PHILADELPHIA – He hit .278 with 24 homers and 102 RBIs last season. At first base, he ended the year with 49 error-less games.
Sounds like a former Met first baseman, doesn’t it? It is. It’s Rico Brogna.
It would be an insult to Brogna to call him a poor man’s John Olerud. He is more of a middle-income Olerud. Olerud hit .298 with 19 homers and 96 RBIs last year. They both have excellent gloves.
“It’s all added together,” Phillies manager Terry Francona said. “He has driven in 100 runs two years in a row. He plays defense as well as anyone in the league.”
The big difference last season was Olerud’s .427 on-base percentage compared to Brogna’s .336 clip.
So in 1997, the Mets upgraded at first base by picking up Olerud and sending Brogna to Philadelphia for the forgettable duo of Toby Borland and Ricardo Jordan.
As Francona mentioned, Brogna, who turns 30 in less than a week, is eyeing his third consecutive 100-RBI season. The 34-year-old Todd Zeile owns one 100-RBI season and that occurred in 1993.
Brogna is a free agent after this season. He enjoys Philadelphia because, like Flushing, it’s close to his Watertown, CT, roots.
“I love it,” said Brogna, who lists Philadelphia as the No. 1 place he wants to sign. “I’ve enjoyed my time here better or as much as anywhere I’ve played. I loved my time in New York. Obviously because it’s so close to New York.”
Brogna is known as a good guy. After signing consecutive one-year deals during the past two season and avoiding arbitration, he’s gotten good contracts, but maybe he hasn’t maximize his worth. This is fine with him.
“They were very ‘easy’ negotiations,” Brogna said.
The fact that he is happy in Philadelphia is most important to him. He thinks the team is going to compete for a playoff spot this season. So it comes down to one thing for Brogna.
“If I’m happy some place, let’s just talk fairly,” said Brogna, who is doing fine after off-season knee and shoulder surgery.
Brogna is aided with the Phillies, like Zeile and Olerud with the Mets, by having a strong-hitting catcher in Mike Lieberthal and an above-average third baseman in Scott Rolen.
Brogna played with the Mets from ’94 through ’96. He saw his most action in ’95 as he played 134 games and hit .289 with 22 home runs and 76 RBIs. A torn labrum in his right shoulder cut short his ’96 season, and the Mets dealt him.
With the Phillies, Brogna is expected to produce runs, but he knows he is not going to be one of these Mark McGwire-type first basemen. His 24 home runs were a career-best.
“Production is the bottom line,” Brogna said. “When you’re slotted in the middle of the lineup your job is to score runs or drive them in or both your exceptionally.”
But Brogna adds his leather to his wood. This gives him that same special quality that Olerud owns.
“I can counter that with the defense I can play,” said Brogna, addressing his production that is less than some other guys at his position.
Brogna’s career didn’t begin with the Mets. The Tigers selected Brogna, who was also a Div. I college-worthy quarterback, in the first round out of Watertown High School in ’88. He was an All-American in both sports in high school. Clemson wanted him to go south to throw the football for them.
By ’92, Brogna made his first and only appearance in the Motor City, but he played nine games.
He never got back to Detroit and was traded to the Mets for fellow first-rounder Alan Zinter in ’94.