Aaron Nola Is The Best Pitcher In Baseball You Somehow Just Can't Trust
Aaron Nola took the bump last night vs. a tough Toronto Blue Jays team in which kinda was a must-ish win (or at least must max effort) for the Phillies who dropped three in a row coming into the game. Nola got the win going 5 innings while giving up 4 ER with 7 K's and 4 BB. Not the finest start, but a win's a win, right?
Sure. A win is swell, but you know what else is delightful? Having your supposed generational Ace at least be trustworthy on a start to start basis. Not even shove it down the dick dominant, just trustworthy. See, here's the thing. Aaron Nola has great stuff. In fact, when he's on, he's got some serious Cy Young shit. He also has extremely above average stats. His BB to K ratio is always near, if not at the top of the league and the WHIP is consistently low.
OK. Them some good stats that should correlate with the arm of one of the best pitchers in the game. But...why does he struggle so at times? One word: Dingers.
Only Matt Olsen and Chicks dig the long ball more than Aaron Nola. It's beyond frustrating and has been seemingly going on for seasons now. We know he has "IT". We've seen Nola with our own eyes countless times over his 8+(!!!) seasons with the Phillies. Even through his faults Nola is still going to get PAID by some team this offseason. As he should. But Christ on a cracker, man, let's please tighten it up one last time going into these playoffs. There is no tomorrow. It's now or never for Nola in Philly and his legacy rests on these next few months. Figure it out and Ring The Damn Bell.
PS - MLB BEWARE: Bryce's power is back. Suck on that.