The Phillies entered the midpoint of the season during the holiday weekend, only about a week away from the All-Star weekend, so now is a good time to check out some of the latest news about the team. Currently 39-42 behind 0.500 in three games, ranked fourth in the NL East-but still only 4.5 games behind the division-leading Mets in the game.

Before the official start of the second half of the season against the Cubs on Monday night, let’s take a look at a few newsworthy Nuggets from the Phils team…

Everything is the first time

Unexpectedly, the Phillies will send multiple players to participate in the MLB All-Star Game next week. With starting pitcher Zack Wheeler and receiver JT Realmuto both selected into the National League lineup, this is the first time since 2013 that Philadelphia has more than one player to participate in the Midsummer Classic.

For Realmuto, this was a somewhat unexpected choice, because the guy who entered this season as the “best receiver in baseball” has performed poorly by his standards, with a sharp drop of 0.263/.359/.446. There were 8 home runs and 31 RBIs in the first half of the season. As for the defensive attributes that made him a great receiver, they didn’t really show it this season, because he only caught 5 base runners in 18 chances.This is a good thing for a 22% success rate, which is The lowest score of his career and This is a significant drop from the absurd 47% he posted in 2019.

Despite this, the veteran catcher has accumulated enough resources in the league and has accumulated a solid enough resume over the years. It is not entirely shocking that he can still do this even in a downturn in a year, especially It was after he completed the last two seasons of the All-Star Game (2018 and 2019). When a player starts to make several consecutive choices, people begin to believe that they “belong” there, regardless of whether their season is below average, and Realmuto seems to be the beneficiary this time.

Wheeler (Wheeler) is one of the best pitchers in all baseball this season, and rightfully won the first All-Star draft of his career.

“It’s so cool. This is what you dream of growing up,” Wheeler said on Sunday. According to NBC Sports Philadelphia“But yes, to really go out, I always struggled a bit in the first half or the first few months. I always shot it down very quickly. But maintaining consistency for such a long time is also for me Very important. The hard work has now paid off.

“I haven’t won many awards. Since I entered the major leagues, I don’t even think I have won anything. I haven’t won the Player of the Week or Player of the Month or any other awards. It’s cool, right? It’s except One of the biggest players like Cy Young. I can tell my son and future children that I am an All-Star. It’s cool.”

That’s cool. This is also well-deserved, because if it were not for the crazy season of the Mets starter Jacob DeGrom, Wheeler is likely to become the leader of the National League Cy Young Award.

Nevertheless, Wheeler (6-4, 2.05 ERA, 0.939 WHIP) leads all baseballs in the WAR. period. This is all players, including the batsman. With a total score of 5.3, he is even slightly better than Shohei Ohtani (5.2), who has just become the first player in baseball history to be selected as both a pitcher and a positional player. In the first 17 games of the season, Wheeler led MLB in pitching (114) innings and strikeouts (139). His SR is ranked sixth in the MLB, so is his strikeout/walking ratio (5.56), and his WHIP ranks ninth. He also started five times and shot at least seven innings without scoring-the best in the game.

Undoubtedly, based on the data alone, Wheeler has locked in his chance to be selected for the All-Star Game for the first time this season. In the process, he made the Phillies’ front desk look very smart, which is something we rarely say recently, because the Phillies are in danger of missing the playoffs for the 10th consecutive season.Here are more from Corey Seidman of NBC Sports Philadelphia:

Since signing a five-year, $118 million contract with the Phillies in December 2019, Wheeler has exceeded expectations. He scored 2.92 ERA in 11 starts in the shortened 2020 season, and this year has improved significantly.

A week after Wheeler signed with the Phillies, Gerrit Cole signed a nine-year, $324 million contract with the Yankees. The following is the performance of the two since Cole signed an additional $206 million:

Wheeler (28 debuts): 2.38 ERA, 1.03 WHIP, 185 IP, 192 K, 41 BB, 10 HR

Cole (starting from 29): 2.88 ERA, 0.96 WHIP, 178 IP, 229 K, 37 BB, 29 HR allowed [nbcsports.com]

This is what you hope to see from a big free agent acquisition.

Follow Cutch

Now for the not-so-good news…

According to reports, in the ninth inning of a 10-game winning streak on Sunday, the Phillies outfielder Andrew McCutchen withdrew from the game due to diagonal tension.

In the 11-1 loss to the Padres, McCutchen clearly felt pain in a few games, when Andrew Knapp went to the mound—please note—allowed six times in Hector Neris After running, the veteran left fielder decided he had enough.

After the game, coach Joe Girardi didn’t have much to offer about this situation. He just said that McCutchen will be re-evaluated the next day, so please stay tuned for what happened before Monday’s game against the Cubs. Any potential updates.