Matthew Brown

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Matthew Benjamin Brown

Bats Right, Throws Right
Height 6' 0", Weight 200 lb.

High School Coeur d'Alene High School
Debut May 10, 2007
Born August 8, 1982 in Bellevue, WA USA

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[edit] Biographical Information

Matt Brown made his major league debut in 2007.

Brown was picked by the Anaheim Angels in the 10th round of the 2001 amateur draft. He debuted with the AZL Angels and hit .163/.275/.248 while playing second base primarily. In 2002, Matthew batted .296/.406/.361 in 32 games for the Provo Angels and .361/.443/.495 for the AZL Angels. Baseball America rated him the #7 prospect in the Arizona League, right ahead of Travis Ishikawa.

Brown struggled in 2003 with the Cedar Rapids Kernels (.207/.306/.311 in 49 games) but hit .292/.412/.515 in 65 games for Provo, scoring 58 and driving in 52. He led Pioneer League third basemen in assists (131) and double plays (13).

In 2004, the Washingtonian showed good power despite struggling on the contact front, driving out 23 home runs and bringing in 82 runners. He hit .233/.303/.455 with 126 strikeouts in 437 AB at age 21. Baseball America also rated him as the best defensive third baseman in the Midwest League.

Brown batted .262/.329/.432 for the 2005 Rancho Cucamonga Quakes with 39 doubles, 12 home runs and 125 strikeouts. He had the best fielding percentage (.948) of any California League third baseman.

Matthew hit .293/.362/.495 in 2006 for the Arkansas Travelers as his offensive performance continued to improve. He hit 41 doubles, 19 home runs and drove in 79 while scoring 77. He cut his strikeouts to 108 in 515 AB. He led the Angels farm system in doubles and was third in the Texas League in that department. He had the most putouts of TL third basemen (96) but also the most errors (27). He then hit .295/~.329/.385 for the Scottsdale Scorpions in the Arizona Fall League, splitting third base duties with Ryan Braun.

Brown began 2007 with the Salt Lake Bees and batted .300/.374/.500 in 30 games. He was then called up to the majors to replace Brandon Wood; the idea was that Wood, a top prospect, needed to play every day, whereas Brown would serve better in a bench role. He debuted on May 10 as a defensive substitute for Orlando Cabrera in the top of the 8th inning. In the bottom of the 8th against Aaron Fultz, he flew out to LF David Dellucci.

Brown played for the USA in the 2008 Olympics and had their second-best OPS (trailing Jason Donald), hitting .281/.390/.563 while rotating between third base, first base and DH. He drove in 10 runs in 9 games. He had 3 RBI in their loss to the South Korean national team, which took home Gold. His solo homer off of Shairon Martis got the scoring going in a victory over the Dutch national team. Brown hit a 3-run homer off of Tsuyoshi Wada and later scored another run in the 8-4 Bronze Medal game win against Japan. In the opening round, Brown's 6 RBI tied Nate Schierholtz, Giorvis Duvergel, Atsunori Inaba, Alexei Bell and Takahiro Arai for 4th, trailing Alfredo Despaigne, Dae-ho Lee and Michel Enriquez.