The Philadelphia Phillies are a one-man show right now. Left fielder Domonic Brown is 2008 Will Smith. He is single-handedly carrying the lineup I Am Legend-style.
The Phillies are modern day Will Smith and Brown is living in a dystopian present. Their offense is in a bigger slump than the Fresh Prince’s film career. They’ve gotten old pretty quickly and their production has disappeared with it. To make matters worse, Roy Halladay is back on the disabled list after struggling with his velocity while their pitching staff’s young ace, Cole Hamels is 1-9 and in search of run support.
However, in the month of May, Brown was hitting home runs at a blistering pace. In the first three years of his career, Brown generated 13 homers in 433 at-bats.This season, he’s tops in the NL with 15 homers in 195 at-bats.
Brown even eclipsed some historical benchmarks as the first player since 1916 to jack 10 home runs without getting a walk to first base in the an month.
Unfortunately, baseball is the ultimate game of dependency. The Phillies are 27th in runs, 21st in batting average, 21st in slugging percentage and 26th in on base percentage.
It’s been a long road to reach this point for Brown after years of toiling in the minors. In 2011, the 22-year-old Brown was rated the fourth-best prospect in baseball behind teenagers Bryce Harper, Mike Trout and formerly Yankees prospect, Jesus Montero.
His power shouldn’t be surprising when you see him. The 6-5, 205-pounder is yoked up and folks are finally taking notice.
However, changes in the off-season to his swing have given him more control and improved his swing speed.
“I think I just had a longer swing, now that I’m looking back on it,” Brown toid CSN Philly. “I did a lot to my swing to shorten it up, especially in those good hitter’s counts, just being able to be short and quick to the ball.
At 25, Brown is finally hitting his stride and rewarding the Phillies for their patience. Now he’ll have to show some of his own and wait for the front office to retool the Phillies lineup around him.
