Checking in on Gary Brown

Published by on May 16, 2011 | 13 Responses

All hitters ranked by a minimum of 100 plate appearances.

Gary Brown is…

* 8th in the California League in batting average (.367)
* 7th in the California League in on-base percentage (.445)
* 18th in the California League in slugging percentage (.513)
* 1st (tied) in the California League in stolen bases (22 swipes)
* 1st in the California League in caught stealing (10)
* 49th in the California League by walk-rate (8.1%)
* 9th in the California League by wRC+ (149)
* 7th in the California League by BABIP (.418)

And if that’s not enough, this video of a recent Gary Brown game is exciting. You can see from the video that the Giants have calmed down his happy feet in the batter’s box some. Brown makes a couple of misplays in CF, but it’s easy to see him being a pretty good defender with more time and experience.

A few weeks ago, I wrote that “I’ve come around on him [Brown] more than any other prospect in the system right now.”, and I’m still enjoying his successful start in high-A baseball. Brown’s style of play revolves, as it should, around hitting the ball in play and running like mad. His walk-rate is slightly below average for the California League, but it’s encouraging — or maybe a matter of low expectations — that he’s not way, way below average. His contact skills are what’s going to take him to the majors, in addition to his defense and baserunning, and it’s good to see him getting the bat on the ball so much. If he can post a modest walk-rate as he climbs the minor league ladder, he’s a nice bet to have some sort of career in the majors.

Guys like Endy Chavez have made a good living by boasting good-to-great contact rates, good defense, and good baserunning. You might be disappointed in a Chavez comparison, but still, it’s undeniable that Chavez played in 829 games in the major leagues because of his tools.

Right now, like most prospects, Gary Brown is a bundle of potential mixed in with some risks. In the early going of the season, if I had to rank him among current prospects in the system, I’d probably place him squarely at #2. Zack Wheeler is a better prospect right now, but Brown should make the majors first, and that should count for something. It’s not too hard to dream up an outfield in which both Gary Brown and Andres Torres are playing at the same time. For Giants’ pitchers, that’s a beautiful, flyball killing dream.

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LeviDavis
LeviDavis

When will we get an updated assessment of Eric Surkamp? I said before the season that player of his type tend to get exposed in AA, and whether he kept his K-rate up at this level would determine my opinion of him. He's making me look bad, and I would enjoy a more thorough look at it.

@kowloonwc
@kowloonwc

He looks completely clueless on the basepaths sometimes. He's going to need to improve a LOT in order to be an effective base-stealer.

Chris Quick
Chris Quick

Ian! Good to see you! I hope baserunning is one of those things that gets better with experience. His high CS total is kind of alarming, but he could just be running whenever he feels like it in order to gain experience. I dunno. You've seen him way more than I have, what's the deal?

marcellosfg
marcellosfg

Yeah, I'm hoping they've just told him to run wild and try to learn as much as he can about the art of stealing.

Rory Paap
Rory Paap

Brown has been fantastic. He's been better than anyone should or could have hoped, I would think. I'd love to see him get some ABs at higher levels this year, at least AA. That'll be a great test. Imagine, the Giants could have him AND Ford on the roster for the month of September. That's two lightning-fast bullets to fire in close games. That's kind of cool. It'd be a lot cooler if Brown can actually hit.

marcellosfg
marcellosfg

I've been pleasantly surprised with Brown so far. If he can maintain that walk rate, with his contact abilities and speed, he should be a real asset. Also, from that video it also looks like he has the ability to hit with a little authority (POP). That is definitely encouraging.

fan of your blog
fan of your blog

i think his style of play is "evolving", no?

Chris Quick
Chris Quick

Weird sentence is weird. I cleaned it up a little!

LeviDavis
LeviDavis

The Giants calmed his happy feet down more than some, his pre-draft videos looked comical. My know-nothing opinion is that as he becomes more comfortable with the settled feet, it will allow him to drive the ball a little better. The defense...looks rough. His routes are bad, and his movements are jerky and unsure. No doubting the athleticism, though. With experience he should be good to very good in CF, though this video causes me to doubt he will ever contend for a Gold Glove. Brown, along with Belt, gives me hope for the Giants' draft scouting acumen, which we have all rightly questioned in the past. Both of these guys, along with Jonathan Sanchez and hopefully Mike Kickham, look like guys other teams undervalued because they did not see the same correctable flaw that the Giants did. It helps to have confidence in your minor league coaches to make the corrections.

Chris Quick
Chris Quick

Yeah, I was happy to see the video because his stance looks much, er, calmer. I still remember watching his MLB.com draft video and being like "Whuh?" I wouldn't read too much into one game of defensive whoops'. Just like how Aubrey Huff probably isn't the worst RF in the history of baseball, Gary Brown is probably a little better than he looked on defense in that video. He was playing extremely shallow in most clips.

LeviDavis
LeviDavis

I agree for the most part, the athleticism is there, but some guys are just SMOOTH, you know what I mean? Guys who end up contending for Gold Gloves just tend to look good, even when making a mistake. I think Brown will be plenty good to stay in CF for a championship-caliber team, I just might put a cap at just below Gold Glove contender.

LeviDavis
LeviDavis

I would hardly say I'm being hard on him, since my assessment is that he will be a very good major-league CF. I think I have been more bullish on him than most since draft day. The word coming out of college was that he would develop into a good to very good, though not great defender. I saw nothing in that video to change my mind on that either way. I'm excited about Brown.

Giant Torture
Giant Torture

I wouldn't be so rough on him. The play that he looked like he misjudged came around twilight. Even in college most games are played during the day, and one of the most difficult things to get used to in making the jump to pro-ball is the lights. Also, the ball over his head seemed like it had a good deal of backspin--cue Mike Krukow--on it and really hung up.