Todd Brown helped minor league teams for decade, made AAA

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Todd Brown 1988 Denver Zephyrs baseball card

Helena Gold Sox player Todd Brown hit well early in the 1985 season, enough so that by late July the Brewers minor leaguer was being asked in the local Helena Independent-Record if he was disappointed not to have moved up.

"I just take it day-by-day," Brown told The Independent-Record then. "I'm having a good time right now. Things will work out for me. I'm satisfied just helping the team."

Brown eventually did move up that year, to single-A Beloit. In a career that spanned more than a decade, however, he never saw the majors.

Brown's career began that year in 1985, taken by the Brewers in the fifth round of the draft out of Arizona State.

Brown joined Arizona State as a walk-on and was hitting .360 with 12 home runs by April in 1984, The Arizona Republic wrote. 

"We knew we had something when we first saw him," Arizona State coach Jim Brock told The Republic then. "The two things you look for are speed  and some pop in the bat. He had both."

Brown then started with the Brewers that summer at Helena and Beloit. He hit .447 in 53 games at Helena, then .185 in 17 games at Beloit.

He made single-A Stockton and AA El Paso in 1986. He hit .301 in 117 games that year, with 24 home runs.

Brown returned to El Paso for 105 games in 1987, then saw 68 games between Stockton, El Paso and AAA Denver in 1988. He hit .294.

Brown went to Japan for 1989. He saw 31 games with Orix and hit .247. For 1990, he signed with the Astros and was sent to Mexico and Monclova. He finished out the year with 8 games at AAA Tucson.

That October in 1990, he spoke to his hometown Binghamton Press and Sun-Bulletin about his year and prospects, sounding resigned.

"The more I play and look around me, the more I wonder what it takes," Brown told The Press and Sun-Bulletin, recounting the story of a player he thought should have been called up, but wasn't. 

Brown's recorded as returning to Mexico with Yucatan in 1991, then continuing to play in Mexico through 1994. He's last recorded as playing in 1994 with Tabasco.

Todd Brown 1988 Denver Zephyrs baseball card


1990 Minor League Tally 
Players/Coaches Featured:4,557
Made the Majors:1,439-31.6%
Never Made Majors:3,118-68.4%-X
5+ Seasons in the Majors:585
10+ Seasons in the Minors:360-X

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