TUESDAY: A team that spoke to the Phillies about Brown informed ESPN's Jayson Stark that Philadelphia doesn't sound enthused about the idea of moving Brown and is looking for two to three young players in return (Twitter link)
MONDAY: The Phillies are "actively shopping" Domonic Brown with an eye toward selling high on him in an effort to acquire controllable young pitching, reports Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports (on Twitter).
Brown, 26, batted .272/.324/.494 with 27 home runs in a breakout campaign for the Phillies in 2013 after being passed over for lackluster outfield options in seasons prior. Brown can be controlled through the 2017 season and isn't arbitration eligible until next winter, so any team acquiring his services would be getting four years of team control.
However, he's graded out as a poor defensive left fielder and showed a sizable platoon split in 2013. Brown batted a strong .281/.336/.521 line with 21 of his homers against right-handed pitching this season but hit just .252/.296/.429 with six homers against lefties.
The Phillies have a top-heavy rotation, with Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels sitting atop the mix right now. Cuban signee Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez is a wild card in their rotation's No. 3 slot, while Kyle Kendrick and Jonathan Pettibone figure to round out the rotation as things currently stand.
Johan Santana and his rehabbing cronies can do nothing for this club. They simply represent a ‘tweak’ to the roster that, I would say, has already been done with Byrd added to the lineup. The fan base needs more than a Scott Baker to continue to watch and attend games. Ruben’s going to go for the big signing and I can’t say I disagree with that.
Jimenez’s inconsistencies worsened when he arrived in the American League, which is only to be expected. His consistency lies in the past 6 seasons with 30+ starts, which is the biggest selling point for me. Of course there’s no guarantees that he wont get injured in the near future, but you put him with consistently-healthy, 200-inning guys Lee and Hamels, and there is a high level of confidence in the ability to log a lot of quality innings. Yea, Jimenez costs a draft pick in a deep class, you have a valid point there, but the bottom line here does not matter what you or I say; Ruben and Montgomery think the window to win with this core has at least one more year, and a top-tier SP can theoretically help them inch closer to contention…that is his game plan and I agree with it
Talk about a trying to sell high case! Don’t blame the Phillies for trying to move him now.