Domonic Brown was a member of his first All-Star team this week, one of two representatives from the Philadelphia Phillies. The 25-year-old Florida native is enjoying a breakout season, hitting .273/.320/.535 with 23 home runs and 67 RBI.
"I've always set my goals high and this was definitely one of them at the start of the year," Brown said.
A twentieth-round selection in 2006, Brown worked his way through the Philadelphia organization and his named started circulating as a potential phenom three years later. He was Philadelphia's top prospect in 2009 and named the top prospect in baseball the next year. As Ruben Amaro, Jr. worked hard to make the Phillies a perennial contender, Brown often popped up in trade rumors.
He was almost a key cog in the Roy Halladay trade with the Blue Jays in December 2009. His name came up again when Philadelphia acquired Hunter Pence from the Giants in July 2011. Both times Amaro held onto Brown and both times he failed to make an immediate impression.
Prior to the season some of Brown's teammates, namely Ryan Howard, publicly campaigned for the left-handed hitting outfielder to receive regular playing time. The argument was that with regular at-bats, Brown would produce and live up to the hype.
He made his Major League debut on July 28, 2010, but was up-and-down. Literally.
Brown has recorded 43.8% of ML his plate appearances this season. He came to the plate just 70 times in 2010 and had nearly the same number of PAs in 2011 and 2012 (210, 212 respectively). Prior to this season his best slash line was .245/.333/.391, which came in 2011. That might explain why Brown got off to a slow start this spring -- he couldn't be sure if he would stick with the Phillies.
"I knew that things could turn around very quickly and in April you don't even have 100 at-bats under your belt," Brown told RealGM. "If you play baseball, you understand that and you're going to go through ups and down. It's not about how you start, it's about how you finish."
Brown hit .233/.309/.372 in the season's first month. He looked more like the hitter he was as a part-time player than the All-Star he would become. He exploded in May with 12 home runs and hit .303, but went the entire month without drawing a walk. Charlie Manuel lived with that because of his OPS (.991).
He may only have recently been embraced by the fans in Philadelphia, but Brown insists he's a Phillie through-and-out.
"They were the guys that gave me a shot," Brown said. "I feel comfortable in Philadelphia, I've been here a number of years and I know all the coaching staff as well. I didn't want to go anywhere else."
The Phillies are 48-48 entering the second half and appear to be on the fence when it comes to the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline. Trade rumors involving Brown are a thing of the past. Cliff Lee credited the outfielder with pacing the team's offense so far.
"I think [Michael Young] and Domonic Brown have been the biggest keys to our offense and us winning games and scoring runs. Without those two guys, we'd be in a pretty tough spot," Lee said.
That's quite a departure from just a few months ago, when Brown was still struggling to reach his potential.