2011 Philadelphia Phillies: What Can Domonic Brown Do for You?

Domonic Brown has been the Phillies' top prospect for three seasons and could be the best player to get called up to Philadelphia since Ryan Howard in 2005.

Last season, Brown showed flashes of brilliance at time during his stint in the majors. He had nine hits, one home run and 10 RBI in his first seven starts. But the rookie struggled when major league pitchers adjusted to his long stroke and it greatly affected his performance. Dom hit .183 with two home runs and 13 RBI in only 49 at-bats over 31 games played.

After struggling in winter ball and the beginning of spring training, many fans were under the impression that Brown was all hype and not a good major league player.

Brown has struggled since his call-up to the majors last season, but he only has 62 regular-season at-bats and was not playing every game to hit out of his slump.

Domonic Brown is not the first Phillie to struggle early in his major league career, and will not be the last. Here are a few Phillies who had slow starts to begin their big league career:

1. Ryan Howard (May 2005): 6-for-28 (.214), 1 HR, 1 RBI. Career (7 seasons): .277, 262 HR, 783 RBI, 2005 NL ROY, 2006 NL MVP.

2. Chase Utley (2003): 32-for 134 (.239), 2 HR, 21 RBI. Career (8 seasons): .293, 177 HR, 650 RBI, 2006-2009 Silver Slugger, five time all-star.

3. Jimmy Rollins (April 2001): 23-for 92 (250), 0 HR, 5 RBI. Career (11 seasons): .272, 156 HR, 674 RBI, 2007 NL MVP, 2007-2009 gold glove winner.

Bottom line: players need time to adjust to the top level of professional baseball in the world.

Once Domonic Brown settles in, he could be on pace to equal or surpass the careers of these current Phillies stars.

To read more of Jeff Kerr's work, click http://phillymorningafter.wordpress.com/ or follow him on Twitter at  http://twitter.com/#!/jeff_kerr