Facial Hair Standoff & The Curious Case of Domonic Brown

Werth sports the "W" for Washington.

When former Phillies outfielder Jayson Werth was asked 10 days ago who the team to beat was in the NL East, his reply was:  "Phillies.  I think everybody is writing them off. They played good in September, when they were healthy. They're not going to roll over, that's for sure."

"Yeah, the Braves got the Upton brothers," Werth added. "But they lost Prado and Chipper."

Well, maybe Guru Werth is trying to make up for his scathing retort to taunting Philly fans who jeered "You deserve it!" when he broke his wrist last season: "I am motivated to get back quickly and see to it personally those people never walk down Broad Street in celebration again," he stated last May.  And his Nationals won the division, ending the Phils streak at 5 Division Titles.  Or maybe he'll finally crack Fox Sports Best All-Time MLB Facial Hair.  In the anals of Phillies history, he faces some stiff (upper lip) competition (see caption below).

Michael Jack Ranks #15 Best All-Time MLB Facial Hair.

Either way, the games themselves will be the arena the Phils will have to use to ascend to relevancy in the division once more.  They will have to prove current consensus, that they are a third-place team, inaccurate.

Mike Schmidt likes what he sees from Ryan Howard this Spring.  Howard, back from injury and reportedly looking healthy is the key to the Phillies offense this year, especially since GM Amaro Jr. settled for minor tweaks this winter.

"We've chatted over the years about hitting," Schmidt recently said while consultant coaching the Phils at Spring training.  "I've always been a Ryan Howard fan, but he's picking my brain a little bit more. He looks good. He's doing some of the things we talk about. I'm only in my second day here, and I'm really excited. I feel like I've made more strides in my temporary coaching role than I ever had to this point."

On how he's trying to help Howard, who batted .173 against lefties last season: "A little more contact. He's still going to strike out. I'm in the top 10 all-time in strikeouts, so I'm pretty comfortable with striking out. But I think he needs to [make more contact], and we were talking about ways where we might get him to be a little less strikeout-prone . . . when you get that nasty lefthander to get him out."

This Spring, Howard has been on fire.  He is hitting .364 (12 for 33) with 6 extra-base hits.
 
Perhaps the key to the Phillies mysteriously unshaped outfield transition is Dominic Brown.  Remember their former All-star studded outfield of Raul Ibanez (LF), Shane Victorino (CF) and Jayson Werth (RF)?  Well this season's starting outfielders are a Full House of question marks and castaways.  The strange story of one-time organization golden boy and trade-untouchable Domonic Brown has taken a new twist this Spring.

Domonic Brown has most often run nowhere for Phils.

Once touted for his tremendous potential (he was No. 4 Baseball America prospect in 2011) and promising combo of speed and power, Brown slipped into irrelevant status for most of last season, buried deep in the minors and undesired trade material.  He played his 1st 2012 game for the Phils on July 31st.  He has 492 plate appearances in his MLB career and so far and has fizzled with a .236 Ave., 12 HR in 433 At-Bats and 5 Stolen Bases to 2 Caught-Stealing.  So much for power and speed.

After hitting .327/.391/.589 between Double-A and Triple-A in 2010, Brown looked like he would be a key to the Phillies' continued run of NL East dominance. Instead, he's been injured at times, hasn't hit when he has played and there have been reports about the Phillies allegedly not being too pleased with his hustle or work ethic.

Brown has never played more than 116 games in any season, despite team efforts his defense remains a liability, his base-stealing has been a bust (17-of-24 in the minors and MLB) and since fracturing his hamate bone at the base of his right wrist in spring training 2011 he hasn't flashed the power he was spotted for early on. Still, he has fewer than 500 plate appearances in the big leagues and is just 25.  So, it remains to be seen what he can do, although it's safe to say that his margin for error has all but vanished.  This will be his make or break season with the Philles organization.

So it's particularly timely that this Spring training Brown has impressed Charlie Manuel, reportedly more than any other player.  The manager has labeled him "Our Spring surprise" and Brown is hitting .400 (12 for 30, 3 for his last 4) with a team-leading 3 home runs.  He is also leading the team in hits, walks and runs scored.  He has emerged as the leading candidate to start the season in right field with off-season acquisition Delmon Young sidelined by injury.

"Domonic Brown has definitely showed a good stroke since the first game," Manuel said. "He's been the consistent guy."

That's good news for the Phils, who invested so little in their outfield (notably letting the big fish slip away in Josh Hamilton) this off-season that only a hope and a prayer can secure them an improved outfield from what they finished with last season (Nate Schierholtz, his .257 Ave. and downside potential kind of sum up the outfield mediocrity they resigned themselves to by the end of '12).

Brown injured his right knee in mid-June when he felt a pop while running after he jammed the knee into the ground near the fence in center field for Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Although he missed a couple of weeks with the injury, Brown had to wear a brace to get through the season, and developed pain in his other knee from compensating.

"I don't really think Charlie and those guys knew how badly I was hurting," Brown said.

He insists it was health that held him back before and that this year will be different.  So far he has shown it by getting better drive with his legs at the plate and moving effortlessly in the outfield.

"I'm moving around much better," Brown said. "It feels good. I feel I can steal a base and do whatever I need to do for the team again. I'm out there having fun, making sure I'm having good at-bats and that my approach stays the same."

The Phils approach will need to be the same as its been this Spring if they are to turn back the decreased expectations they earned in 2012. 

Mike Schmidt said from training camp: “I see a hungriness this year that I’ve never seen before.  Obviously in the last four or five years you weren’t looking for guys to be hungry. They were the heirs apparent to the division titles, MVP award. We were the first place MLB Network came to every year. We were on the cover of Sports Illustrated. We were at the top of the game for many years here over the last six or seven. All of a sudden we find ourselves not even being discussed as World Series contenders.”

"Let them talk about the Nationals and Braves," Charlie Manuel said. "If we get overlooked, we can change that. One good streak can change all that. People are always running for the ones winning."

By all reports it has been an active, energetic and successful Phillies camp thusfar with Utley and Howard healthier than the duo has been since their last World Series appearance.  April 1 in Atlanta the Phils will begin a 162-game road to October.  Whether they will play beyond that is up to them.