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Dominic Brown- Untouchable.  Jake Diekman- Off the radar.

As the Phillies try for a sixth consecutive NL Eastern Division crown, it’s obvious this season will be more challenging than the previous divisional crowns.  Injuries and age are taking their toll on this core and the latest blow, a shoulder strain to ace Roy Halladay might be too much to overcome.

The Phillies aren’t the only team to battle injuries this season, and most franchises dip into their minors for help.  Seeing that some of the bigger surprises this season have been Freddy Galvis and Jake Diekman, it makes you wonder if the brass of the Phillies know what they are doing when evaluating talent.

A couple of outfielders were deemed untouchable midway through the 2009 season when the Phils went shopping for a pitcher.  Those two were Dominic Brown and Michael Taylor.

Taylor, 6’5 255 lbs was a 5th round draft pick in 2007.  He eventually was included in the deal after the 2009 season that brought Roy Halladay to the Phillies.  The Blue Jays quickly flipped him to the Oakland A’s where he appears to have turned into a “quadruple-A” type player.  He’s flashed plenty of power and speed at the minor league level but that hasn’t translated to much into a couple of cups of coffee at the major league level and now he’s just another 26-year old in AAA. 

Brown though, was the real prize.  It was thought the Phillies wouldn’t include Brown in any deal.  Not for Halladay, not for Roy Oswalt, not for Hunter Pence.  Brown has done nothing but regress.  He’s actually living up to him being taken in the 20th-round of the 2006 draft. He’ll turn 25 in September and has quickly fallen from a five-tool prospect to a questionable one-tool prospect. In 259 AAA at-bats since the start of the 2011 season, Brown has hit .259 with just three home runs.  Yes, it appears injuries have derailed him but even in his brief call up in 2010 when he appeared to be on top of his game, Brown looked extremely raw, both at the plate, and in right field.

How about Greg Golson?  Golson was traded straight up for John Mayberry following the 2008 season.  After the 2007 season, Golson was listed as the Phillies minor leaguer with the best power, fastest baserunner, best athlete, best defensive outfielder, and best outfield arm.

Check out the Baseball America 2012 Projected Lineup from an article in early 2009:

C- Lou Marson (dealt to Cleveland in the Cliff Lee trade)

1b- Ryan Howard

2b- Chase Utley

SS- Jimmy Rollins

3b- Jason Donald (dealt to Cleveland in the Cliff Lee trade)

LF- Michael Taylor (dealt to Toronto in the Roy Halladay trade)

CF- Shane Victorino

RF- Domonic Brown

SP- Cole Hamels, Carlos Carrasco (Lee), Kyle Drabek (Halladay), Brett Myers, Joe Blanton

CL- Brad Lidge

Yes, these are rankings based from a publication but that is basically from evaluators within the organization.

Freddy Galvis arguably is making a case for “Rookie of the Year” in the National League.  His defense at second has been spectacular, he has held his own offensively, and is progressing nicely.  Why was there any hesitation this spring in making him the guy?

Lefty Jake Diekman was so far off the Phillies radar he didn’t even make the Phillies “Top 10 Prospect” list.  That’s after this 6’4 left struck out 83 hitters in AA last season in 65 innings of work while allowing just 47 hits.  How is a tall lanky lefty who throws 95 dismissed like that?

The answer is simple.  The gang in charge of evaluating young talent within the Phillies’ organization are struggling to evaluate their own, and others for that matter.  The jury is still out on the three they received from Seattle in the Cliff Lee deal.  JC Ramirez, Phillippe Aumont, and Tyson Gillies have not done anything to set the world on fire, and that goes back to the evaluators as well.

Maybe I’m being a little harsh, but the Phillies are nearing a critical stage of the 2012 season.  The time tables on Ryan Howard and Chase Utley’s return are still way up in the air, while Halladay is gone until mid to late July. It’s times like these when other parts of the organization need to show their value. Understanding exactly what they have in the minors can’t be blindfolded “wins” like Diekman or blatant fails like Brown.

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In the past few years, the Phillies have been incredibly aggressive and competitive when it comes to attracting big-name players. In order to do so, however, they had to make some pretty big trades in which they parted with some of their best and most highly touted prospects. 

It is for that reason that Domonic Brown is even more important to the Phillies organization.

In the Halladay trade, Brown was the one Phils prospect that was considered untouchable. Now, he is on his last option with the team and considered possible trade bait. He hasn’t experienced the meteoric rise to the majors that many expected, and he still has a long way to go if he ever hopes to be a great major league player.

That said, Brown is already 24 and is running out of time to prove to teams everywhere that he can be a major league baseball player. He has come into spring training with a new swing, a new attitude and a determination to win a job on the Phillies roster, which according to Ruben Amaro would only happen if he had an outstanding spring training.

If he doesn’t make the team out of spring training then the Phillies will have some decisions to make regarding the young outfielder.

Brown’s maturation and growing process needs to come to an end now if the Phillies ever hope to get a quality player out of him. 

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Domonic Brown has been the Phillies’ top prospect for three seasons and could be the best player to get called up to Philadelphia since Ryan Howard in 2005.

Last season, Brown showed flashes of brilliance at time during his stint in the majors. He had nine hits, one home run and 10 RBI in his first seven starts. But the rookie struggled when major league pitchers adjusted to his long stroke and it greatly affected his performance. Dom hit .183 with two home runs and 13 RBI in only 49 at-bats over 31 games played.

After struggling in winter ball and the beginning of spring training, many fans were under the impression that Brown was all hype and not a good major league player.

Brown has struggled since his call-up to the majors last season, but he only has 62 regular-season at-bats and was not playing every game to hit out of his slump.

Domonic Brown is not the first Phillie to struggle early in his major league career, and will not be the last. Here are a few Phillies who had slow starts to begin their big league career:

1. Ryan Howard (May 2005): 6-for-28 (.214), 1 HR, 1 RBI. Career (7 seasons): .277, 262 HR, 783 RBI, 2005 NL ROY, 2006 NL MVP.

2. Chase Utley (2003): 32-for 134 (.239), 2 HR, 21 RBI. Career (8 seasons): .293, 177 HR, 650 RBI, 2006-2009 Silver Slugger, five time all-star.

3. Jimmy Rollins (April 2001): 23-for 92 (250), 0 HR, 5 RBI. Career (11 seasons): .272, 156 HR, 674 RBI, 2007 NL MVP, 2007-2009 gold glove winner.

Bottom line: players need time to adjust to the top level of professional baseball in the world.

Once Domonic Brown settles in, he could be on pace to equal or surpass the careers of these current Phillies stars.

To read more of Jeff Kerr’s work, click http://phillymorningafter.wordpress.com/ or follow him on Twitter at  http://twitter.com/#!/jeff_kerr

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In the 1960s, the Virginia Slims corporation famously, and some might say infamously, marketed its cigarettes to young professional women using the slogan: “You’ve come a long way, baby!” This slogan springs to mind today as the Philadelphia Phillies have announced that Shane Victorino has been placed on the disabled list, and to fill his place, none other than Domonic Brown has been called up from Triple-A Lehigh.

Phillies fans will not need a recap of the trials and travails of the Phillies’ erstwhile top prospect, but for the sake of completeness, we provide it here:

Spring Training, 2010: Brown is invited to Phillies camp, and MLB.com names him the 14th ranked prospect in baseball.

April, 2010: Brown begins season at Double-A, where he plays very well, hitting .318 with 15 home runs and 47 RBI in 65 games.

June, 2010: Brown is promoted to Triple-A and picks up where he left off; actually, he improved upon where he left off, hitting .346 with five home runs and 21 RBI in only 28 games.

July, 2010: Brown is named the top prospect in baseball by Baseball America.

July 28, 2010: Brown is called up to the Phillies, where despite initial success, he ultimately struggles. Brown finishes the season with a .210 average, a .612 OPS and 24 strikeouts in 35 games.

October, 2010: Brown bats three times in the playoffs, going 0-for-3 and not factoring into the Phillies postseason plans.

Fall, 2010: Brown hits only .069 in nine games in the Dominican Winter League and is sent home early to rest up for spring training.

Spring, 2011: Brown gets off to a miserable start in spring camp in Florida, going 0-for-15 with nine strikeouts before getting his first hit of the spring and promptly breaking a bone in his hand.

May, 2011: Brown returns from injury with a vengeance, hitting .368 with two home runs in five games at Single-A Clearwater before moving to Triple-A Lehigh and hitting .341 with a .968 OPS and 10 RBI in 11 games.

Which pretty much brings us up to date.

As we can all see, it has been a bit of a roller coaster ride for Domonic Brown. Nevertheless, here it is, Friday May 20, 2011, and Brown is right where we thought he would be six months ago: Up with the big club, ready to establish himself as the Phillies right fielder of tomorrow.

The move, of course, was somewhat unexpected, with Phillies General Manager Ruben Amaro stating, as recently as Thursday, that if Shane Victorino went to the disabled list, Domonic Brown would not be the player to replace him, saying “We don’t think he’s ready.”

Nevertheless, one day later, Victorino goes on the shelf and the Domonic Brown Era gets its reboot, after one false start and lots of bumps along the way.

Brown has, indeed, come a long way, baby. This time, let’s hope he’s here to stay.

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Domonic Brown has been tearing up the minors once again and his return is inevitable. Still, there’s a large contingent of Phillies fans that have absolutely no faith in him because of his lackluster 70 plate appearances last year, a good portion of which came as a pinch hitter.

They’d rather just sit and hope the trio of Ibanez, Mayberry and Francisco hold the fort down.

In Ibanez’s case I find it hard to believe Brown can be any worse than a .232/.289/.360 line along with terrible defense. Only one player in baseball, Juan Pierre, has put up a worse WAR.

Sure, Brown struggled in his very limited time in the majors last year going .210/.257/.355 and 24 strikeouts. To many, apparently that is enough to label his a bust. Apparently, no other prospect who has started his career off poor has ever amounted to anything.

If you don’t start out like Pujols or Braun, you won’t be good. As we all know, Jeff Francouer and his .432/.439/.827 line his first 82 plate appearances is a bona fide star and future hall of famer.

Many players in the past have proven you can have a bad start to your career and still be a great player.

If it was up to Phillies fans’ criteria, Mike Schmidt would never have deserved to be a starter after hitting under .200 through his first two years and 483 plate appearances. He turned out to be a nice player.

The same goes for Chase Utley, whose .221/.277/.337 start in 94 plate appearances didn’t foretell a future best-in-the-league second baseman. 

With the Padres, Shane Victorino was awful in his first big league season as well—hitting .151/.232/.178 in 83 plate appearances. 

Young guys prospects like Domonic Brown need at bats. That’s the only way they will get better and prove how good they are. You don’t become a top prospect in baseball by accident. He has the athletic ability and skill to prove his shortsighted doubters wrong.

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The Philadelphia Phillies cured? Say it isn’t so.

But what if that figment of our imagination came true? What if the World Series favorite Philadelphia Phillies were indeed cursed from here on out?

Looking at the way this team is shaping up for the 2011 season, I’d put my money on the Phillies being cursed… here’s why.

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With Domonic Brown’s hand injury, another opportunity presented itself as an extra roster spot opened up.  Who knows when Brown gets called up this season, if he even gets called up at all?

Ben Francisco continues to hit the ball hard during spring training, and he’ll be the starting right fielder.

Nobody knows what’s going on with Chase Utley’s knee, and this will play a role in regards to whom the Phillies will select to make the Opening Day roster as well.

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The San Francisco Giants are currently the toast of Major League Baseball.  Featuring the best rotation in baseball and coming off a World Series championship, the Giants look to become the first team since the 1999-2000 New York Yankees to win consecutive World Series.

A crucial contributor to the 2010 San Francisco Giants was NL Rookie of the Year Buster Posey, a can’t-miss prospect who made good on his potential with the Giants by becoming one of the team’s leaders both on and off the field.

In 2011, the Giants have another such player in Brandon Belt, a five-tool first baseman (how often do we say that?) who ripped up the minor leagues in his first season of pro ball and is looking to make the Giants out of spring camp.

Belt will not be the only impact rookie in the majors this season, though.  

Here we take a look at 30 rookies looking to make an impact at the major league level in 2011.

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