bleh wrote:The Phillies did have one of the lower draft budgets before the cap.

phdave wrote:This deserves quoting again today:

I’m not telling you not to fall in love with a prospect, because at this stage in my emotional attachment to Dom Brown, that would be like the guy who just got dumped cornering you at the bar after seven glasses of bourbon and delivering a soliloquy on how all women are evil and not to be trusted. That doesn’t help anyone.

Just keep this in mind when you’re geeking out over Mike Zunino, or Corey Seager, or whoever, when you start projecting them in a lineup five years down the road. Yes, they could turn into a franchise-defining star like Brett Lawrie. But they could languish in the high minors without ever really getting a chance, like Brown, or be traded for more immediate help, like Drabek. And the Drabeks and Browns outnumber the Lawries.

I fell in love with potential once, and got burned. Be more cautious than I was and don’t jump in all at once, or you’ll be left with nothing but disappointment and regret.

And the memory of a wonderful swing.

phdave wrote:

phdave wrote:This deserves quoting again today:

I’m not telling you not to fall in love with a prospect, because at this stage in my emotional attachment to Dom Brown, that would be like the guy who just got dumped cornering you at the bar after seven glasses of bourbon and delivering a soliloquy on how all women are evil and not to be trusted. That doesn’t help anyone.

Just keep this in mind when you’re geeking out over Mike Zunino, or Corey Seager, or whoever, when you start projecting them in a lineup five years down the road. Yes, they could turn into a franchise-defining star like Brett Lawrie. But they could languish in the high minors without ever really getting a chance, like Brown, or be traded for more immediate help, like Drabek. And the Drabeks and Browns outnumber the Lawries.

I fell in love with potential once, and got burned. Be more cautious than I was and don’t jump in all at once, or you’ll be left with nothing but disappointment and regret.

And the memory of a wonderful swing.

Whatever happened to that Dom Brown fella? That one prospect who never got a chance?

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.

phdave wrote:

Remember how many people thought Darin Ruf was the goods nine months ago? Where are they now that it’s become clear that he doesn’t hit enough to overcome fielding like a baby zebra?

phdave wrote:Dr. Strangeglove: On a Plan for Domonic Brown
Posted by Michael Baumann, Fri, October 14, 2011

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.

The Phillies, according to Baseball Prospectus, have a 6.3 percent chance of making the playoffs and about half that chance of winning the division. And while that’s certainly not a precise number and it’s not literally impossible for them to come back, it’s probably not too far off the truth. And if you’re one of those people who thinks wanting to reload for next year (to say nothing of years to come) in the face of overwhelming evidence your team is beaten is some massive betrayal of the faith…in other words, if you’re one of those people who decides to forge ahead in the face of the overwhelming likeliness of defeat, spouting all the while that idiotic line from Dumb and Dumber, then maybe you hang on, win 82 games instead of 81 and lose Young for nothing at the end of the season. But major league GMs are paid to make smart decisions based on significant available information, not to shield you from have to confront a state of the world you find inconvenient.

Would you get a top-100 prospect for him? Almost certainly not, but the Phillies are just now rebuilding a farm system that was decimated in service of building five consecutive division winners and if Ruben Amaro and his men have their eye on a sleeper prospect in the farm system of an interested team, absolutely trade him. Besides, even if you can’t do math and think the Phillies are still in it, they could plug Kevin Frandsen in at third base and probably not lose a whole lot in terms of 2013 production.

Good for him. Barring injury, I can’t see Wetzler’s stock rising or falling precipitously, so why not go back to college, take another run at a title and enjoy being the BMOC for another year before submitting to the merciless grind of low-minors baseball. He will never get girls more easily than he does now. The Beavers look to have another strong team next year–