Promoting Aaron Nola now makes $en$e for the Phillies

YOU CAN'T put a price tag on the experience Aaron Nola is going to get over the next couple of months. You can, however, put a price tag on the experience the Phillies are going to get. For now, it's 27 bucks. That's what it will cost for you and a friend to watch Nola's debut if you take advantage of the two-fer ticket deal the club advertised on its home page in the wake of yesterday's announcement that the organization's top pitching prospect would be called up in time to face the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday.

"Come see Aaron Nola's first start!" the ad said.

You might have expected it to continue, "For the love of God, pleeeeeeeease!"

But it didn't. And really, that's the whole point of the promotion (Nola's, and the ticket office's). It sells itself. And the Phillies are in desperate need of something that does that, which is why they seem to have given very little consideration to going Maximum Hinkie and postponing the 22-year-old righthander's debut until a week or two into next season, which would keep him under club control for an extra year (2022 instead of 2021, as it stands right now).

As somebody who usually likes it Sixers president Sam Hinkie - the Hinkier the better, even - the prospect of trading three Nola-less months in 2015-16 for six Nola-full months in 2022 is awfully tantalizing. In fact, when you put it like that, it seems like a no-brainer. There is nothing Nola can do from now through mid-April of 2016 to help the Phillies contend for a title in either season. There is quite a bit he could do for the 2022 squad.

Look at it from another perspective, like, say, the December 2021 version of you, who watches Nola sign as a free agent with another team and wonders why in the heck we just had to see him for those final 2 1/2 months of the worst season in franchise history.

And yet I am finding it difficult to argue with the Phillies' thought process, which is a really weird place to be, psychologically speaking. See, this isn't the NBA, in which a team's ticket revenue maxes out at 21,000 seats multiplied by 41 home games, and the Sixers aren't the Phillies, who probably feel at least a little obligated to give Comcast something to show for its $2.5 billion. At some point, the call center simply will not be able to handle the number of complaints during the 7 o'clock hour wondering what time the infomercials come back on.

The Phillies need to sell tickets, and they need to sell cable subscriptions, and both of those necessities should be less dire in 2022 than they are now, when Maikel Franco is the only member of the team worth the price of the admission who is likely to be here after the July 31 nonwaiver trade deadline. Money aside, esprit de corps, both in the clubhouse and among the fan base, is not the most irrelevant thing in the world. In times like these, it takes a lot more than a 23-year-old social media intern to improve the image of your brand.

At some point between now and next April, people will be deciding how much of themselves they are willing to invest in the 2016 Phillies, and Nola has the potential to make them think. In 30 minor league outings since he was drafted No. 7 overall out of LSU in June 2014, the righthander is 14-7 with a 2.57 ERA in 164 2/3 innings and an excellent strikeout-to-walk ratio of 4.89. He is the best Phillies starting pitching prospect since Cole Hamels, ranked as the No. 12 overall prospect in the game by Baseball America a couple of weeks ago.

Nola's most encouraging stint in the minors was his most recent one, a six-game cameo at Triple A Lehigh Valley, when he struck out 33 batters in 32 2/3 innings. The one cautionary note to sound on Nola is that he does not have the kind of power arsenal that you might assume is a prerequisite for a top-15 prospect. His stuff will not sell tickets on its own, the way it does for the guy who was on the mound for the Marlins last night (for the record, post-surgery Jose Fernandez looks like pre-surgery Jose Fernandez, sitting at 97 mph and peppering the strike zone with his tight curveball). Nola averaged 6.6 K/9 at Double A, 8.6 K/9 at High A, and 7.5 K/9 overall. So his 9.1 K/9 at Lehigh Valley was a significant bump.

Still, that disclaimer should not be read in an ominous tone, but, instead, more like, "Now, now, let's not get carried away." Nola's skill set is unique enough on its own. He throws four pitches, all for strikes, and while his fastball is not dominant, it sits in the low 90s, which is plenty fast enough. There is very little concern he will be anything less than a playoff-caliber middle-of-the-rotation starter. As Baseball America put it, "Nola is like investing in Treasury bills. He's a very safe starting pitching prospect who is big league ready."

If the biggest regret with that investment is that it turns out to be a little more expensive than was absolutely necessary, the Phillies will take it. In the meantime, they'll take your 27 bucks.

On Twitter: @ByDavidMurphy

Blog: ph.ly/HighCheese