Phils' prospect Aumont tied to big names

CLEARWATER, Fla. - The second batter to face Phillippe Aumont was Jimmy Rollins. It was right around then that a 20-year-old single-A pitcher began to consider the idea he was overmatched at the World Baseball Classic in front of 42,314 fans.

Rollins singled on the third pitch.

"I hung that curveball," the 6-foot-7 Aumont said now, nearly a year after making the pitch. "I watch it sometimes and I just see . . . he actually . . . it was a pretty good hit. He just stayed on it."

Aumont clenches his hands, pretending he's Rollins with an imaginary bat. He swings through the air.

"Just slapped it," Aumont said.

But after a wild pitch and a walk loaded the bases with no one out, the wide-eyed Canadian escaped unscathed against an all-star-laden United States squad. He remembered every one of the 25 pitches he threw. Unprompted, he rattled off the stars he faced.

Dustin Pedroia. Jimmy Rollins. Chipper Jones. David Wright. Kevin Youkilis. Curtis Granderson.

Strangely, it's another big name Aumont will be linked to for the rest of his career, however long it may be.

Cliff Lee.

One inning and a former Cy Young Award winner. Aumont, 21, is tied to both.

"You have to have start somewhere," said Aumont, who hasn't pitched beyond the double-A level. In that one inning, he faced six players who had been all-stars a combined 18 times. And he was the centerpiece in the trade for one of the game's best pitchers.

"What matters is how he views it," Phillies assistant general manager Benny Looper said. "Being in that trade should give him a pretty good idea of what we think of him for the future."

Looper should know. He was a member of the front office in Seattle when Aumont was selected by the Mariners with the 11th overall pick in the 2007 draft.

"He knows the expectations, how people view him, and particularly how the Phillies view him," Looper said of Aumont. "And any experience like pitching in the Classic, like that one inning, adds to his development."

These days, Aumont finds himself thinking about that one inning a lot. He'll marvel over the curveball that sawed Wright off into a pop out. Or the two curves he struck out Youkilis and Granderson on swinging to end the inning.

"I just like to watch it," Aumont said.

And he'll wonder what went right then.

"What did I do?" Aumont said he thinks when he sees the game film. "I'm trying to get back when I was on the mound and what I was thinking."

It hasn't necessarily been all good for Aumont since that one inning March 7, 2009. Pitching in high single A and double A last season in the Seattle organization, Aumont was 2-6 with a 3.88 ERA in 51 innings - all as a reliever.

But at times, Aumont said, he struggled with how high a bar he had set.

"I got myself out of the inning" in the WBC, Aumont said. "I look at it and I'm like, 'How did I really do that?' Because against those guys I did it. But against some other guys in double A or A ball, I got into some sort of trouble and I just panicked. I don't know why.

"What I did there was something good. Whenever I have something bad going on, I try to remember that."

Aumont had problems adjusting when he was promoted to double A. That was partly because he relied solely on his powerful fastball as a reliever.

He will begin his first season in the Phillies' system as a starter, Looper said, a role in which he can spend more time developing his secondary pitches - a curveball and a change-up.

"Those of us that saw him as an amateur, at the time we thought he could be a starter," Looper said. "At worst, if he ends up in the bullpen, he'll have to use all his pitches."

Tyson Gillies, a prospect who came with Aumont in the Lee trade, has known Aumont for four years and has roomed with him for two spring trainings. When they first met, Aumont didn't speak English.

And he hadn't pitched that one inning. Or been traded for a Cy Young winner.

"I think he can handle it," Gillies said. "He just turned 21 years old. The guy is still young. He still has so much going for his career."