Phillies' Nola leans on brother for advice, support

CLEARWATER, Fla. - It's an old joke, an old line:

Nobody beats up my brother - except for me.

If you're an older brother, you know the phrase by heart. If you're the younger brother, you know that its true meaning has less to do with violence than it has to do with love.

Big brothers give it to you straight up.

No cream. No sugar. Black.

"He's a guy I still look up to, a guy I still learn from," Aaron Nola was saying the other day about big brother, Austin. "And it will always be that way, no matter what position we are in."

Here is their current one, though: Aaron Nola, 22, the Phillies' No. 1 pick, seventh overall, in 2014, made his major league debut last summer, when he started 13 games late in the year and went 6-2 with an earned-run average of 3.59. Austin Nola, his big brother and a fifth-round pick in 2012, is a nonroster shortstop trying to parlay a solid effort in Triple A last summer into a spot on the 25-man roster of the eternally rebuilding Miami Marlins.

This is role reversal, the kind so often seen in the professional ranks. Mike Maddux leads to Greg Maddux, Ramon Martinez paved the way for Pedro, Ken Brett was considered a far more gifted player in high school than little brother, George.

Austin Nola, now 26, is the reason his little brother pitched for LSU. He went there first, a much-coveted shortstop out of Baton Rouge's Catholic High School who, after his senior season in 2008, was named Louisiana's player of the year.

There was no doubt who was the bigger star back then. Aaron Nola was a skinny little freshman pitcher, brought up late in the season to save the more valued arms and ready the varsity for its state tournament.

The Colorado Rockies drafted Austin in the 48th round after that season, making his choice to attend LSU all the more easy. Three seasons later, between his outstanding junior and senior seasons, he was drafted again, this time in the 31st round by Toronto.

The Blue Jays drafted Aaron Nola after that 2011 season too, nine rounds earlier than his older brother.

Again, there was no doubt about the bigger star. Only it had reversed. There was even the thought that the older Nola was drafted as a tool to get the younger one to bypass college.

Neither player signed, though. To the delight of their folks, Austin and Aaron played together for a season - at LSU.

"He's taught me so much as a ballplayer and as a person, outside of the field," Aaron Nola said. "I mean, I really didn't know what to expect before I got moved up. He does know what it's like. He's been in big-league spring training.

"I feel like as I continue to watch him, continue to spend the offseasons with him, working out . . . I'm still learning from him."

The latest lessons were conducted over the fall and winter, when Austin Nola served as Aaron's bullpen catcher, coach and batting foil. Aaron Nola's marching orders from the Phillies after last season were clear: Develop a third pitch to complement his low-90s fastball and that trademark curve that bends the backs of righthanded batters.

"Hitters up here are good enough to know how to eliminate pitches," Nola said.

The more you have mastered, the more difficult that is to do. So that's what he and his brother worked on. Incessantly.

"He'd catch them, stand in the box like a hitter, give me feedback," Aaron said. "Which I really like. Because he's one of the few guys who will tell me straight up what I'm doing wrong and what I'm doing right. The feedback I got from him really helped."

After a choppy start to the spring in which his vaunted control too often betrayed him, Aaron Nola has settled down over his last two starts, allowing just two hits over six innings against the Tigers on Monday, spotting the changeup at times.

"It's still a work in progress," Phillies manager Pete Mackinin said. "But I saw some real good ones . . . It's really encouraging to see that. Because it's going to help him - and us - a lot."

Wednesday, Mackanin tabbed Jeremy Hellickson as the Phillies' Opening Day pitcher in Cincinnati 11 days from now.

Included in that announcement, though, was this:

"We wanted Nola to pitch the home opener," the manager said.

Meanwhile, on Florida's other coast, Austin singled in his only plate appearance during Miami's 4-1 loss to the Cardinals, raising his average to .375 and continuing his improbable if not impossible quest to stick with the big club.

"He's still fighting," his little brother said proudly. "That's him. He's just gonna fight 'til the very end."

@samdonnellon

philly.com/SamDonnellon

"