LI prospect Ben Brown hoping to go far in Phillies system

Ben Brown spent the offseason throwing. Lifting weights, running, cross training, and all the other things that can dominate a baseball winter is great, but the East Setauket native needed to know that his arm could handle anything when he next took the mound. And, he couldn’t be wrong. 

As a pitcher, throwing is the thing, and Brown — a righty prospect ranked 26th in the Phillies system according to mlb.com — just wanted to do it again.

“I still worked out as much as I could do, but there was definitely a big focus on throwing in the offseason,” said Brown, who pitches for the Jersey Shore BlueClaws, the Phillies high-A affiliate. “I didn't take any time off. I just wanted to build up my arm and to do it the right way.”

Brown, who pitched at Ward Melville before he was selected by the Phillies in 33rd round of the 2017 draft, had Tommy John surgery in May of 2019. After a setback in spring training last season, he returned to the mound in August — more than two years after going under the knife. With that kind of time off, arm strength and, more to the point, arm longevity becomes a concern. With his first full season as a professional on tap, Brown was leaving nothing to chance. He would make sure that his arm could go — and go deep.

“I just wanted to leave no doubt that I was going to be able to handle the stress of a full season,” he said.

The 22-year-old worked with former Ducks pitcher Tyler Levine at The Arm Academy in Farmingdale to prepare for the season.

“Some of the bullpens would go to 50-60 pitches, and he'd be like ‘dude, this is pretty crazy,’ ” Brown said. “I'm like,  ‘I feel good.’ We did this properly and he was on board with that, kind of increasing workload. We did it smart.”

Entering Wednesday, Brown was 2-5 with a 3.63 ERA in 14 appearances (13 starts). He struck out 88 and walked 23, pitching to a 1.18 WHIP in 62 innings.  After a tough April where he pitched to a 5.68 ERA in four starts (12 2/3 innings), he hit his stride in May. In four May starts, Brown was 2-1 with a 0.98 ERA in 18 1/3 innings. He struck out 30, walked seven, and held batters to a .129 batting average.

The success came from a minor mechanical adjustment that the BlueClaws made after the rough April.

“We decided that we're just going to have my body move a little bit faster down the mound and try to feel more athletic,” said Brown, who now lives in Clearwater, Florida during the offseason.  “We put an emphasis on that in our bullpens and, along with the weather getting a little bit warmer, something clicked and I was just in full attack mode.”

Brown is an imposing presence. At 6 feet, 6 inches and 210 pounds, his high-90s fastball can be a bear to barrel up on.

“He's got a lot of stuff coming at you, obviously with his size and everything,” said BlueClaws manager Keith Werman, who is in his first year in the Phillies organization. “The velocity speaks for itself. When he's going after the guys and throwing strikes early in the count, he's a tough one to hit against.”

Admittedly, Werman said he hasn’t been in the player development business long enough to make a hard and fast assessment on a Single-A pitcher who hasn’t thrown a whole season yet, but he loves what he sees.

“I would argue that his stuff's there,” Werman said. “It's definitely in the tank and he's got the capabilities to be a great major leaguer.”