.362/.609/.812 DOG ‏@Phylan
@MJ_Baumann you would've blown them up TWO years ago? Like the season they won 102 games?
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3 hrs LMFAO Schwarz ‏@JonCheddar
@Phylan @MJ_Baumann yeah that's dumb. they should have not doubled down on papelbon that offseason, though, and traded Vic then

Giancarlo Baumann ‏@MJ_Baumann
@JonCheddar @Phylan Yeah, I wrote that badly. I would have dumped Shanf and tried to ditch Ibanez and maybe Madson before 2011 though

phdave wrote:Some twitter people also called him on that:

.362/.609/.812 DOG ‏@Phylan
@MJ_Baumann you would've blown them up TWO years ago? Like the season they won 102 games?
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3 hrs LMFAO Schwarz ‏@JonCheddar
@Phylan @MJ_Baumann yeah that's dumb. they should have not doubled down on papelbon that offseason, though, and traded Vic then

Giancarlo Baumann ‏@MJ_Baumann
@JonCheddar @Phylan Yeah, I wrote that badly. I would have dumped Shanf and tried to ditch Ibanez and maybe Madson before 2011 though

He would have gotten rid of our 130 OPS+ CFer and our best relief pitcher before the 102 win season. I'm guessing they would not have won 102 games but they would been much further along on the rebuilding process which is much more important.

That throw, for some reason, reminded me of how much David Fincher loves depicting cynical men cheating on Robin Wright with younger women.

phdave wrote:

That throw, for some reason, reminded me of how much David Fincher loves depicting cynical men cheating on Robin Wright with younger women.

This isn’t a debate anymore: we can’t predict anything in baseball with certainty, but we can speak intelligently in terms of probability. And the probability is that the Phillies won’t even know which way they’re pointed this season. That’s a bad way to fly.

I'm getting to a place where I realize how sad it is that I'm not over the 2011 draft yet. And I may never be over it.

td11 wrote:the mlb one? why? i don't get it

Considering how good Dom Brown and Jackie Bradley have been this spring, can we make it so preseason stats matter?

It also occurred to me that even if the Phillies had drafted JBJ, they'd likely have stuck to slot and maybe not signed him at all.

He's a Boras client who had a year of eligibility left and dropped about 25-30 spots because of a relatively minor injury.

RichmondPhilsFan wrote:Well, I agree with him re: Jackie Bradley Jr. That kid was incredible in the 2011 CWS.

Comments: Bradley, the center fielder for the University of South Carolina, seemed destined to be a no-doubt first-round pick before this season started. But struggles with the bat -- he hit just. 259 over 37 games -- and a wrist injury that required surgery have thrown his status into question. He swings a better bat than what he showed this season, having hit well in the tough SEC in the past as well as for Team USA this past summer. Though he's only 5-foot-10, he packs surprising power into his frame. He's a rare combination of an outfielder who has the chance to be an above-average defensive center fielder while having below-average speed. He's got an above-average arm and plus instincts which should allow him to stay there, like a Jim Edmonds. A team that thinks the pre-2011 Bradley is the real one will likely still take a chance pretty early on.

td11 wrote:ah ok. yeah i think baumann is a south carolina grad.

phdave wrote:

RichmondPhilsFan wrote:Well, I agree with him re: Jackie Bradley Jr. That kid was incredible in the 2011 CWS.

So you will never get over the 2011 draft either?

RichmondPhilsFan wrote:

phdave wrote:

RichmondPhilsFan wrote:Well, I agree with him re: Jackie Bradley Jr. That kid was incredible in the 2011 CWS.

So you will never get over the 2011 draft either?

Nope, I just would've much preferred him to Greene. But I don't claim to be an expert on the MLB draft either. I just knew he singlehandedly destroyed UVA in the CWS and looked like a man among boys for the entire tournament both in the field and at the plate. And it was 2010, not 2011... my mistake.

It’s eminently possible that Brown, given the right environment, could grow into a Ken Griffey Jr. clone.

Then Ruben Amaro announced that the Phillies wanted to get Brown a full season at AAA before bringing him up to the majors. I was absolutely mystified by this decision, though, judging by Ruben Amaro’s bizarre insistence on giving anyone but Brown a chance to play at the major league level in 2011, I can’t say I was surprised. Ever since he refused to include Brown in any sort of trade for Cliff Lee or Roy Halladay back in 2009, Amaro has, like Hamlet tormenting Claudius, seemed to take some sort of perverse pleasure in treating the Phillies’ top hitting prospect since Chase Utley like a yo-yo, tossing and spinning, and otherwise screwing with Brown for no reason other than he can.

Maybe there’s some sort of plan for Brown that the public is not privy to, and this is part of it. Maybe he’s being kept in the minors because there’s a flaw in his game that the Phillies are aware of but has escaped the eye of the extremely astute talent evaluators at ESPN and Baseball America. If that’s the case, maybe he’s being hidden so as not to harm his trade value. But I find that hard to believe.

I think I actually want this more than 400 plate appearances for the Domonator: to know what, exactly, that plan is.

Here’s are some of the arguments for keeping Brown in the minors, or at least the best ones I’ve heard:

He’s a prospect, and therefore an unknown quantity.
He’s bad defensively and doesn’t hustle.
The Phillies can’t afford to waste at-bats on someone who might not produce.
He’s been given a chance already and washed out.

The Phillies are either absurdly stupid or pathologically unconcerned with their offensive production, because that’s the only explanation for the team with the second-highest payroll in baseball to give 927 plate appearances to Ross Gload, Raul Ibanez, and Michael Martinez.