A couple of pitchers

Nathan Adcock ('07, '08) gets a write up in his hometown newspaper.

Nathan Adcock endured something he never had to go through since he picked up a baseball at a young age.

Last season was a trying time for Adcock. While pitching for the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, the Seattle Mariners’ Class-A farm team, he felt a sharp pain in his right elbow after throwing an 0-2 curveball on June 25. His arm began to tingle all the way up his long right arm. Adcock threw one more pitch and called for the trainer.

Adcock’s season, which was off to a solid start, was over in the blink of an eye. The Seattle Mariners elected to shut down the former fifth-round pick after he was diagnosed with an elbow strain.

“It was hard,” said Adcock, a former North Hardin standout and Kentucky’s Mr. Baseball in 2006. “I was depressed. I’ve never had any arm trouble. I want to compete and I’ve always wanted to pitch when it’s my turn. It was real frustrating. I didn’t know what to expect because I’ve never had anything like that happen.”

Although he had a 2-5 record at the time of the injury, Adcock posted a 3.72 earned run average in 77 1/3 innings. He had lowered his hits allowed and walks, while his strikeouts rose from his previous season with the Timber Rattlers.

Any goals for the 2008 Opening Day starter?

“Stay healthy,” Adcock said. “I feel fresh now. I feel good. Just being back in baseball and being able to pitch again is going to be fun.”

He is hoping to start the season with High Desert and finish it with West Tennessee.

Phillippe Aumont gets a write up in the New York Times.

Four years ago, the future of Canadian pitching spoke only French. Phillippe Aumont, a 20-year-old bold enough to retire three major league stars with the bases loaded, was too shy to talk with his teammates on a junior national team.

“I couldn’t speak a word,” Aumont said Monday at Rogers Centre before Canada played Italy in the World Baseball Classic. “I couldn’t talk with anybody. We had five other guys from Quebec, and I was always hanging out with them because I couldn’t communicate with the other guys.”

His silence did not last long. Aumont was a quick study in English, just as he has been in baseball. An All-Star last season with the Class A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers in the Seattle Mariners’ system, Aumont has introduced himself on the world stage.

Although he speaks English fluently now, French steered him out of the worst kind of jam against the United States on Saturday. With the bases loaded and nobody out in the seventh inning, Aumont prepared to face David Wright, Kevin Youkilis and Curtis Granderson.

Le français ? Que signifiez-vous ?

The catcher, Russell Martin, and the pitching coach, Denis Boucher, both of whom were also raised in Quebec, met him at the mound. Boucher knew what he wanted to say — relax and have fun — but he did not decide how until he opened his mouth.

“I looked at him,” Boucher said, “and it just came out in French.”

And it worked. Read the rest of that piece for some pretty big comparisons for a pitcher with some pretty big talent.