Ran across this recent interview by Tyler Boronski with Gary Brown that is on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=-ws1d_CvOvs
ogc thoughts
I had such hopes for Gary Brown. I thought that just from defense that he would be able to provide a lot of value, giving him a pretty low bar for offense in order to be a Gregor Blanco type of complementary bench player, and hopefully to break out, like he did for the Cal State Fullerton Titans in his junior season. Even a bench player like Blanco can provide good value for a draft pick, even a first round pick, because most draftees don't even do anything in the majors, let alone be an average player like Blanco was for the Giants.
Also, I was swayed by the fact that he had Scott Boras as his agent. Boras, for all the bad he brings to MLB baseball, he does look after his clients and does some good for his players by providing them experts in a variety of fields, both baseball related and soft-skills related, like discipline and mental preparedness. In baseball, as we saw with Matt Duffy, you need every edge that you can get.
Unfortunately, that was not to be for Gary, as the Giants DFAed him and the Cards picked him up, though only for a month before DFAing him, and the Angels picked him up at that point. After a year, they DFAed him, and nobody picked him up (including, surprisingly and tellingly, the Giants, who seem to go after a lot of their former prospects) so he has ended up playing independent league baseball, for the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs.
He did not do so well in 2016, but has brought things up a lot in 2017, hitting .811 OPS after 17 games. He is actually young for the league, despite being 28 YO already, and the league is actually pitching dominated, as the league average is .703 OPS. But he's not even in the league's top 10, I see a lot of former MLB players and prospects in there - Nate Freiman, Nolan Reimold, Caleb Gindl, Alberto Callaspo, even Sean Burroughs, still battling at 36 YO. Have to be in the .900+ OPS range to be a top leader, basically. He is 24th in the league, just ahead of another former Giants prospect, Darren Ford.
He at least is among the league leaders in SB, which was one of his strengths, and only 2 CS so far, which was his big weakness. He also needs to cut down on his strikeouts and increase his walks, again, two other weaknesses in his game while in the minors. Since he is entering his athletic prime, now is the time for him to show what he got, hopefully he is starting to do that.
It was a nice to catch up with what is happening with him and to see him again. Wish him all the best.
Brown turned out to be a big disappointment for the giants. Was hoping he would turn out to be at least another Dan Gladden. I thought just on sheer athleticism he might be able to help the team, like you said, similar to Blanco, but it was not meant to be. Whether he can have an epiphany in his career or not, he seems to be another failed giants outfield pick in the draft.
ReplyDeleteThanks, that's another good comp for Brown, Gladden! Also, nice to see old Giants!
DeleteYes, another failed Giants outfield pick, but that's going to happen, failure is the name of the game with the draft, people should be more surprised when players perform and make the majors, that's actually the rare thing in the draft.
That's why I think the best way to judge how a team is drafting is by how their team is made up of players drafted and/or developed by the GM, and I would also throw in prospects used in trades to get valuable players, like Pence, Scutaro, Franchez, Moore, Pagan, Winn, Schmidt, etc. If the link to to the team's player development, I think they should be counted.
Another dimension, similar to player development, is picking up cheap production. Minor league pickups of players you don't really expect much out of, only for them to produce nicely for the team, like Blanco, Kontos (via Stewart trade, whom we picked up cheaply), Torres, Casilla.
Always feel bad for a former top prospect who ends up in somewhere like Southern Maryland, playing Independent, answering fluff from a a guy like this. Seriously, doesn't even really sound like the interviewer is all that interested, or even listening to the answers.
ReplyDeleteBrown has to sense this, but has to stand there and play it straight, and tell him how he felt about playing next to a guy (Harper in Fall League) who grabbed the golden ring and may be in line for, what, $300 million?
I wish Gary the best. Hopefully one of the few who make it back from the Independents.