Gary Brown, the Giants No. 1 prospect, was part of a San Jose Giants team that steamrolled the opposition en route to a ridiculous 90 victories in just 131 games.
Actually, Brown was the driving force behind the Class-A Advanced behemoth in San Jose, and he was rewarded by Minor League Baseball by being named the Best Class A Advanced Hitter of 2011.
"I don't think there's anything he can't do," Brown's manager Andy Skeels said, via Andrew Pentis of MiLB.com. "When he gets to the Majors, can he do some of the same things that he did in the Minor Leagues? He'll have that opportunity."
Brown finished third in the league in batting (.336 average), second in runs (115), first in hits (188; a San Jose record), first in triples (13), second in total bases (290), and second in steals (53).
And the kid's pretty humble too.
"It was a productive first season, but I have my work cut out for me here in the [Arizona Fall League]," Brown said last week. "So it was short-lived."
Brown was picked by the Giants at 24th overall in the 2010 draft, and he's a good bet to keep moving quickly through the farm system -- Giants director of player development Fred Stanley wouldn't confirm to Pentis that Brown will start in Double-A next year but it seems likely.
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But Giants fans shouldn't get their hopes up to see Brown in the bigs too soon -- he struggled a little bit in the latter part of the season as pitchers became more familiar with him at the plate.
"He started out like gangbusters," Skeels said. "Then the league started to learn him a little."
Brown was considered a possible trade candidate when the Giants made a move for Carlos Beltran at the deadline -- his success at San Jose tells you exactly why the team decided not to make a move.
