Baseball America’s weekly rundown on minor league transactions has one new bit of information.
Released: OF Dee Brown
Brown was the Nationals 10th round draft pick in 2005 out of the University of Central Florida. The 26-year old Brown is the son of late Philadelphia Eagles All-Pro defensive lineman Jerome Brown. He spent four seasons in the Nationals farm system, maxing out in Harrisburg in 2007. He spent the entire 2008 season with the P-Nats where he hit 296/370/439 with eight home runs and sixty-four RBI.
With his release, the Nationals have eight players remaining from their first draft in Washington (players in bold are on the 40-man):
- 1st round 3B Ryan Zimmerman - the Nationals starter
- 4th round OF Justin Maxwell - optioned to Syracuse today (has had cup of coffee with the Nats)
- 6th round RHP Marco Estrada - optioned to Syracuse today (has had cup of coffee with the Nats)
- 7th round OF Mike Daniel - at the Nationals minor league camp
- 8th round LHP Jack Spradlin - at the Nationals minor league camp
- 11th round LHP John Lannan - in the Nationals starting rotation
- 12th round RHP Craig Stammen - at the Nationals minor league camp
- 18th round 1B/3B Tim Pahuta - at the Nationals minor league camp
#1 by VladiHondo - March 17th, 2009 at 07:52
Just saw in same Minor League transactions, Levale Speigner hooked up with da Fish.
Hope he gets back to the bigs with ‘em.
#2 by longterm - March 17th, 2009 at 08:19
Those pitch counts are looking consitently big for Strasburg. Is that normal for a college ace going once a week? Are they considered less stressful if they are just a bunch of fastball strikeouts? I’m not sure what to make of this.
#3 by Pilchard - March 17th, 2009 at 09:42
Brian,
Realize that I am asking you to speculate and that Brown was headed down the career minor league path at best, but why do you think Brown was released at this point? Do the Nats have a glut of OFers? Aren’t most players released closer to the start of the season in April rather early in minor league camp?
Not a big deal at all, but the timing seems odd.
#4 by cjrugger - March 17th, 2009 at 09:53
Getting back on draft talk, BA has a blog post on some HS guys that might be intriguing at 9A
http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/draft/?p=590
It covers Jiovanni Mier, HS SS from Cali who will stay at SS with a strong arm and great actions, but his bat needs to come around
Also, Tyler Skaggs, LHP from CA, who is 6′5 and recently outpitched probable top 5 pick Tyler Matzek
#5 by cjrugger - March 17th, 2009 at 09:53
PS. scroll down to Mar 9th on the BA blog link for the other Skaggs story
#6 by BinM - March 17th, 2009 at 10:03
Pilchard:
Brown was just the 1st player this year caught by the “ripple” effect - As Brian said, Brown had maxxed out in AA, and with players being sent down by the big club, something has to give.
#7 by Wookie - March 17th, 2009 at 10:14
My wife and I got the distinct impression last year during the P-Nats championship celebration that Dee Brown would not be back. You could just tell that he thought it was over. I would not be surprised to hear that he asked to be released.
#8 by Sue Dinem - March 17th, 2009 at 12:38
To me, Brown was always somewhat of a disappointment in that he was supposed to have developed more power but it just never came.
#9 by natsfan1a - March 17th, 2009 at 15:14
I’m gonna miss hearing “What can Brown do for you?” when he comes up to bat.