Don't call it a comeback - Domonic Brown never left
Check out the young slugger's numbers over the last month.
I admit I'm a bit touchy when it comes to matters Domonic Brown, mostly because I've spent the last year listening to people label him the biggest bust in Phillies history since Jeff Stone. So it might be a figment of my imagination that I still don't think a lot of people grasp just how special a player we could be witnessing as it forms.
Remember Domonic Brown's month of May? The one in which he hit home runs at a completely unsustainable pace? The one that helped inflate his OPS from the lower .700's to the lower .900's?
Forget about it. Take it out of the equation. Let's look at what he has done since then.
Since the start of June Brown has hit ONLY six home runs in 25 games, which is half of the amount he hit in May. Over 162 games, that pace would equate to only. . . of 39 home runs. Brown's OPS has not dropped below .855 since May 30. That's 26 games, a stretch in which he has hit .293/.360/.616 with eight home runs. That's a 50 home run pace per 162 games. He has a .284/.355/.558 batting line in the month of June. He leads the team with a 1.010 OPS with runners in scoring position (.280/.356/.653), and he has the most plate appearances in that situation. He has 13 extra base hits in 75 at bats with RISP. To put that in perspective, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard have combined for eight extra base hits in 113 at bats with RISP. Actually, Brown has at least equaled the power production of the rest of the middle of the order with RISP, whether you define the middle of the order as Utley-Rollins-Howard (13 extra base hits in 179 at bats) or Utley-Young-Howard (12 extra base hits in 169 ABs).
So yeah, Domonic Brown might have cooled off, or gone through a slump, if you consider two or three games without doing something to help plate a run a slump. Otherwise, he's been a .900+ OPS, 30+ home run player for two of the season's three months. He's the only watchable part of the Phillies offense, with the potential exception of Chase Utley. Enjoy him.
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