If there is one thing that I'll never get tired of, it's watching prospects come into their own. No matter how the Phillies are doing – whether they are winning or losing – nothing is better than seeing a young slugger give us a glimpse into the future. And earlier this week, that's just what Domonic Brown did.
During Tuesday night's game against the Gwinnett Braves, Brown belted two homers in the Iron Pigs' rout over Atlanta's Triple-A affiliate. Ordinarily, a two-homer night from a top prospect wouldn't necessarily be blog-worthy, but given the circumstances, it is.
You see, there was some contention among the Pigs and Braves during that game, mostly between Lehigh Valley's Kevin Frandsen and Gwinnett pitcher Todd Redmond, which apparently started when Frandsen called time during an at-bat. Redmond took exception to it, then proceeded to fling the next pitch up and in at Frandsen's dome. After he lined out to first, Brown stepped in the box, and proceeded to do this:
I love this. I love everything about it. The bat flip, that Ricky Henderson-esque move with his arm as he rounded first base, the way he beat his chest like a wild man as he touched home plate, and definitely the way he threw his helmet to the ground when he got into the dugout.
Things only got more heated when the next hitter (Erik Kratz) got plunked, which caused the benches to clear. Nothing really happened there, but man oh man, was it great to see Dom Brown really get into it. And that's a good thing, and Brown seems to agree, at least according to what he told the Allentown Morning Call after the game:
“Maybe I needed that. Maybe I needed to get a little angry because sometimes I play too relaxed out there.”
I'm a huge fan of Dom, and I often feel bad for him because of the amount of pressure that he has to deal with. After all, when the team refuses to trade you for Roy Halladay, there is obviously a ton of expectations, and thanks to his less-than-spectacular performance in limited time in the majors, it only gets magnified.
But if Tuesday night's performance is any indication (he is also hitting over .400 with four homers in his last ten games), then I think the Dom Brown era might be nigh. He's had a rough go of it so far this season, but a series of nagging injuries (not to mention he is still dealing with the repercussions of the broken hand that he suffered last season) have prevented him from really doing what we've all expected him to do.
Earlier, I wrote about how Juan Pierre is taking up space in left field. Maybe now is the time to fill it with Dom Brown.
Video via ZooWithRoy.com
