TBOH’s Extremely Rational 2012 Phillies Round Table, Part 1

Will Dom Brown still be a Phillie by August of this year?

Stolnis:  Yes. Dom Brown, for all his faults and for all the ways the Phillies have jerked him around, is still a top notch hitting prospect, and the Phils need all the good, young position players they can get.

That said, I agree with Amaro that he should start the season in AAA. Brown has NEVER played a full season in AAA. Why would this be the worst thing in the world? He can learn to play left field in a low pressure environment, while playing every day and getting at-bats. Brown could become especially valuable if Howard ends up missing more than just a few months of the season. If the Phils are required to play Mayberry at first base full-time, Brown would be the ideal candidate to become the everyday left fielder.

I also just find it difficult to believe that Brown would get traded now after the front office refused to even consider dealing him in any of the trades that netted them Halladay, Oswalt or Pence. Brown WILL be a Phillie through 2012.

Klugh:  Are you kidding? By August, Dom will be leading the league in timely RBI, heroic late inning diving catches, and clothes lines of John Lannan after he hits him in the hand with a pitch. Yes, late summer will be the end of Dom’s insatiable hitting season and the beginning of his torrent September campaign, with no break in between.

You’ll all see.  One of these days, “catching a baseball” will finally just click in Dom’s head, and from there, the sky’s the limit!  The sky in this case being, of course, his own incompetence

Dom Brown’s incompetence is the limit!

Ethan:  I don’t think there is a single player that frustrates Ruben Amaro more.

I wouldn’t be shocked to see Brown’s development in AAA continue to regress, to where we find him on the trading block. However, this is not an ideal situation for our beloved GM; Brown’s stock has dropped over the past two years, making it difficult to maximize his value in a trade.

The best-case scenario for the Phillies and Brown is that he works his problems out in Lehigh Valley and makes an impact on the team in the second half of the season. Then again, if the Mets are so strapped for cash that they’ll hand over David Wright for Brown and some bus fare then I’ll pick him up at Penn Station myself.

Ricco:  I guess this question could be reworded as “Will John Ricco still have the will to live by August of this year?” I’d at least like to think this will be the case. I truly believe the organization has a good amount of faith in him, and if it really does take 500 PA in Lehigh Valley for him to learn how to catch a baseball, so be it.