Victorino Goes Down, Brown Comes Up

Written by: Josh Landsburg on 29th July 2010

Victorino Goes Down, Brown Comes Up | read this item

On Tuesday night, Phillies Center Fielder, Shane Victorino suffered a left abdominal strain that ended up putting him on the 15-day DL. The Phillies, therefore, needed another outfielder, and they promptly called up Top Prospect Domonic Brown…finally! This is a move that I had been clamoring for months now for the Phillies to do. Brown, who is the #1 overall prospect in the Phillies system and was recently named the top prospect in all of minor league baseball by Baseball America, was tearing it up in the minor leagues. In 65 games in Double A this season, Brown had a .318 Batting Average, a .391 On Base Percentage, and a .602 slugging percentage. Those same numbers in 28 games at the Triple A level were even more impressive, as Brown’s numbers looked like this: .346/.390/.561. Combined, in 93 games between the two levels, Brown had 20 Homeruns, 68 RBI’s, 17 SB, and 22 Doubles. With outfielders Raul Ibanez, Jayson Werth, and Shane Victorino all struggling for about a two month period, as well as the team in general struggling too, I felt that Brown coming up earlier could provide that sparkplug and energy that a young player can bring to a veteran team that was not hitting, not discounting the fact that his production alone hypothetically could have been better than any one of those guys during their rough patch in the season.

However, Ibanez and Werth were being paid a lot of money and Phillies GM Ruben Amaro, Jr. was quoted saying that he did not want to bring this young kid up with the idea of “being the savior for the season for the Phillies.” Therefore, Brown was blocked, and it took a perfect situation for him to come up and get to play every day. That situation came on Tuesday night. The Phillies were in the middle of a six game winning streak, Ibanez and Werth had picked up the slack and were playing much better, and Victorino went down with the injury. Therefore, Brown does not appear to have to be the savior and there should be less pressure on him. Now, you never want to see a player get hurt, but Phillies fans all over the Delaware Valley were extremely excited to see what this kid could do. Brown will now get that opportunity to play every day for the next couple weeks at the very least. Brown did not disappoint in his first outing at the major league level. In last night’s game, in Brown’s very first at bat, he crushed a pitch to deep right field off of the wall for a double that scored Jayson Werth from second.

Brown went 2-for-3 with that double, a single, and two RBI’s in the game, along with two runs scored as well. When Brown came to the plate the first time, I couldn’t help but think about the movie The Natural, since Brown wears the number nine. I thought of Dan Baker, the Phillies Public Address Announcer, saying, “Now batting…number nine…Domonic Brown.” In the movie, the line of course is, “Now batting…number nine…Roy Hobbs.” Well, if Brown has half the year/career that Roy Hobbs did, he will be pretty special. I know it’s only one game, but I believe this kid is the real deal. I saw him play in the minor leagues too, and he is definitely a five tool player, and with his rare combination of speed and power, I think he will easily be a 30/30 guy in terms of homeruns and stolen bases, and not only that, but I think he could challenge to become the fourth ever player to get to 40/40 in one season, which only Jose Canseco, Alex Rodriguez, and Alfonso Soriano have ever accomplished in the history of baseball. Phillies fans, you can rejoice, because you got a special player in Domonic Brown that you should be able to enjoy watching for years to come.

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Topics: Abdominal Strain, Base Percentage, Baseball America, Batting Average, Center Fielder, Game Winning Streak, Jayson Werth, minor league baseball, Minors, One Of Those Guys, outfielders, Perfect Situation, Phillies Gm, Raul Ibanez, Rough Patch, Ruben Amaro Jr, Shane Victorino, Slugging Percentage, Sparkplug, Veteran Team