For those of you hoping that Domonic Brown could come up to the Phillies soon and provide relief for the struggling corner outfielders (I admit, Ibanez has been better), you’ll have to wait a little longer. I don’t know what the Phillies’ immediate plans for Brown were, but they are surely not going to do much with him right this second. He has been diagnosed with a sprained thumb and will miss 5-7 days, according to David Hale of the Wilmington News Journal.
“Domonic Brown has a first degree sprain of the UCL in his right thumb. Out 5-7 days. #Phillies,” Hale tweets.
Hopefully, this isn’t much of a setback. I saw that he was doing well in Triple-A Lehigh after recovering from the broken hand and was hoping that he could send Ben Francisco to the bench before too long.
I know there were a few people that were excited to have Francisco in an every-day role, but don’t count me among them. After a hot start, he apparently realized that water sinks to its own level and is now hitting an unacceptable .230.
That said, give the Phillies credit for winning roughly 2/3 of their games so far this season while dealing with very, very limited production from the corner outfielders, as well as injuries to Brad Lidge, Chase Utley, Carlos Ruiz, Roy Oswalt, Jose Contreras and probably several other guys that I’m leaving out.
Bad luck for this kid, It appears that 2011 is not the year where Brown will get lots of playing time up with the Big Team. He needs a lot of work and reps in game situations on his all-around game so he should play at AAA all Summer and then maybe the Phils can bring him up in September, but anyone that thinks that Brown is the answer in RF or LF for this 2011 Season is simply foolish thinking..Th ekid needs to get 4-5 At bats every day to make up for the lost time he has had.. Remember that since last July , he has played very little ball as he was only Pich-Hitting/Pinch Running down the stretch for the Phils last year after Werth returned from injury, He’s not ready