Yes, He's That Good: Nola's Debut Marks New Era For Phillies

Starting pitching prospect Aaron Nola, one of the Phillies most promising young players, will make his major league debut on Tuesday night against the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Phillies drafted Nola with the seventh overall pick in last summer’s draft.

The hype surrounding the rookie is huge, much more so than slugger Maikel Franco’s debut earlier this year, and even more than Ken Giles debut last year, when the rumor of his 100 mile an hour fastball seemed a minor league legend.

Nola has turned in a stellar campaign thus far in 2015, posting a 10-4 record with a 2.39 ERA and 92 strikeouts across 109.1 innings over two minor league levels.

Fans have been calling for his promotion for months, even indirectly leading general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. to tell CSN.com that fans “don’t understand the game...they don’t understand the process.”

Nola, the Phils’ number two prospect and the 28th in all of baseball per MLB.com, shouldn’t be phased by the warm, humid weather on Tuesday night. One of the best pitchers in college baseball in 2014, Nola spent four years at Louisiana State University, sweating out a stellar career in the thick heat deep south.

Expectations for Nola need to be reeled in, according to Ricky Bottalico, a former Phillies relief pitcher and analyst for Comcast Sports Net.

“He’s not Matt Harvey, he’s not a big time ace,” he said on the program on Tuesday morning.

Baseball America concurred with Bottalico in their assessment of Nola, predicting his ceiling as that of a number two or number three starter.

But a few things make Nola distinct from a class of rookie peers that is one of best in recent memory.

His rise to the Major League level has been meteoric. Only 13 months ago, Nola was a college pitcher. He rocketed through three levels of the Phillies minor league system in just over year.

He is not a power pitcher, making his sudden ascension all the more noteworthy. One of the biggest issues facing young pitchers is their command, especially of their breaking pitches, as they ascend levels and face more experienced batters. But Nola has issued only 18 walks all season - an average of just one for every game he’s pitched.

For a 22-year-old, that’s exceedingly uncommon.

But whether Nola winds up defying expectations and becoming a Cole Hamels-like ace, or emerging as a solid second starter, there is little doubt the Phillies need him.

They’ve struggled to find consistency in their rotation all year, and with any top performers being viewed as trade pieces, it’s possible that no part of the current rotation will be here next year - or by the time the Phillies are competitive again.

Nola’s promotion marks the second of three key debuts which will define the future of the franchise; the first being Franco’s, the other being the organization’s number one prospect J.P. Crawford, expected next year.

Perhaps expectations have been too high, and maybe the parade of sabermetric-wielding analysts are correct in forecasting Nola’s very good but not out of this world career.

Come 7:05 p.m. Tuesday, though, the team that Philadelphia wants to see, wants to imagine, is finally taking shape.

Image courtesy MLB.com.