00:00Zach Wheeler looked pretty special to me. Is he back?
00:07Is he back? You know, Zach said last night that he's getting there, Ricky.
00:11So I think that tells us he doesn't think he's all the way back.
00:16His fastball velocity is just a tick below what it was last April.
00:21It's actually faster, a little faster than it was the previous April.
00:25And I'm using April as the comp because it's his first month back.
00:30The thing is, the results, the presence on the mound, it all looks like Zach Wheeler.
00:36There's not as many strikeouts right now, but I was going through this whip, opponent average, strike throwing, hard hit
00:45rate.
00:46It all looks like vintage Zach. And it's such a huge difference for this team.
00:53I think about this all the time. Last October, Phillies-Dodgers.
00:57The Dodgers could not score against the Phillies rotation, and that was in a series when Zach Wheeler didn't throw
01:05a pitch.
01:06So if you have Sanchez and Wheeler pitching games one and two of any postseason series in any order, isn't
01:14that the formula?
01:16I meant to mention to you, too, as of yesterday, Fangraphs is now projecting the Phillies as a playoff team.
01:25Their playoff percentage had gone down to 32 percent two weeks ago.
01:31Now it's, I believe it's 58 percent, and also projecting their chances of winning the World Series as trailing only
01:42the Dodgers and the Braves in the National League.
01:45I find this really interesting.
01:47These are projections on what they think is likely to happen moving forward, and Zach Wheeler is such a huge
01:54part of that.
01:54All right.
01:59You
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