3 Reasons Why Dom Brown’s Debut was Most Anticipated in Recent Phils’ History

It’s been an interesting 24 hours for the Phils, as top prospect Domonic Brown was called up yesterday morning, made his major league debut against Arizona last night, and this morning news broke that the Phils and Astros have agreed to a deal that would bring Roy Oswalt to Philadelphia, if he waives his no-trade clause and approves the deal. 

The lanky Dom Brown crushed a low change-up off the wall in right for an RBI double in his first at-bat, and he later turned on an up-and-in 95 mph fastball and lined a single to right.  He also had great poise in the post-game interview, and was clearly thrilled to be in the big leagues.

It’s hard to believe that his debut might be overshadowed, but with the Oswalt deal pending, that seems to be the case.  It’s hard to believe because last night I was thinking that Brown’s debut had created more buzz than any Phillie rookie that I could remember.  Obviously, with all the talent that has come up through the Phils’ farm system over the past decade, there have been other much-anticipated debuts, but what made Brown’s perhaps the most  anticipated?  Here are the 3 main reasons:

1.  The team is actually good:  It’s becoming more and more a memory left in the past, but it wasn’t too long ago that the Phillies were an annual cellar dwellar or, at best, an also-ran.  Back-to-back NL pennants and a World Series title have ensured that everything that happens with the team will get more “buzz” and attention than it did from roughly 1985-2007.  The only number you need to know to prove this: 90.  That’s how many consecutive sellouts there have been at the Bank following Wednesday night’s win.

Think back to other hyped debuts for Phillie prospects.  Scott Rolen was first called up in 1996 and played for a team that finished in last place in what was really Year One of a dark period between the ’93 Phils era and the emergence of the current squad in the early part of the following decade.  I remember well the debut of Brett Myers in July, 2002, but that was a team that regressed from 2001’s breakthrough and finished with a losing record.  Chase Utley first played in the bigs in 2003, and though his hitting ability was evident right away, he was still raw defensively and had trouble with lefties.  He wasn’t an everyday player until the Phils traded Placido Polanco halfway through the 2005 season.

Ryan Howard and Gavin Floyd (a big-time prospect, remember?) were September call-ups in 2004, but the Phils were basically playing out the string for the team that got Larry Bowa fired because they couldn’t get over the hump.  The last big debut is the only one that can rival Brown’s, and that was when Cole Hamels took the hill in May, 2006.  He was a 1st-round pick with electric stuff, and he fired 5 innings of 1-hit ball in his debut.  The Phils challenged for a Wild Card that year, but fell 3 games short.  They were the definition of also-rans, but no more.  Dom Brown just stepped into a pennant-race, with a team expected to win that race.

2. He’s been tied to numerous trade rumors:  In the past, if you were a casual fan of the Phillies, you probably didn’t hear all that much about a prospect until he was on the big league roster, or close to it.  Scott Rolen, Jimmy Rollins, and Chase Utley were never discussed much while they were toiling in the minors, even though they were all high draft picks on the fast-track to at least a stellar big-league career, if not more. 

That started to change as the team started contending with the arrival of Jim Thome and Kevin Millwood in 2003.  Suddenly the Phils were semi-contenders, with any and all talent in the farm system libel to be dealt for help at  the big-league level.  Howard and Floyd were often involved in trade rumors, which raised their profile.  Many Phils fans in 2004 were convinced that Floyd should be untouchable because he was a future ace.

As the Phils have become legitimate contenders, this has gone to another level.  Kyle Drabek and Michael Taylor are well-known names among Phils fans, even though they never played a game for the team.  Over the past year, Domonic Brown’s name has been thrown around in numerous trade rumors, usually in relation to Roy Halladay. 

Phils fans who had never seen him swing the bat (like myself) had plenty of opportunity to throw around opinions on him, and to argue what the Phils should do with him.  He’s kind of like an NBA player that played in college rather than one that went straight to the pros from high school.  The fans feel like we know him, and we have a bit more ownership over him than we would have if he’d never been mentioned in a trade. 

3. He’s the first glimpse of the “future” that we’ve had in a while:  Sure, this argument could be made about most Phillie prospects.  It’s not too often that a prospect of Brown’s caliber comes along, for any team.  A player that you can say, “This guy will be our right fielder for the next ten years”, and not sound like you’re using hyperbole.  But two things make this a little different.

One, the Phillies have been very stable over the last few years.  Yes, they’ve added key players like Halladay, Cliff Lee, Brad Lidge, Raul Ibanez, and Placido Polanco, but there’s a nucleus of guys that have been there together for about five years now.  We’ve become very accustomed to this team in a way that hasn’t happened in my lifetime, so it makes the arrival of a guy like Brown, who will lead the way for a whole new Phillies generation in the not-too-distant future, a bigger deal than it could be if circumstances were different.

The other reason is tied back to #1.  In the past, I’ve referred to a “snowball effect” that can happen to a franchise like the Phillies.  They’ve never had an overly wealthy ownership, or at least not one that is willing to lose money to win.  But, being in a major sports market, there was always that opportunity to become a high-payroll team that is out there trading for guys like Halladay, Lee, and Oswalt, and able to sign long-term deals for guys like Howard and Utley.  They just needed to get a certain level of success on the cheap, with the farm system, and things would start to snowball.  Well, that’s exactly what has happened, as the World Series title got the ball rolling at max speed, and 90 sellouts in a row later, the team is awash with the money they need to be an annual contender.

So what does that have to do with Dom Brown?  Well, he’s not only the first glimpse of the future that we’ve had in a while, he’s the first glimpse of a new  future for the franchise.  We know that, as long as Brown is productive, he will be a Phillie.  Remember, it was just in 2006 that Bobby Abreu was shipped to the Yankees for a bag of used balls.  And we can also feel pretty confident that the team will surround him with talent capable of winning more championships.  Dom Brown, welcome to the Phillies.  Phillie fans, welcome to the new era.  It was a long time coming.