What is happening?

Welcome to the BuzzPitch Podcast.

You're more than pitching podcast from Pitcherlist.com.

My name is Nick Pollack.

Today we're going to talk about the Philadelphia Phillies.

And we're going to start, of course, with Zach Wheeler.

Absolute stud.

192 innings last year, 361, ERA with a 108 whip, 27% striker range.

It's a 5% walk rate. What he does is he has an amazing pair of fastballs. The four seamer and the sinker.

The sinker does so well jamming right handers inside. Then of course you have that four seamer

that had nearly a 20% swing strike rate against righties. It does drop down though against

lefties to around 11%. How does it do that? It does not have IVB.

Surprisingly enough, it doesn't.

It just has elite extension, elite VAA, 96 plus miles per hour.

That's how Wheeler just bullies right-handers endlessly with his fastball, a lot of lefties as well.

But the biggest question for Wheeler is what else is there?

And he's really tried to figure this out over the years.

It's a sweeper against right-handers that didn't really perform as well as you'd want it to.

Just a 53% strike rate against right-handers is really low.

And I actually get excited seeing that a bit because he had such a good season last year.

Sure, the 361E, right? Fine. But he can be a lot better if he's able to be more consistent

with that sweeper. And by moving into a sweeper, this slider that had in previous years, it's really

...