It seems there’s no shortage of local baseball talent. I was at Zak’s first Winter Ball camp last night and was really impressed by the quality of the coaching (if not the temperature inside the dome at Algonquin College - I think it was warmer outside). The coaches and most of the kids take their baseball seriously. Back in November, I blogged about Chris Bisson who’s on his way to the University of Kentucky on a baseball scholarship. We can now add 18 year old Philippe Aumont’s name to the list of local players who’ve hit the big time. Who’s Philippe Aumont? He’s only Baseball America’s 12th best prospect in this year’s MLB draft. And it sounds like he’s got his head screwed on right:

“I’ve looked at (bonus) figures in Baseball America” magazine, he says. “You can see what others have gotten.

“But money doesn’t matter. Where I get picked doesn’t matter. If it’s the first round, good. Or the second round, that’s fine too. I want to compete. I just want to play and compete.” (Read the entire Citizen article here.)

A cynic would argue that he’s just being circumspect in his comments and delivering a well scripted sound bite for the media. I would argue that 18 year old kids aren’t very good at giving scripted responses and that it’s a genuine belief.

Add his name to the list of kids I hope will agree to come to Lynx Stadium for a proper Ottawa send-off.

It seems there’s no shortage of local baseball talent. I was at Zak’s first Winter Ball camp last night and was really impressed by the quality of the coaching (if not the temperature inside the dome at Algonquin College - I think it was warmer outside). The coaches and most of the kids take their baseball seriously. Back in November, I blogged about Chris Bisson who’s on his way to the University of Kentucky on a baseball scholarship. We can now add 18 year old Philippe Aumont’s name to the list of local players who’ve hit the big time. Who’s Philippe Aumont? He’s only Baseball America’s 12th best prospect in this year’s MLB draft. And it sounds like he’s got his head screwed on right:

“I’ve looked at (bonus) figures in Baseball America” magazine, he says. “You can see what others have gotten.

“But money doesn’t matter. Where I get picked doesn’t matter. If it’s the first round, good. Or the second round, that’s fine too. I want to compete. I just want to play and compete.” (Read the entire Citizen article here.)

A cynic would argue that he’s just being circumspect in his comments and delivering a well scripted sound bite for the media. I would argue that 18 year old kids aren’t very good at giving scripted responses and that it’s a genuine belief.

Add his name to the list of kids I hope will agree to come to Lynx Stadium for a proper Ottawa send-off.