Brown For Pence?

As the trade rumors continue to swirl, Domonic Brown's name is being tossed around with great frequency as a guy the Phillies may trade for Astros outfielder Hunter Pence. Someone who can relate to being traded to Houston is former Phillie Michael Bourn.

On November 7, 2007 the Phillies traded Michael Bourn, Geoff Geary and Mike Costanzo to the Astros for Eric Bruntlett and Brad Lidge. In his first year with the Astros Bourn was a bit of disapointment. The young outfielder hit .229 with 5 HR and 29 RBI's. The next 2 seasons Bourn improved hitting .285 and and .265 in 2009 and 2010 respectively. Bourn made the All-Star team in 2010 and led the league in stolen bases in during those two years as well. Currently Bourn is hitting .298 and leads the league in steals with 37.

Is it possible that Dom Brown could be another Michael Bourn? I'm not suggesting that Bourn is a bad player but at the same time he is not a guy that you build your team around like a Chase Utley or Ryan Howard. People want to hold on to Brown because they think that he is a future franchise player, but is he? Let me drop some knowledge on you.

In his first 84 games Brown has hit .236 with 7 HR and 29 RBI's.

In Utley's first 84 games he hit .254 with 9 HR and 51 RBI's.

In Howard's first 84 games he hit .283 with 15 HR and 44 RBI's.

You have to take into consideration that Brown was called up at the age of 22 and Howard and Utley were both called up when they were 24. But still, people knew that Utley and Howard were undoubtedly the future of the franchise, and I'm just not so sure that Brown is a future All-Star like Howard and Utley.

Brown could possibly turn out to be another Michael Bourn who is in my mind a solid MLB player. He's not a star like a Hunter Pence, a guy that could come to the Phillies if the front office would only wake up and realize that their golden boy Dom Brown may not be that hot.

There is no telling how good Dom Brown will be. It is still way too early to tell and he could turn out to be the next big super star. But that's a risk I'm willing to take if in return you can get Hunter Pence who is young, proven, and will be here for at least 2 more years. I wouldn't trade him for a rental but I would trade him for a guy that is going to give you 2 more seasons at the prime of his career.

This is all speculation and I could go on all day about who the Phillies should trade and who they should keep. I just keep going back to the fact that the window of opportunity for this team to win another World Series is running out. If they are too concerned about the future, they may miss out on the chance to bring this city another parade down Broad Street.