Driveline Mechanics

Quick Note: Phillipe Aumont

May 8, 2008 – 12:01 am

Phillipe Aumont is a 19-year old prep pitcher from Gatineau, Quebec and was selected with the 11th pick of the first round by the Seattle Mariners. Aumont signed a minor-league deal and received a $1.9 million bonus.

Aumont stands 6′7″ and weighs in at 225 lbs. He features an outstanding heavy fastball that runs up to 96 mph with great late sinking action, an 82 mph slider which is somewhat inconsistent, and a developing changeup. Aumont’s primary offering has the potential to be a plus-plus pitch, but he’s inexperienced, having a lot of time between seasons in the great white north. His command, developing changeup, and building enough endurance to make 30 starts are what stands between him and a successful major league career.

His mechanics are after the jump…

This is Aumont pitching for Team Canada vs. Cuba in the World Baseball Classic. As you can see, Aumont is not a small kid - he is very imposing on the mound. Pitchers who are very tall tend to have control/command problems, but Aumont seems to be learning very well on the job.

Tempo: Slow. Aumont is 20-21 frames from maximal leg lift to footplant, as you probably could have guessed based on his slow tall-and-fall-esque delivery. It is harder for a guy this tall to be quick to footplant, so I give him a pass on this. I’ll grade it as Average.

Arm Action: Aumont does not take the ball laterally behind his body, which is very good, since a pitcher with a wingspan that large could end up having severe timing issues by doing that. Regardless, Aumont is late at footstrike, but not terribly so. His arm barely passes through the horizontal at footstrike, which will force the arm to lay violently back in external rotation. This is a major cause for concern. Aumont does not form the Inverted W with his arms, but instead loads the elbows behind the back naturally. I grade his Arm Action Average, but very close to Bad. Again, I understand how many timing flaws tall pitchers end up having, but that does not make it acceptable.

Ball Release: In this video, Aumont is throwing his signature 2-seam fastball with heavy and late movement at the ankles. It seems that he is turning the ball over in a sinker-type action where he is actively pronating through the release of the ball to some degree, just like Brandon Webb would do. He points the PAS shoulder at the target and sets himself up for a good followthrough. I rate his Ball Release phase as Very Good.

Followthrough: Not good. Aumont has a lazy glove arm and lets it swing at his hip. He might actually be actively pulling the glove back to add velocity (think Scott Kazmir), which can cause flyout and unnecessarily stress the anterior structures of the shoulder. Despite all these flaws, Aumont does an alright job of decelerating the arm rather than actively braking it, so I’ll give him an Average grade here shading to the side of Bad.

Overall, Aumont has a lot of things to work out to make it to the big leagues, but every 19-year old kid in the minors does. I hope he makes the mechanical changes necessary to hold up over 140-160 innings every year through the rest of his career, but I’m sure the pitching coaches right now are more interested in developing his off-speed pitches and his command. We’ll take a look next year and conduct a fresh performance and mechanical analysis.

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