Zachary Harrison Wheeler was born on May 30,1990 and is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball.
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38 Facts About Zack Wheeler
3.
Zack Wheeler played for the Giants' minor league teams in 2010 and 2011 before he was traded to the Mets in July 2011.
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4.
Zack Wheeler underwent Tommy John surgery for the injury, and was expected to return partway through the 2016 season, but a series of setbacks during the rehabilitation process kept Wheeler from returning to the mound until 2017.
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5.
Zack Wheeler became a free agent at the end of the 2019 season, and signed a five-year deal with the Phillies in December 2019.
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6.
Zack Wheeler missed part of the shortened 2020 season with a fingernail injury, but impressed at the start of 2021, becoming the third pitcher in franchise history to strike out 10 or more batters in three consecutive starts.
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8.
Zack Wheeler's father played amateur baseball for 15 years, while his mother continued playing competitive softball even after having children, going so far as to placing a playpen in the dugout during weekend tournaments.
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9.
Zack Wheeler was the youngest of three brothers, all of whom grew up playing baseball.
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10.
Zack Wheeler's oldest brother, Jacob, stopped playing sports in high school after undergoing a series of surgeries for supraventricular tachycardia, while his middle brother, Adam, was a minor league pitcher in the New York Yankees farm system until he suffered a torn glenoid labrum.
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11.
Rather than attending Campbell High School like his brothers, Zack Wheeler attended East Paulding High School, where he played baseball and basketball.
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12.
Zack Wheeler was assigned to the Class A Augusta GreenJackets of the South Atlantic League to start the 2010 season.
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13.
Zack Wheeler was placed on the disabled list early in the year with a fingernail injury on the middle finger of his throwing hand.
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14.
Zack Wheeler later returned to the GreenJackets, making several relief appearances before re-entering the starting rotation.
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15.
Zack Wheeler made an appearance at the 2010 All-Star Futures Game in Anaheim, California.
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17.
Zack Wheeler emerged as the star of that season's Binghamton pitching rotation, leading the Eastern League with a 25 percent strikeout rate.
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18.
Day after he struck out 11 batters in a game against the Harrisburg Senators, Zack Wheeler was promoted to the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons on August 1,2012.
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19.
Mets general manager Sandy Alderson told reporters that Zack Wheeler was expected to open the 2013 season with Buffalo, and that he would likely make his major league debut that same year.
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20.
Zack Wheeler stumbled at the beginning of the season, accumulating a 6.
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21.
Zack Wheeler made his major league debut on June 18,2013, pitching six shutout innings in the second game of a doubleheader against the Atlanta Braves.
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22.
Zack Wheeler's pitching was inconsistent in the first two months of the season, with pitch command problems leading to a large number of walks, and with a poor record against left-handed batters.
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23.
On June 19,2014, Zack Wheeler pitched a complete game shutout against the Miami Marlins, facing only 28 batters and allowing just three hits.
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24.
On March 16,2015, the Mets announced that Zack Wheeler had torn the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, an injury that was diagnosed after he began experiencing discomfort during spring training.
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25.
Shortly after the announcement, sources reported that Zack Wheeler had torn a tendon in the same elbow during the previous season, and that he had undergone platelet-rich plasma therapy to hasten the healing process.
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26.
Zack Wheeler suffered a series of setbacks in his return from Tommy John surgery.
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27.
Zack Wheeler signed a one-year, $800,000 contract with the Mets on January 11,2017, avoiding arbitration.
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28.
Zack Wheeler's pitching was particularly dominant after the All-Star break, where he led the MLB in WHIP with 0.
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29.
Zack Wheeler was the first pitcher in Phillies history to allow three or fewer runs in each of his first 10 starts with the team, and he allowed only three home runs, the fewest of any pitcher in 2020 who pitched at least 70 innings.
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30.
When Mets ace and former teammate Jacob deGrom announced that he would not attend the All-Star Game, some fans speculated that Zack Wheeler would be chosen to start for the National League team; the honor was ultimately given to Max Scherzer of the Nationals, with Zack Wheeler making an appearance at the top of the ninth inning to strike out Matt Olson and retire the side.
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31.
Fanning 247, Zack Wheeler became the first Phillies pitcher to capture the NL strikeout title since Curt Schilling in 1998.
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32.
Zack Wheeler finished second in NL Cy Young Award voting behind Corbin Burnes.
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34.
Zack Wheeler's sinker is known for its velocity: in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Wheeler's sinker velocity of 97.
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35.
Zack Wheeler considers the curveball to be "decent", and believes that his control of the pitch, which he has been throwing since high school, has decreased with the continued improvement of his slider.
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36.
Zack Wheeler's changeup, by contrast, is a more recent pitch, one that Wheeler began throwing in the 2014 season to confuse batters expecting a hard fastball.
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37.
Zack Wheeler and his wife Dominique have one child together, a son, who was born on July 20,2020, shortly before the start of the pandemic-shortened 2020 MLB season.
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38.
Zack Wheeler has a close friendship with retired Atlanta Braves player Chipper Jones.
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