Brown in the Orange and Black

One of the forgotten moves in the memorable 2002 season came when the Giants acquired Kenny Lofton in a deadline deal with the White Sox. A decade later, I regret that the Giants didn't try and keep him longer. He has a career WAR of 65.8 -- higher than some of the guys in the Hall of Fame. Let's remember who it was who drove in the winning run with two outs in the 9th that got the Giants into the World Series that year. So it's more than intriguing that Giants prospect Gary Brown is mentioned in the same breath as Lofton.

I haven't gone to the always interesting Bay City Ball site for awhile but Chris Quick has a loooong recap of the top 5 prospects, led by Gary Brown, followed by Joe Panik, Tommy Joseph, Erik Surkamp and Heath Hembree.

Rory Paap is particularly enthused about Brown -- It’s probabaly foolish and wishful thinking that I’m fairly optimistic about the Giants’ system–which is frankly pretty thin–but I am. Fittingly, there’s no player on this list or any other that I’m more excited about than Gary Brown. I cannot wait to see what he does with the daunting challenge that Double-A will be for him in 2012. I hope he’s up for it. I think he is.

With the exception of Torres’ remarkable 2010 season, the Giants have not had a quality center fielder or a legitimate leadoff hitter since Kenny Lofton, and he came only for one half of a (nearly triumphant) season to patch up the Shinjo-Calvin Murray debacle. That’s 10 seasons. Gary Brown, if all goes to plan, is the answer to a painful, decade-long problem. He puts the demons of Dave Roberts to bed.

Brown is lightning fast, has excellent contact skills with a surprising amount of pop (14 home runs, .519 SLG in San Jose), and his absolute floor as a defender in a premium position is probably around average. If he can polish up his outfield instincts and continue to draw walks and get on base at a respectable rate, he’s going to be a very useful player with more star potential than Panik. And finally, I can confirm that he’s nothing like Aaron Rowand, the only exceptions being their Fullerton alumni status and a penchant for being hit by pitches. And that particular skill might well prove to be pretty handy given how dangerous Brown ought to be on the paths.