Aaron Nola: Cole Hamels Said 'There's Nothing Better' Than Pitching For Philadelphia Fans

By Ray Boyd

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- With the trade of Cole Hamels, the Phillies have officially stepped into a new era of baseball in Philadelphia. One of the key pieces of the renaissance is new Phillies starter Aaron Nola.

Nola joined Angelo Cataldi and the Morning Team on Thursday to discuss his time with the big club so far.

"It's awesome," Nola said simply about playing in Major League parks. "It's everything I dreamed of."

LISTEN: Aaron Nola on with Angelo Cataldi and the Morning Team

It's clear that Nola has not been overwhelmed by the moment. The LSU product is 2-1 in three starts with the team and has a 3.38 ERA with 15 strikeouts.

Nola's quick run through the minor leagues has allowed him to face a lot of different levels of hitters in a short amount of time. He touched on how different it is to be facing big league hitters when he began the year facing Double-A hitters.

"It's definitely more of a challenge," Nola said of facing major league hitters. "From a game point of view, it's the same to me. As long as you execute your pitches, do all that stuff the right way, go after hitters aggressively it's the same game from low ball to here."

Aaron Nola said his first star struck moment on the mound came when he pitched to Alex Rodriguez in spring training. The lesson he learned from the experience was that he could take on the game's biggest hitters.

"I got him out one time. That's when I said 'hey, I can pitch to these guys,' I mean they're human."

The spotlight is now on Nola in the Phillies rotation. The young pitcher spent a short amount of time as a teammate of Cole Hamels, but came away with something from their time together.

"The short period of time I was with him, I sat on the bench with him during the games trying to pick his brain and talk to him a little bit," Nola explained.

He added that Hamels raved about pitching for Phillies fans.

"[Hamels] said 'there's nothing better.' The fans we have are real passionate. They love their players." Nola said Hamels told him if he keeps working hard, Philadelphia fans will love him.