The Phillies are playing some pretty good baseball over the past week or so and with the team looking to keep the energy positive, two All-Pros from across the parking lot paid a visit.
A.J. Brown and Jalen Hurts visited Citizen’s Bank Park on Tuesday night, taking batting practice and networking with Philadelphia’s top major league baseball stars ahead of an evening matchup against the Detroit Tigers.
Can't get over watching Jalen throw a baseball just like he throws a football 😂
Phillies Pregame Live on air NOW! pic.twitter.com/oG2Ar74B6Z
— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) June 6, 2023
Phillies manager Rob Thompson was left overly impressed with the duo, calling the Brown and Hurts “tremendous people” as well as elite athletes.
“It was very brief, but both of those guys A.J. and Jalen just tremendous people,” Thomson said to the 94WIP Morning Show. “You can see how much they respected other people around them. Very professional, coming in and getting to know everybody. And boy I’ll tell you, some kind of athletes. Jalen, just starting to play catch with him he was struggling because throwing a baseball is a little bit different than throwing a football, but because of the athleticism he adjusted so quickly. And by the time we were done playing catch he was hitting me in the chest with every throw.
“And A.J., I think was drafted out of high school for baseball and boy, could he really swing the bat. He hit four or five balls into the seats. Jalen is more of a contact, line drive, ground ball guy. So he’d be kind of my lead off guy and A.J. would be more in the three-four slot because he’s got that power and he hits the ball all over the place. A lot of our guys came out and watched them and we had a lot of fun.”
Scouting report on #Eagles AJ Brown taking BP at #Philies today. Hit 3 dingers out of the ballpark. AJ Played football and baseball at #OleMiss. Was drafted by #Padres and participated 3 seasons at extended spring training for Padres. @SportsRadioWIP pic.twitter.com/S9sL1jv1OT
— Howard Eskin (@howardeskin) June 6, 2023
Brown has a natural swing at the plate and gave Phillies brass an up-close look at why the Padres coveted his skillset prior to the wide receiver attending Ole Miss.
