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Analyzing Aaron Nola’s Spring Debut

By Jason Ferrie

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Aaron Nola made his official spring debut today against the Yankees in a three inning stint. For the Phillies, Nola was the lone bright spot, holding the Yankees scoreless in his three innings of work. While Nola had success on the mound, there were some positives and negatives for the Phillies number two prospect.

Lets start with the negatives of Nola’s debut.

Aaron Nola showed us some very good things on Friday against the Yankees, but we will get to that in a minute. On Friday, Nola surrendered five hits in his three innings pitched, but not all were Nola’s fault. For instance, Nola threw a 3-1 fastball to Alex Rodriguez that was sent back up the middle  for a base hit. Against a power hitter like Rodriguez, stay away with fastball low in zone with the count in their favor. A-Rod did a great job going back up the middle.

While that hit was a good piece of hitting by Rodriguez, Nola got away with a 1-0 fastball down the pipe to him earlier in the count. Mid-season Rodriguez hits that ball 450 feet.

Aaron Nola gave up a hit to Brian McCann on a fastball just over chest level when the ball was supposed to be down. This happened with two strikes, and in two strike counts, you need to put away hitters. I wouldn’t worry about this as it was just one bad pitch, it happens.

The worst pitch Nola threw all day was to Stephen Drew. Drew, a left-handed hitter, got a hanging slider from Nola and roped it down right field for a double. This was an instance where Nola got lucky with just a double because it was an absolute hanger.

That said, Nola’s day was mostly filled with positive moments.

While Aaron Nola missed with a few pitches against the Yankees, he showed some very positive signs.

First of all, the Phillies number two prospects held his own during his three inning stint against the Yankees. Despite allowing five base runners, none of them crossed home plate. Stranding runners in the major leagues is huge because, let’s face it, they’re going to reach base.

The most impressive part of the day for Aaron Nola was the quality of his pitches. Here are a few notes I took down during Nola’s outing.

Fastball: (90-94) Nola’s fastball shows arm side run and sink. He missed with a few fastballs today, but also painted 94 on the outside against Chase Headley to catch him looking. With his plus control, Nola was able to work both sides on the plate, which kept hitters off-balance.

Changeup: (80-84) This was without a doubt my favorite pitch from Nola today. He got Beltran and A-Rod swinging with his changeup. It is all setup because of Nola’s repeatable motion and consistent arm speed that causes deception and break. Similar to his fastball, his changeup fades to his arm side, which makes it like strikingly similar to his fastball (as it should).

Slider: (78-81) Today, Aaron Nola used his slider quite effectively. Despite hanging one to Drew, Nola got A-Rod to flinch when the slider started at his hip and he used it beautifully in an at-bat against Chris Young. In the young sequence, Nola went back-to-back inside sliders, following with a running fastball at 93, which was fouled off. Nola had come inside three times at this point and threw a power slider away that Young flailed at with two runners on to end the inning.

In his spring debut, Aaron Nola was impressive. I am not concerned about the hits that Nola gave up because they’re correctable since he missed locations. He is known for his control so I wouldn’t expect too many misses going forward. I truly believe Nola is ready to join the rotation as he showed three plus pitches today. In the grand scheme of things, I understand why Nola isn’t starting in the big leagues, but I for one, can’t wait to see him in Philadelphia.

Next: Brett Myers Hanging with Jonathan Papelbon

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