Does Domonic Brown Deserve A Promotion?

I know it’s tempting to beg for the return of Domonic Brown to the Phillies. Given what the Phils are currently running out onto the field right now, it’s easy to pine for the young guy with potential.

The reason Brown was sent to the minors, so we were told, was because of his defense. Yet we’ve seen Phillies outfielders, Hunter Pence and Juan Pierre specifically, make playing the outfield more complicated than learning the cello. So the argument must therefore be, Dom Brown should come back to the big leagues.

There’s only one problem. He hasn’t done anything to deserve a promotion from AAA.

Through Tuesday night, Brown was hitting .247 with an on-base percentage of .290 and a slugging percentage of .355. He still has not hit a home run. And he has made five errors in left field.

I hate to be the one to say it, but Domonic Brown has done nothing to earn a return to Citizens Bank Park.

Now I know the Brown patrol will be out in force, looking to cuff me to a refrigerator in an abandoned warehouse or something and work me over like a terror suspect. But for those so committed to the “Domonic Brown is awesome” narrative, just please look at the numbers and reconsider.

Sure, I’m sure they’ll say that perhaps Brown is struggling at AAA because he’s upset that he’s even there in the first place. That, if he were promoted, he’d raise his game to another level and perform. All he needs is a chance, they’d say.

I’m not saying he’s never going to be good enough, because the tools are all there. But he’s not good enough yet. The numbers, as I have always been told, tell the story. If that’s the case, I don’t know what other conclusion about Domonic Brown one can draw right now.

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Sometimes, the kids down on the farm make things too easy for me, what with their many Twitterings and stuff. Take this one from Tyson Gillies…

I’m not sure what the folks at Galludet would think about that, but I think it’s darn funny. You know, it takes a special bond for friends to make fun of another friend’s deafness. I always appreciated it when the lads in elementary school would poke fun at my little bed-wetting problem.

I’ve… I’ve shared too much, haven’t I?

Jiwan James has really struggled for the Reading Phillies after a hot start (.220/.260/.407). But that didn’t stop him from trying to enjoy some of the tamer nightlife in Reading. That is, if he can find any…

Little did Jiwan know he’d soon be answering his own question…

Jiwan, as someone who worked in Reading for four years, my advice to you is, get used to it, bud. It’s not Pyongyang, but it ain’t exactly a hotbed of cultural and social opportunity. Reading makes Wilmington seem like Las Vegas.

Tyson Gillies seemed to be running into some of the same problems, however…

A Pho Tai place in Reading sounds about as natural as thumbs on a snake (which, by the way, would make for a really creepy horror creature or something… I need to storyboard this idea).

And finally, #1 prospect Trevor May (who suffered his first loss this week but is off to a 5-1 start with an ERA just over 3) was asked who has helped him more, Roy Halladay or Cliff Lee? His answer was diplomatic…

In other words, neither guy has really helped me at all, so I’ve had to steal my lessons from them without their knowledge.

Yeah, that probably sounds about right.