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HWL Wrap: Brown Shines, Drabek Returning To Form

The Hawaiian Winter League closed play this weekend, and the prospects who represented the Phillies over there finished quite a strong campaign.

21-year-old outfield prospect Dominic Brown was the league’s top hitter, striking a .389 average and league-leading 1.047 OPS (he was on base more than half the time). Though his power numbers weren’t high, he walked more than he struck out, a good sign considering he had a 72/22 split for Lakewood this year. He was named to the all-league team.

Fellow outfield prospect Michael Taylor joined Brown with the Honolulu Sharks, but struggled with a .247 average and .759 OPS. Both Brown and Taylor remain top outfield prospects, with the former heading to Clearwater in 2009, and the latter possibly moving up to Reading.

The only pitching prospect in Hawaii was Kyle Drabek. The former first-round pick threw 20.2 innings, striking out 19 and walking four en route to a 3.05 ERA. Best of all was his 0.58 WHIP, which led the league. He’ll hopefully be back in line after Tommy John surgery sidelined him in 2007. Look for Drabek, 21 in 2009, to start the year in Lakewood.

Tim Malcolm

Tim first found the Phillies as a little infant at Veteran’s Stadium, cheering on a Juan Samuel game-winning home run in his very first game. With the pinstripes in his blood, he witnessed Terry Mulholland’s 1990 no-hitter, “Steve Carlton Night” at the Vet, game three of the 1993 World Series, countless games during the charmed 2008 championship season and various road excursions. Since November 2007 Tim’s been writing about them daily at Phillies Nation, becoming one of the world’s most popular Phillies scribes. You can catch him on Twitter and Facebook, as well. When he’s not talking about the Phils he’s relaxing with a St. Bernardus ABT 12 or one of his many favored brews.