LSU exes Bregman, Nola enjoy a roomie reunion
WASHINGTON — Before
boarded a freight elevator bound for the secondfloor of Nationals Park, he caught up with an old roommate.
“God, I’ve had this question a lot,” the budding Phillies star said, asked how the excitable
Aaron Nola Alex Bregman
was as a roomie.
“He was a good roommate. He really was. Always high energy. When you were just chilling, he’d always put the music up on high. Just a kind of guy like that.”
“Normal college (stuff ),” Bregman said last week.
Two first-time All-Stars and two of the game’s most influential young talents, Bregman and Nola were once roommates at LSU. They reconnected on Monday after following each other from afar during their first few years of pro ball.
Nola’s ERA is a minuscule 2.30, and his 12 wins are tied for the most in the National League.
“It’s been cool to watch him,” Bregman said. “I’m super excited for him and how well he’s done. Of course I’m pumped we’re both in the All-Star Game.”
They played for two seasons together in Baton Rouge, both earning the eye of Astros manager A.J. Hinch .He scouted both prospects while still in the Padres’ front office. In fact, it was during Nola’s dominant junior season, in a game he pitched against Texas A&M in College Station, when Hinch first saw Bregman.
“It was very easy to see that Nola had ingredients to be a really good starting pitcher and was going to be a firstround pick,” Hinch said of a 14-inning LSU win on May 2, 2014.
“On that day, though, I remember telling (then Padres general manager) Josh
Byrnes this kid at shortstop for LSU can get your attention — the plays he was making, the at-bat quality. I came away impressed.”
The Phillies selected Nola seventh overall in the 2014 draft.
One year later, Bregman — who went 3-for-4 while Hinch watched that night — went to Houston with the second pick.
“It was a fun year,” Nola said. “He was a fun roommate. He can get a little messy sometimes, but he was still good.”
Hader, Foltynewicz laud Astros’ success
Thanks to the the video game Fortnite, Josh Hader can stay in touch with teammates with whom he once captured minor league titles and who now boast some far more prestigious hardware.
“It was awesome,” the Brewers reliever said of watching the Astros hoist their 2017 World Series trophy. “It kind of gave me the chills at first because most of that core of that group I played with and won minor league championships with. It’s amazing seeing that success that they had.”
Hader and Braves starter
Mike Foltynewicz were part of two deals that aided in the Astros’ rebuild. Both have flourished at their new locations, garnering All-Star honors for the first time this season.
Hader’s 89 strikeouts in 48 innings are already 31 more than he produced last year. The Astros acquired Hader along with outfielder L.J.
Hoes from the Orioles in exchange for Bud Norris in 2013.
Once he was shipped to Milwaukee as part of an exchange for Carlos Gomez and
Mike Fiers, Hader eschewed the windup and refined his secondary pitches. His 16.69 strikeouts per nine innings are the most for any National League reliever.
Foltynewicz carries more direct ties to Houston. The Astros selected him in the first round of the 2010 draft. He credited Astros starter
Dallas Keuchel for “taking me under his wing” as a
young big leaguer.
“He took off and started winning Cy Youngs on me,” Foltynewicz said. “It was awesome. Got to meet a lot of cool guys, learned a hell of a lot coming through that Houston organization, and then for them to give me a chance to debut with them and have a memory for life is really good.”
He debuted in 2014, logging 182⁄3 innings amid an otherwise miserable 92-loss season. The Astros traded him to the Braves for Evan Gattis and
James Hoyt that offseason, needing a potent bat for the middle of an order primed for a postseason run. Foltynewicz now sports a 2.66 ERA and 7-5 record for one of baseball’s most surprising teams.
“There’s a little bittersweetness in there just to watch all your friends go out there and win it like that. It’s good for them,” Foltynewicz said of the Astros’ crown.
“We’re in the same book as them. I’ve seen us through this whole rebuild, and so has
Freddie ( Freeman). It was the same as Houston the way we were going. We were a year ahead of what a lot of people thought this year, and we’re just taking the bull by the horns and running with it.”