Charlie evaluates Brown
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Charlie evaluates Brown
Matt Gelb, Inquirer Staff Writer
Twenty-four hours before Domonic Brown was promoted to the majors in late May, Ruben Amaro Jr. said his top prospect wasn't ready. The next day, after a meeting with Charlie Manuel, Amaro had called Brown to the Phillies and he has been here ever since.
Manuel was a supporter of Brown because he believed then that the 23-year-old was his best option in right field with The Great Ben Francisco Experiment a bust.
"I think he does make us a better team," Manuel said May 20. "We'll see if he can hold his own and handle it. We'll give him every opportunity, and we'll monitor it, so we can try to stir him for a while, and hopefully he'll do good enough to let him go."
Two months later, that tone has changed. Manuel obviously wants an upgrade in right field over Brown. The rookie is hitting .303 with a .789 OPS in 19 July games. But his defensive miscues and hesitancy is concerning to the manager.
"I think he's holding his own," Manuel said. "He hasn't been tearing it up. I see the aspect of his hitting. He shows you sometimes when he puts a good swing on a ball that he has a chance to be a real good hitter. But I think overall, he needs a lot of experience. He needs a lot of good experience."
Is he better gaining that experience here than in triple A?
"He can be more relaxed in triple A than he would be here," Manuel said.
So... what are the advantages of Brown being here?
"Advantage?" Manuel said, before laughing. "Getting time in the big leagues. Getting more money. More meal money."
Hunter Pence, by the way, is hitting cleanup and playing right field for the Houston Astros in Milwaukee tonight.
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- Hunter Pence is a "much better player" than that rookie third baseman in 1973! DB for HP is by far and away too much!
— BEMiller - And you can cut and paste all the numbers you want, Pence's hitting stats right now put him in the top ten in a lot of catagories...So before ya go and say oh but Brown....think about all the guys below Pence that your comparing Brown to. Then you'll realize how far apart they are.— MFPhils
- I'd like to see those top 10 categories. League-wide, he's 9th in hits. Everything else is below 10th. NL he's 4th in hits, 9th in average.
Don't get me wrong: He's a good player. But we shouldn't get carried away and make him out out to be a Bautista or Braun type player.
Beltran, by the way, is ahead of Pence in many hitting categories.— s - Carlos Beltran, since you don't seem to have noticed, has been utterly irrelevant since Tuesday! — BEMiller
- Amaeo will run this team into a below 500 club in 2 years. He overpays and overreactsa. Where is Pat?— wmontanez27
- Amaro is working a deal as we speak to bring Bautista here from toronto. Brown, cosart and mayber Worley involved.— Trot
- Keep dreaming. Can you imagine if we had picked up Bautista in 2010 when we were interested? But the other question is would he have made the transformation here with our hitting coaches? — s
- That's not even dreaming. It's up in the night with wolfie, howling at the moon. More power to RAJ if he could do it, though! — BEMiller
- s - Forget about July this and OPS...We all know Brown walks a lot and Pence strikes out instead of walks. But Pence has the 4th most hits in the league. I don't care if Brown is getting on base more, Pence is driving in more runs, and that's what we need...
Pence is a top hitter in the NL, Brown is not even close. Take away the walks and see what you have left between the two. The walks are not helping us at all.— MFPhils - I definitely agree that Pence is the better player. No question at all there. But I see downsides to just giving up on Brown. I'd rather see us trade prospects for Pence and let Brown continue to grow in AAA. I realize it's not an ideal world. It sounds like Houston wants prospects, which makes sense since they're years away from contending. Some reports say they don't want Brown because they'd rather have more prospects. That's where a multi-team deal may come into play -- Brown to another team for multiple prospects then those prospects to the Astros. I'd probably be more inclined to just part with some prospects directly and hang onto Brown. Other than his defense, his July shows me potential and history tells me we won't really have a read on him for a year or two.
Straight-up I might also do the deal. Some reports mention Brown, Cosart, and Singleton. That's a high price for Hunter Pence.— s - Get Ludwick and Adams, forget Pence, let the Braves overpay for him. Rollins has more HR's than Pence, but apparently this is who we have to have in the 5 hole? Huh?— sla6yer
- sla6yer you had one stat to look up and you even messed that up...They are tied with HRs, and Pence is a 20HR guys, which means hes a decent threat. How about 10th in rbis, 7th in doubles, 9th in average, 4th in Hits...You don't want that guy protecting Howard? The guy who drives in RBIs and is hitting better than just about everyone in the NL? Who exactly do you want then? Quentin, sure...let's get him. He'll pop more, but then again, we'll have a lot more rally killing outs as well. Just more of what we need...Great 2nd choice? Sure...but Pence would be the best pure hitter on our team this season.— MFPhils
- Dom Brown's defense reminds me of what was once said about Lonnie "Skates" Smith: he plays the outfield like he's in the navy; it's not just a job, it's an adventure. His hesitancy in the outfield concerns me more than his hitting. I thought the Phillies rushed him up last year, and it seems they've pretty much admitted they did again this year. Not a big plus when you're in trade talks.— ijj
- Domonic Brown offensively absolutely had nothing still to prove in the minor leagues...Defensively, he is far from polished...Manuel never gave Mayberry a shot in right field after Francisco struggled...Mayberry was actually quite lucky to get the opportunity when Shane got hurt twice.... Pence is an all-star, a good hitter who goes hard all the time and would be an asset here...As far as prospects, these guys are OUR top prospects, not necessarily baseball's top prospects...Cosart,even though flashing an electric arm, has battled durability issues but is a good prospect.Singleton, a natural first baseman, did not take well to LF defensively as well as mentally, and is blocked here with RYan Howard, so he's also a trade chip,nothing more...Domonic Brown's minor league stats,scouting reports mean nothing anymore, he'll be 24 in September, the kid gloves are off...Scouts are looking at him to see how he responds and adjusts on the Major League level...the show...Like others have said, in the past few years, guys like Drabek,Taylor,Donald,Carrasco,Happ,Knapp were all phenoms or great prospects...Don't allways believe the hype.— bearsfriend
- Agreed about not needing more minors at the plate. When a guy puts up the kind of numbers he has, hitting or a high average, having great plate discipline, etc, it becomes time to see what they have in the big leagues over a two season tryout not send them back to see AAA pitching. — ccheung
