The Philadelphia Phillies are counting on a number of young players being productive in order to begin improving in the standings.
Two players heading into their first full season in Major League Baseball are at the forefront of the Phils’ youth movement. Among position players, that would be 3rd baseman Maikel Franco, who is off to a blistering start during Grapefruit League action down in Florida.
On the mound, the pitcher fitting that profile is 22-year old Aaron Nola. Thus far during spring training, Nola has been inconsistent at best. He has thrown a staff-high 9.1 innings, which is the good news.
Nola is apparently healthy, or manager Pete Mackanin and the coaching staff would not be running him out there. Further good news is that he has a 9/2 strikeout-walk ratio. So his signature control remains present.
The bad news is that Nola has allowed 14 hits, including four home runs, and eight earned runs over those 9.1 innings pitched. While sabermetricians can argue the value of the stat, what cannot be argued is that his 7.71 ERA is troubling, and his 1.71 WHIP is unacceptable.
Yesterday in Port Charlotte against the Tampa Bay Rays, Nola had his longest outing of 2016 to this point. In the Phillies 5-2 come from behind victory, the right-hander went 4.2 innings, doubling his spring total. He registered five strikeouts while walking no one. However, he also allowed six hits and two earned runs.
“I’ve been working on trying to get back to where I want to be,” Nola said after yesterday’s outing per Philly.com’s Matt Breen. “Get my body in sync like today and get all of my pitches in sync again. That’s where I want to be and I’m going to continue to try to get better in those aspects.“
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He struggled at the outset in Tuesday’s outing, hitting the first batter, Logan Forsythe, on the elbow with his first pitch of the day. Brad Miller immediately followed that by dumping a single into left field, putting Nola in early trouble with the dangerous Evan Longoria coming to the plate.
Nola proceeded to get Longoria to ground into a 4-6-3 double play and thus nearly wriggled out of his troubles. However, Juniel Querecuto, who had come on to run for Forsythe, moved to 3rd on that DP. Logan Morrison brought him home, rapping a double down the left field line to put Tampa on top early by a 1-0 score.
Over the next 3+ innings, Nola began to roll. He faced the minimum number of batters despite allowing base hits in both the 3rd and 4th innings. In each of those frames he was again bailed out by a doubleplay ball.
The Phillies had tied it with a run in the 3rd on a leadoff homer by Cedric Hunter, and so Nola cruised into the bottom of the 5th inning with the score knotted at 1-1. He would not get out of the frame.
With one out in the bottom of that 5th inning, Kevin Kiermaier homered to right field to put Tampa back on top. Then with two outs, Rene Rivera doubled to center, and that would be all for Nola on the day.
An optimist would look at the five strikeouts and say that it wasn’t a bad outing. A pessimist would counter that the Phillies bullpen followed over the next 4.1 innings by striking out eight more Rays’ batters, minimizing the accomplishment of the Phils’ starter.
Nola allowed a pair of doubles and a homer against a lineup that is not particularly noted for being an offensive juggernaut. While he appears healthy and his control remains intact, the inescapable fact of the matter is that he has also been hit around this spring.
Perhaps the young righty is just working on some things. Development of a couple of particular pitches. Pitching with runners on base. Pitching out of the stretch. There are quite often things going on as part of a larger-scope game plan during these spring outings than we are aware of as fans.
Whatever is going on with Nola, it would be nice at some point to see him go to the mound and allow fewer hits than innings pitched. During his rookie campaign in 2015 he allowed just 74 hits over 77.2 innings. In nine of his 13 starts last year, Nola allowed the same or fewer number of hits as innings that he pitched.
It certainly is not time to hit any panic buttons on Nola’s 2016 season. But he remains an integral piece to the Phillies’ rebuilding puzzle, and certainly neither he nor the team wants to experience any backward steps. Certainly if the club wants to have any hope of a stronger than anticipated season this year, they will actually need Nola to take a step forward, not backward.