think they're a strike.
You see them coming in.
You see that split coming about right here.
That's what you think it is.
You think it's a fastball, next thing you know, it's down near your feet.
You're already swinging.
You've already committed.
You've already taken that swing, and boom, ball's gone.
And Wheeler did a really nice job, like I said, getting ahead.
Boom, boom, strikes on both sides of the plate.
Climbing the ladder.
When you can hit, w- what people see and what y- what you love to talk about is the box.
Mm-hmm.
The top of the box.
Zach Wheeler's able to go both sides on the top of that box.
And when he does that, that means the hitter has to be aware of that pitch up there.
So if you're throwing anything down below with two strikes and good counts, 0-2, 1-2 counts, and it's disappearing, their first move is up here because they think everything's k- coming up top because he can throw that fastball up there.
And then the next thing you know, once they drop their hands, they're all done.
And that's why Zach Wheeler was getting away with those, those splits down at the bottom of the zone, and normally the sweeper curve ball combination.
I, I love the movement on his pitches tonight.
I thought he had nice, tight movement.
He's, he's showing a lot more movement.
He, he's throwing a sinker, but it seems to be a little bit harder than normal.
It, it, it was about 94, 95 with some late bite to it, and I think that's one thing you strive for as a pitcher.
You want it to be late.
You don't want it, if it's moving right out of your hand, you don't really want that, 'cause it's picked up by the hitter.
But when you get that late bite, that's where you mess guys up at the plate.
