Bravo! Aaron Nola looks "pretty dang good" this spring.

00:00:03
Speaker 1: Nola and welcome to the Philly Show.

00:00:07
Speaker 2: Aaron Nola. Let's call him Captain America. Oh, even though he's an Italian American slash cajun.

00:00:14
Speaker 1: The Italian Stallion.

00:00:16
Speaker 2: The Italian Stallion is Aaron Nola.

00:00:19
Speaker 1: It's the Philly Show.

00:00:20
Speaker 2: We've got Ruben Tomorrow Junior, Jim Salisbury, Todd z Alecki coming to you from bake Out Ballpark. Ruben is at a undisclosed location.

00:00:32
Speaker 3: Yes, but we're okay. But I'm in the Llanai.

00:00:35
Speaker 2: He's in the Lanai. Right now, we're gonna talk. We got We're gonna talk Aaron Nola. World Baseball Classic week. Want to Chase Sutley going on the Wall of Fame, little Zach Wheeler, little rotation stuff. But let's start right now. We're gonna talk World Baseball Classic and Aaron Nola and all of our World Baseball Classic coverage is brought to you by our friends at Fox one, which is live stream all your Fox favorites together in one place, including all WBC games over the next few weeks, and after that the best Major League Baseball action all season long. Aaron Nola Wednesday Night, World Baseball Classic has to pitch his butt off to not only help Italy go undefeated in Pool B, but also punch punch USA's ticket to to the to the quarterfinals the World Baseball Classic. Nola goes five scoreless innings, four hits, one walk, five strikeouts, ninety four point five. He touches on the gun.

00:01:42
Speaker 1: Stuff was really good. Yeah, it's funny, Yeah.

00:01:45
Speaker 3: It was pretty it was outstanding. I was really impressed with the way through the baseball. I mean, the break and ball had great fight to it, and it's sort of what we've been seeing from the beginning of spring training with him. He's been an even more life to his stuff, probably a little bit more juiced up because of the competition, but it was nice to see him use all of his pitches. Had that sinker working on the inside part of the plate against the left handers, got a couple of punch outs with that, used the breaking ballt up for swing and missed. I mean, it wasn't completely flawless, but he was really good and it was sort of vintage what your hope to get out of Aaron Nola over the course of the next several months.

00:02:31
Speaker 1: Now, I didn't get to see it, Rubin because I was on the Tarmact Philadelphia International Airport for getting.

00:02:38
Speaker 3: Rough for the folks trying to travel down from Film.

00:02:41
Speaker 1: Gosh Wednesday night, getting down here was an ordeal and finally got to the hotel about two in the morning, so I missed it, but I read about it, and then when I walked in the clubhouse Thursday morning, there was a tangible buzz about Aaron Nola's performance, and not just the it was you know, players were talking about it. Todd, I saw you speaking with pitching coach Caleb Coffin, and no one knows Aaron Nola better than Caleb Coffin. What did he say?

00:03:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, you know Caleb always, as you know he was on our show last year, always super insightful. I always feel like I learned something from him. And so my first question to Caleb guys is, you know Aaron open camp and we say, well, what did you do this offseason so you can bounce back from really the worst year of his career last year? And he's sata I just kind of long toss more and his velo's been up. So I started to asked Caleb first question was is it really that simple? The long tossing and his answer was was interesting, and I want to kind of read you some of this quote, which is basically, there's an element of if you want to throw hard, you have to practice throwing hard, so at some point you can throw hard easy versus if you're always down regulating, which is Aaron such a command control guy. He said, you're always nice and easy touch and feel. It's harder to expect your body to know what to do if you're trying to throw hard. So by long tossing from one hundred and eighty two hundred feet, you're throwing harder. You're getting your body trained to throw harder. And then he also said something interesting, which is, you know, when you're throwing one hundred and eighty two hundred feet, you get a better sense of what your ball is doing. You get a longer trajectory of the ball to see how it's moving, so you can see the true flight of your four seam fastball. If it's true, it flies true, if you're cutting it off, if you're under the ball, if you're on top of the ball, you get a sense of that because it's moving more one hundred and eighty to two hundred feet. So he really talked a lot about that in terms of the benefits of long I know you guys have talked about that a lot the last few weeks, the benefits of it. But to hear Caleb kind of break that down, I thought was interesting. But you know, Caleb is excited about what he's what he's done this this spring. You know, he said, just really just he looks pretty dang good, is the way Caleb put it.

00:05:20
Speaker 1: And the other thing is when you long toss, you really need your legs, and he had that ankle last year. Maybe he just didn't have his legs. Maybe that accounted for a lot of his problems and.

00:05:32
Speaker 3: Probably probably Yeah, that's a great that's a great that's a great point, Jim. I mean, there's probably a combination of things. But I mean it's like, you know, you gotta swing hard to swing hard, right, you gotta throw hard to throw hard. And you know there is an art to throwing long toss. You just don't launch. There's an actual mechanical piece to it where you're where you're getting actual extension and getting the ball, like Johnny Potters used to say, getting the ball off your fingertips and back spinning it, carry and carrying the baseball, which creates more finish at the end. So you're seeing some of that finish out of Aaron Nola. You're seeing him miss some bats and miss some barrels, and you hope that carries through. I'm not sure if that's going to carry through the season, but you're certainly pretty excited about, you know, as an evaluator, and watching the ball come out of his hand and the rotation with which he is spinning that breaking ball. It's going it's going north south, it's not going east west, and he's making it work downward, which means he's staying on top of the ball, which means its fingers are on top of the ball, and he's creating life with all of his pitches.

00:06:49
Speaker 1: It's funny, like he touches ninety four and change. We didn't see a lot of that last year. That once yeah, and I don't consider that in only twenty six throwing hard in today's game once upon a time, Yes, I mean it's hard, but you know it's still you know, just maybe a tick above major league average. But for what it could do for him and his full repertoire and what it could do for his off speed stuff, especially if he can pinpoint it and locate it, get it moving two ways down on the zone, you're gonna be looking at a different picture.

00:07:26
Speaker 2: One other thing interesting than that, Caleb said regarding that at the command, He said, it's hard to squeeze more out of that at times, but when he's throwing a little harder, I think the command gets better. And Rob Thompson was watching the game on his phone. He was at dinner on Wednesday night and he said he just noticed all the balls. I guess he's watching on the MLB app Game Day. Said he just saw all the balls hitting all the corners of the strike zone.

00:07:50
Speaker 1: Nice. So that's Aeronola.

00:07:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then he had a couple miles an hour onto it.

00:07:58
Speaker 3: And then you have Passquatch popping three bombs in USA today and USA is in the in the quarter.

00:08:05
Speaker 2: You know that's not just but it wasn't just Aaron Nola. Guys last night that had a big moment. How about Dante Nori dropping down that safety squeeze.

00:08:16
Speaker 1: Favorite play favorite playing baseball.

00:08:20
Speaker 3: He did a heck of a job. He's showing some power. He's hit the ball the other way in a base it in the sixth hole, which was really nice, nice piece of hitting. This young man's got some talent and it looks like he put on a little bulk and a little power and he's playing with great confidence in a very big tournament. It'll be fun to watch him continue to grow in the Phillies organization, because, hey man, you need as many prospects as possible, especially in the outfield. You never know what's going to happen over the next couple of couple of years on that outfield. This is forget better.

00:08:57
Speaker 1: First time I've really seen him a lot here camp and then for Italy. The kid's got a little bit of moxie too. You know, he's got that confidence you mentioned, he's got a little you know, he likes to play the game, and you think, okay, he's another high school center fielder, much like Justin Crawford, who's gonna get his shot here. They got to you know, centerfielders. Is Norri a guy that they could use in a trade if they have a big need at mid season? Maybe, but maybe he's also a guy that all of a sudden, now you're looking at two guys in that outfield in the coming years. One goes to left, one stays and center, two exciting talents that can move on the bases and do some things with the bats. So it's a good place to be if this kid keeps progressing. I am really really curious to see how he builds on this confidence building WBC here in the regular season, wherever he opens up, I guess reading maybe to.

00:09:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's I think it's gonna be reading. He will.

00:09:56
Speaker 3: Really this is a great, great young player to go to and then they're moving him, so he's showing that he can do some things, and.

00:10:04
Speaker 1: That's a great ballpark to hit to hit in, and he should come out of here with some confidence. But boy, it's really a thrill for him. And it's nice to just see a kid go out there and really grasp this opportunity because he's playing on a roster with a lot of these guys are big leaguers and he's a kid, you know, two years out of high school going to double a.

00:10:24
Speaker 3: Great He's playing against some of the best players in the world. Boys, again, some of the best players in the world, and it'll be interesting to see Ali Handle's playing in the quarters.

00:10:33
Speaker 2: Absolutely so from the WBS. Let's end this segment talking about the WBC from the WBC through the World Series to the World Cup, to NASCAR and Indy Car. With Fox one, you get it all live. Start your seven day free trial today offers our subject to change. Download Fox one today and stream the World Baseball Classic live March sixth through the seventeenth. Go to foxone dot com for complete terms and conditions. Fox One streaming now. So let's uh, Ruben, one of your old friends was here today?

00:11:13
Speaker 3: Really, who's that?

00:11:14
Speaker 2: Chase?

00:11:14
Speaker 1: Elly?

00:11:15
Speaker 3: Showed up? Chase. Congratulations to Chase, mister mister Middleton announcing that that Chase going into the Pill's Wall of Fame. No surprise, no surprise. It's only a matter of time before the big three roll in there. And Jimmy was from one and Chase is two. I would not be surprised by the big piece being next. Who knows how that when that's gonna happen. But it's so nice to hear that that Chase is being honored appropriately, one of the best players that have ever ever donned that uniform, and really really happy for him. He just texted me, as a matter of fact.

00:11:56
Speaker 1: Where did he say? Where the hell were you today?

00:11:59
Speaker 3: He probably did. Let's see what he said. I asked him if he was around. He said, I appreciate it. I said, congrats, he said, I appreciate it. And he's around till Monday, so I've got a chance to see him tomorrow at the Ballplayer.

00:12:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's around for a few days. So great to see him.

00:12:16
Speaker 1: So you mentioned the big piece. He was here today. Cole Hamills was here today. They both in uniform doing some guests instructing, but they were both at the news conference where John Middleton announced that Chase is going on the Wall of Fame. And you know, you just kind of looked across the room and you're like, Okay, there's next year's honoree, and then there's the year the year after it, and so far, you know, they have three players from the eight team. Pat Burrow went on pretty quick, and then Jimmy last year, now Chase, and then I would assume in the next two years, Ryan and Cole Hamills. And it was such what's really cool is all homegrown guys And that roster was so based on homegrowing. I could extend it to Pat Burrow and uh chooch homegrown Madson was homegrown Brett Myers, and it seemed like Shane Victor Reno was around for so long and he actually played in the minor leagues. He feels like an honorary homegrown Philly and I think he'll receive strong consideration for the Wall of Fame someday. So it's it was such a great memorable team and it's really appropriate that these guys are going to be all on that wall someday in center field, no.

00:13:32
Speaker 3: Question about it. Really happy for him, And got to give a lot of credit to Mike Garbuckle and Marty Walloper who were the ones who brought all those guys in and uh, nothing like bringing in talent into your own system and get it getting it done. And those guys did a hell of a job of getting that done. Pretty amazing.

00:13:49
Speaker 2: It was cool talking to you know, Howard and and of course Chase today. Howard told a great story just how I mean, we were both talking to Ryan Howard Rubin and on the field just asking about Chase and Jimmy and He's like, God, those guys were so friggin smart. During a game, He's like, you know, it's the first basement. I try to read swings to kind of know if this next ball is coming to me, he's like, you know, a lot of times I'd be like, all right, this ball's definitely kind of the way he's swinging at this pitch. And he's like, I loved going to the mound when there was a meeting on the mound with the pitcher and then having Chase or Jimmy basically say all right, do not throw this pitch. Throw this pitch based off of this swing. And he's like, it was amazing how often that they were right in sort of the advice they gave on the mound because they were so smart at the game of baseball. And he's like, yeah, he just loved I loved those moments. That was kind of a cool little anecdote that I had never heard that before in terms of how active they were on the mound talking to guys.

00:14:54
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, the cool thing about those two players and not just great talents, but they cared about the game in a way and saw the game in a way that was very, very different. When you have your best players understanding the game as well as they did, playing in the middle of the diamond, that's that's when you have a chance to be really, really good. And it's the reason why we're very good for a long time.

00:15:14
Speaker 1: I like Ryan said today that he had, you know, a great seat to watch Chase all those years because he was always the in the on deck circle. And he said, you know, I'm standing here thinking about these questions you guys are asking me, and I'm almost like visualizing myself in the on deck circle watching his greatness. And then he kind of went through all of Chase's different swings, the flick, the drive through the ball, and the shortness and the compactness of it all, and it was really neat to see. Big piece looks great man.

00:15:48
Speaker 2: Heape, he is a specimen. I wish, like you know now you can, of course with stackcast you can measure everybody's swing and how quick they are. I wish we had that on just just out of curiosity, just to see, like ut least how quick his swing was through the zone. Yah, Howard just talking about that. He's like that little automatic automatic double down the line. How he just flipped it, flicked it in down the right field line every single time.

00:16:14
Speaker 3: He had a special special pair of hands. He really did.

00:16:17
Speaker 4: And I always believed in hand hitting. I believe that that's the only thing like my dad used to say, it's the only thing that's holding the bat, my friend, So that's the one thing that can manipulate it. It's not about your body, it's about your hands. And Chase Utley he certainly epitomized that.

00:16:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, no doubt. Hey, let's we got to talk to you a little bit about seat geek.

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00:17:51
Speaker 2: There we go, let's talk. I want to talk more starting pitching, because you know they sign Hazen Cizzar that five year, one hundred and thirty five million dollar contract extension earlier this week. And then we talked to John Middleton. A couple of us talked to John Middleton afterwards, and he talked a lot about how this rotation reminds him of the twenty eleven rotation in this sense, every time that twenty eleven rotation went out to pitch, he felt like the Phillies had a we're gonna win that game. Obviously, you're not gonna win every game, but he felt like every time they went out they have a chance to win every game. And he kind of talked about how he gets the same feeling with this rotation. I mean, they had that potential and I want to and I say that talking about this, Zach Wheeler is going to throw a live his first live VP Rubin on Saturday, and I was talking with Caleb Cotham about Zach as well, and Caleb was talking about his Zach's last bullpen session on Tuesday and said it was mid season Zach Wheeler bullpen in terms of pitch shape and just everything that he will do out there. So he is pretty excited.

00:19:17
Speaker 1: Maybe April ninth, Well, maybe April ninth after all, you know, but he was, Yeah, he was.

00:19:23
Speaker 2: He was excited by what he saw Ruben in that, you know, because were you out there for that Ruben that bullpen Zax.

00:19:31
Speaker 3: Boys saw from I saw a couple pitches from Afar, so I didn't see the whole thing. I came out there a little tardy, yeah, and I didn't see everything, but I know that people were excited about what they saw.

00:19:45
Speaker 1: I think back to that twenty eleven rotation and I do agree there's some tremendous personnel in this twenty twenty six rotation, but I think there's more question marks in this rotation. But I do agree it could be DYNA if Aaron Nola continues to show some of the promise he has showed here in camp in the month of March and if Andrew Painter, you know, kind of seizes this opportunity, uh and is almost a little bit ahead of his time in the in adapting to the big league level, because I do think that, you know, unless your name is you know, maybe John Smoltz or Greg Maddox, it takes a little time for a young guy to come to the big leagues and deliver it right away. But he certainly has tremendous, tremendous talent and top to bottom with Lizardo and Sanchez's two lefties, wheel are coming back healthy, maybe sooner rather than later. And if those two question marks are answered in the affirmative, yeah, that's gonna be a hell of a rotation.

00:20:49
Speaker 3: They don't they don't have, I mean obviously doing to have all the hardware that some of those guys had in twenty eleven and the consistency yet. Yeah, but as far as overall talent is concerned, it's a good one. It's going to be, you know, a key for them to win that NL East again, for them to have that starting rotation do its job as it has been over the last few years. But certainly need to have Zach Wheeler and help overall, for all for all five or six of those guys to contribute the way they need to.

00:21:26
Speaker 1: Health is huge because really, after once Wheeler's back, after Taiwan Walker, there's just not a ton of depth, and you know, teams need that seventh, eighth, ninth, even tenth man. And I think so Philly is still looking to add depth in that area. Would not be surprised if they do bring some men at some point. But you know, one through five when healthy, good place to start.

00:21:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, no doubt about it. So guys, Yeah, Phillies resume play tomorrow. I don't even know who they got tomorrow right there. Oh, you get the Baltimore Orioles. The Baltimore Orioles on Friday at Bay care Ballpark. And Friday night, speaking of rotation, you have Christopher Sanchez pitching in a quarter file game against Korea in the World Baseball Classics, So that should be a fun one to watch. Again, we don't know when Nola's pitching next. I was talking to Jesus Azarto after the game. He was kind of hinted that he might go and pitch for Venezuela if they get to the semi final of the Championship. I feel like he's just on his tone day. I feel like he's kind of backed off that a little bit, like he's it doesn't seem to be like yeah, I think he's still keeping an eye on it.

00:22:46
Speaker 1: But last pod, maybe the Phillies said, hey, we just kind of want you to stay here in Clearwater now that you now that we've made you a very wealthy man. But Todd needs to give a shout out to Jesus' mother.

00:23:01
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, Hayes, Yes, I gotta tell you Jesus's mother. Uh. We were waiting for the press conference and it was the nicest thing. You know, we get a lot of nice compliments. But she leans over and goes, I just want to say, I, you know, watch listen to to all of your shows and I really really enjoy it. And I was like, oh my gosh, that's absolutely unblievable. So we got to get you a T shirt. We gotta I gotta talk to Jesus and see if we can get the Lozardos some Philly show swag. But uh, and then Hajesus's dad came up after It's like, you know, she's serious. She does she does pay, she does watch all the shows, you know, absolutely, So it was a really nice thing to say. A great family, great family. You can see where Jesus gets it from. You know, his family kind of reminds me of Aaron Nola's family, just in terms of friendly, good people. You know. I remember a couple of years ago I did a charity event in Baton Rouge with Aaron and Austin Nola. And I was an als event and I run into Aaron's dad, who if I I've met a few times over the years, and I'm talking to and goes, I didn't know you were coming down here. I said, yeah, yeah. He was like, well, you should have texted me out of taking you out and showed you around and you could have gone to a crawfish boil or whatever. I said. I said, well, geez, next time I'm down in Baton Rouge, I'll bring you up because I would love the you know, the personal white glove treatment, show me around town and tell me where to eat. So I wanted to mention min great family.

00:24:41
Speaker 3: Monica and Hesus Senior, great great people, and they raised a hell of a son. But Monica, thanks so much for your fandom.

00:24:50
Speaker 2: Yes, we sure do appreciate you absolutely. I wanted to mention that that is great, thanks for bringing that up, because that was that was a cool It was a cool moment from the other day. So a lot of stuff going on this week, a lot of stuff going on this week, and we will be back next week.

00:25:08
Speaker 1: Next week, next week, we'll be here and until then we will smell Leida, Rubin.

00:25:13
Speaker 3: Smell you both. James.

00:25:15
Speaker 2: The Philly Show is brought to you by the Foul Territory Network. Subscribe to The Philly Show on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.