What Happened to Domonic Brown?

When hearing the name Domonic Brown, the first thing that comes to mind is the 4 week span that he had last season. During this span there was no outfielder in the MLB better then Brown, he performed better than anyone could ever expect. Those four weeks were Brown’s coming out party. He proved that he deserved to be in the Majors. He also finally lived up to his potential. However, this success would not last for long. After these successful weeks, Brown’s performance seemed to drastically decline. Domonic Brown has not seen much more success this season either. The former All-Star looks to have already hit his peak.

Brown has been in the Majors since he was 21 years old, playing in about 30 games.  Brown has been seen as the Phillies top prospect for many years, he even declined a scholarship to play football at the University of Miami to join the Phillies minor league system. Since then Brown has had his ups and has had his downs.  Last season Brown hit 27 homeruns, hit .272, and 83 RBIs this season he isn’t even a shell of what he was then. This season he has only 4 homeruns, 27 RBIs, and an average of .206. There are many theories on why he is having a lack of success.

 With all of this talk one thing is clear, since Brown has lost Wally Joyner as his hitting coach his production has gone down. Brown was living on cloud 9 for those few weeks last season. Nothing could harm him and he was even considered as one of the best outfielders in the Majors. But, this success was all from Wally Joyner. Wally stepped in last season and completely reinvented his swing. Brown has always had a long swing and even during his success last season it was long. However, Joyner was able to tweak and change different aspects in the swing to make it become more compact and more fluent. By doing this Joyner was able to successfully fix Brown’s swing. What I think happened towards the end of last season, was that Brown stopped listening to his hitting coach because he thought he knew better. He is still a young kid, and in my opinion he became cocky and arrogant and did not need help. Therefore, Joyner’s influence seemed to leave Brown. Wally Joyner this season would not rejoin the Phillies coaching staff and due to this factor Brown’s swing has gotten even worse.

The once potential superstar is no longer in Domonic Brown anymore. He does not have the ability to lead a team or be the star of a team. Brown has not lived up to his potential, and this season so far has proven that the Phillies should have done what many said last year and trade Brown. He is now seen as a worthless player on the Phillies squad. He is not even suitable for the Phillies needs anymore as he should be benched. One cannot help but wonder that his few weeks of success were actually just a hot streak and not him breaking out into the league. Domonic Brown is another example of how the Phillies need to develop their talent better. If Brown was on a winning baseball team, they would look to upgrade. The only thing good that Brown does is lower the Phillies average age on the roster.

 Darin Ruf of the Phillies has been treated like the red headed step child. They have not respected his ability, even though he has proven himself each and every time he has been called up. Though last season in only 73 games he hit 15 homeruns and batted .247, he has not been given any respect. Darin Ruf is deserving of the starting role over the left-handed bat Domonic Brown. The Brown era should be officially over, Wally Joyner saved Brown’s swing, but arrogance and cockiness ruined his Major League career.