June 14, 2015
While the big league club is expectedly just plan depressing, the Phillies made an important move as an organization on Sunday afternoon: Top pitching prospect Aaron Nola was promoted from Double-A Reading to Triple-A Lehigh Valley:
Down on the pharm, RHP @AaronNola10 has been promoted to AAA Lehigh Valley. pic.twitter.com/TESoHmNNUK
— Phillies (@Phillies) June 14, 2015
We saw Nola pitch in Reading about a month ago and the main question anybody could come up with was, "Why are you still here?" It was apparent that the seventh overall pick in the 2014 MLB Draft, who completely lived up to his billing as an advanced college arm, didn't have anything else to prove at Double-A. His excellent numbers bear that out: 7-3, 1.88 ERA, 76.2 IP, 59 H, 4 HR, 9 BB, 59 K, .219 AVG, 0.89 WHIP.
The next question is how long Nola will stay at Triple-A, which may not prove to be a major step up in competition for the LSU product. If so, there seems like a good chance he's in Philadelphia before the end of the year. Even though Nola pitched in college for three years, he's moving exceptionally fast through the Phillies' system:
Nola is the 2nd youngest pitcher in the International League (6/4/93). Luis Severino of SWB is younger (2/20/94). Man, I'm old.
— Pat Gallen (@PatGallen_975) June 14, 2015
Nola's debut for the Iron Pigs could come on Thursday night in Allentown against the Buffalo Bisons.
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
