A Final Encore

Domonic Brown, a 20th round pick out of high school turned down a full ride to the University of Miami for football to pursue a career in baseball. He was protected by the Phillies when they made trades for Cliff Lee and most recently, Roy Halladay. Today proved why the Phillies decided to keep him over arguably more popular Michael Taylor. (Taylor was 6'6" and had tremendous speed and batting for average ability.) But the organization favored Brown and he made them look good today against the Tigers. He was 3-3 with a walk, two home-runs and four RBIs. Ironically, after the game he was sent down to the Minor League Camp. This spring Brown didn't let any of the hype about his talent or expectations and comparisons to Darryl Strawberry get to his head. He batted an outstanding .435 with two home-runs, eight RBIs, three walks, and only five strikeouts. He displayed tremendous athleticism in the field as well tracking down fly balls and throwing out base-runners with his strong arm. Standing at 6'5" and 200 lbs. he is an athletic specimen with five-tool talent. Interestingly, since he is a lefty batter one would think he would thrive against righties and struggle against lefties. But, this spring was the exact opposite. Brown batted .583 against lefties and .250 against righties. How he fares against right handed pitchers will be something to watch as he starts in the minors this season. He will be fun to track this year and possibly even see him get a late-season call up. Let's hope the strong spring rolls over into the regular season for Brown.