He did.

Kinda getting tired of asking questions in the headline and then answering them in the body… but the Philly.com cougar-mound headline has already won the day, so there’s no use in even trying.

Here’s what Jimmy Rollins said about Dom Brown in Ryan Lawrence’s Daily News cover story today– an obvious shot at Ruben Amaro et al.:

“It’s motivation, certainly,” Jimmy Rollins said of Brown’s regular demotions in the last 2 years. “At the same time, when the organization isn’t showing you any confidence, it doesn’t matter if you motivate yourself. You go down there after being sent down the first time, you [hit]. After they send you down the second time, you go down and [hit]. What the heck do I keep getting sent down for? I come down here, hit .300. I go up there, play once a week and they say I can’t play. It’s hard to be motivated when you can only do so much.”

When asked whether Brown is playing with a clearer head, given the regular playing time, Rollins continued with his pointed criticism of the Phillies’ management.

“When you don’t have to battle the organization, I think you become that way,” Rollins said of playing relaxed. “He was never playing against anyone. It was just the organization thinking he’s ready or not. Every organization has players like that, that they like, but, their fear is he’s not ready. I’m the complete opposite. There’s only one way to find out. Your opinion doesn’t matter to me. Let me go out there, see if I can do it or if I can’t. The numbers will show if you give me a fair shot.”

Yikes. Yet, J-Roll™ is right. The organization made the decision to call up Brown probably earlier than they should have, but since the team was competing for a championship, they couldn’t afford to let him have his struggles at the Big League level. Solution? More yo-yoing than a strange handjob. Only now is Brown finally living up to some level of the expectations set for him.

Reached for comment on Rollins’, um, comments, Amaro offered only this:

Amaro_finger

And then I asked him how to build a winning team. He offered this:

Amaro_shrug

Stuffed mushrooms sound good though.