Apter Hours: DOMinant Brown headed to Triple-A

After spending half the season with the Reading Phillies, top outfield prospect Dom Brown has been promoted to Triple-A, Lehigh Valley. Brown lived up to his top prospect name in reading as he destroyed Eastern League pitching. In 65 games with the R-Phils, Brown hit .318 with 15 homers, 16 doubles, 12 stolen bases and 47 RBI's. After seeing those impressive numbers, all Phillies fans are hoping is that he keeps it up at Triple-A.

There are a few ways to view this move as I see it...

Getting ready for the departure of Werth...While everyone in Philly would love Werth to stay, it is becoming more and more of a reality that he will not be wearing red pinstripes after 2010. The promotion of Brown to the IronPigs is the next step in his path to the majors and a successful second half in Triple-A may land Brown the starting spot in right field in 2011. The biggest loss of Werth is that of a right-handed power bat. Brown is a lefty and would add to Howard, Utley and Ibanez.

Ibanez past his prime...Even though it looks like Werth may be out after 2010, there have been some rumors swirling about the Phils trying to get a deal done before the All-Star break. If that is the case, then you would have to think that Brown would fill in for Ibanez. Raul has been very quiet since his great 2009 start and is currently hitting .246 through 69 games. He walks a lot, which gives credit to his .338 on-base percentage, but that is not enough for the #5 hitter in the lineup. I much prefer this option because I would love to see an outfield of Brown, Victorino and Werth in 2011.

Sheer preparation...We have seen it in the past with players like Ryan Howard. Howard had Thome in his way while he was trying to make it to the bigs and Brown has Werth and Ibanez. A likely scenario for this promotion to AAA is just to prepare Brown for when he comes up, either next year or even the year after that. I highly doubt that this is the case, but we have seen it happen before. If Werth does resign, Ibanez would need to be unloaded via trade or something because he still has another year left on his contract.

My hopes...My hopes are probably like many other fans. My ideal situation would be to have Brown split time with Ibanez towards the end of the season and eventually take over the starting job in left next season, pending the signing of Werth. One road block is that Brown is not even on the Phillies 40-man roster, so something would have to be worked at there. All we know is that Dom Brown is on the hot track to the Phillies and I hope he gets here sooner than later.