Ben Brown has been terrible lately and I’d be a liar to say I didn’t see it coming.
We’ve talked a lot about the young righty on the MMCS and it’s all coming to a head with the Cubs being very good this year.
Simply put, you don’t have a long leash for him to develop and work through his problems when you’re good enough to win a world series.
That’s the first and most important consideration – the team is good enough to play for a World Series this year and that means we can’t be fucking around too much.
Next consideration – is Ben Brown fucking around too much?
I say yes and that’s because he can’t command his fastball. He can control it sometimes meaning he doesn’t walk everyone. But he has limited command meaning he doesn’t necessarily throw it where he means to with conviction.
You can have control without command.
You cannot have command without control.
The difference is the quality of the strike and Ben Brown throws low quality strikes with his fastball.
Because of this, he is prone to bad outings. And at time of writing this, 4 of his 11 starts are deemed Non Competitive meaning he’s giving up 5+ runs in less than 5 innings where two of those have come in his last two starts.
Collectively, the Cubs are 6-5 in Ben Brown starts but the harsh realization is he’s trending down and you can just use the eye test. I don’t care about the shape or speed of a fastball when it’s cock high down the middle of the plate because he’s down in the count 2-0 and doesn’t want to issue a walk.
That’s the biggest problem with Ben Brown. So many pitches and moments are delivered with a white flag hanging out his back pocket.
And then he has the balls to tell the media after a bad outing… “I made good pitches.”
My fuckin ass
He doesn’t have the right attitude to be a 2-pitch starter in MLB. You have to be such a mean spirited, intense individual that’s singularly focused on his next fastball.
Instead, Ben Brown is emotional and sensitive and inappropriately introspective. Basically the complete opposite of what you want behind a 98-mph four seamer.
So that’s how we get to the point where he’s delivering sloppy performances and not really getting better the way he needs to justify a spot in this rotation. Because, again, we’re operating under the assumption that this Cubs team is special and can accomplish great things.
Last year and many years prior, we could stomach a full season of his development as a starter.
Now though, we have more urgency and that brings us to a decision.
Notably – what to do with Ben Brown when Shota returns from injury. Because for my money, he’s the odd man out now that I’ve seen Cade Horton’s stuff and polish. Between Ben and Cade there isn’t a competition which should be fairly obvious for the front office.
So where does Ben go?
My personal opinion says we NEED to give him two options because it has to be his choice:
- AAA where you learn how to be a competent starter
- MLB bullpen but you’re there the rest of the year
Ben should get to pick if he wants to make the transition to the bullpen for the good of the team. Or does he want to continue down the path of being a starter. In that case he has to go down to Des Moines to work on his stuff to the extent that it becomes notably better and more-commanded in order to come back to MLB. And even that’s not a guarantee.
Given that choice, I think Ben Brown goes to the bullpen which is where he belongs anyways.
But this is where I might lose you guys…
The reason you go to all this trouble is because I think Ben Brown is too soft. I think if you force him to the bullpen then he gets crabby and you don’t even get a good version of Ben Brown. So in that case, I think you flip it and make him accountable for his own decision where he doubles down to extreme ownership.
Most important though is we all agree he should not be starting when Shota comes back.
And in a perfect world, he could just go to the bullpen but I think it’s more complicated when you consider the delicate egos at play in MLB. Just being honest about that and I think you have to cater to the athlete a little more which I think is bullshit but the reality we’re working with.
Is any of this actually true?
Who knows – but this is exactly how I’d handle the situation and that’s the point of this blog.