RHP De Fratus auditioning for a spot in Phillies bullpen

For most Grapefruit League games, the Phillies will bring a couple extra players over from the minor league camp. This serves a couple purposes. It gives the big-league team a couple extra bodies, just in case. And it gives the kids a chance to hang with the big-leaguers for a day.

And so it came to pass, a couple spring trainings ago, that righthander Justin De Fratus found himself sitting right between closer Brad Lidge and setup man Ryan Madson one fine March day.

This was a bit of serendipity since the organization was in the process of converting the 11th-round pick in the 2007 draft from starting to relieving and De Fratus was in the process of trying to learn to throw a slider. The slider, of course, is Lidge's signature pitch, the one largely responsible for him going 48-for-48 in save opportunities during that magical 2008 season.

"He's my favorite pitcher," De Fratus said yesterday during a break in the Phillies 2-day prospect development seminar at Citizens Bank Park. "Especially him being a closer and that being the job I want to do someday."

So he took his shot. He asked Lidge to show him how he gripped his slider, about his release, about his approach. And the classy veteran more than obliged.

"He may not remember it, but the smallest amount of time he took to even just chat with me about his approach with that pitch and what it's like to be in the big leagues, it helped me a lot," De Fratus said. "Obviously, something like that is going to stick with a guy like me. He told me some things and I just kind of ran with it."

Boy, did he. The 23-year-old righthander had a combined 1.94 earned run average between Class A Clearwater and Double A Reading last season, allowing just 48 hits in 65 innings with 71 strikeouts and just 16 walks. He had 21 saves.

He followed that up by going to the prestigious Arizona Fall League, where he again focused on improving his slider. Not only that, by pitching into November he proved to himself that he was physically and mentally ready to handle the longer big-league season.

Now he'll report to big-league camp with the rest of the roster pitchers on Feb. 14 with an outside chance of earning a spot in the bullpen. If not, it wouldn't be a surprise to see him make his big-league debut sometime before the 2011 season is over.