Domonic Brown Improving in His Second Season

Hopefully Tuesday night's two home run performance was the breakout game Domonic Brown needed for Charlie Manuel to keep him in the lineup everyday. It also punctuated that he certainly is a better player than he showed in his rookie year.

In just 11 more plate appearances he's already doubled his home run output from last year. Playing 13 less games, getting more consistent at-bats rather than sparsely pinch-hitting appears to be working across the board.

Not only has the standard triple slash line improved from .210/.257/.355 to .250/.321/.486, almost all of his peripherals have as well. That line could even be better if the BABIP gods looked more favorably on him. A .241 BABIP is well below where it should be at.

The biggest improvement bust be his dramatic increase in contact.

Year	K%(K/PA)	Swinging Strike %	Outside Contact %	Strike Zone Contact %
2010	34.3%	13.5%	50.0%	83.8%
2011	13.6%	7.5%	69.1%	92.3%

On a pitch-by-pitch basis, his biggest improvement has been with the fastball. As a result of working on his stance, mechanics and timing, he's catching up to, and making contact against the fastball much more often. Last year against fastballs, he swung and missed 22 percent of the time. This year it's down to a solid nine percent.

However, one problem still lurking is his inability to hit a slider versus a left-handed pitcher. While he's made strides against lefties' other pitches, he's still swinging and missing at almost 56 percent against this pitch. Not much improvement from last year's 60 percent. And unfortunately for Brown, he's already faced almost twice as many left-handed sliders compared to last year.

Even though he's improved his walk-rate, he also could stand to be a little more patient. Currently, he's swinging at 45.9 percent of pitches he's seeing, second highest among the Phillies regular lineup. But only 39 percent of all pitches against him have been in the strike zone, fewest among the Phillies regular lineup.

While Brown continues to improve, it seems those who were screaming "bust" have gone into hiding. Sadly, the next time they come out of hiding, he'll all of a sudden be one of their favorite players.