Brandon Phillips on Wikipedia
Phillip’s profile on Reds.com
Black Ice: Ladies

Brandon Emil Phillips was born in Raleigh, North Carolina on June 28, 1981. He attended Redan high School in Georgia. He currently resides in Stone Mountain, Georgia. He’s single, and I understand he’s dating the sister of fellow-former-Indian Coco Crisp, Sheileah Crisp. Sheileah is a professional figure skater.

Phillips is spunky, funny, and entirely likeable. He’s got a great smile and great enthusiasm. He was once quoted in the Cincinnati Enquirer using the word crunk:

If he had thrown me one more high pitch, he probably would have struck me out, but he threw it a little bit lower and I got the head out and I ended up hitting a line drive to center field, drove in two,” Phillips said. “I was thankful and I was real crunk – which means I was happy.

Which I thought was awesome because it demonstrated that Phillips doesn’t consider himself too much of a badass to define his hip, young, cool terminology. Sure, it’s not the definition of crunk as I understand it, but still.

Brandon Phillips is the spunky second baseman of the Cincinnati Reds who came to the team when several players were competing to start at second. Ryan Freel, Tony Womack, and Rich Aurilia were all making a realistic play for the position coming out of spring training, so when Wayne Krivsky traded for Phillips on April 7, 2006, we rolled our eyes. It didn’t take long before it no longer looked like we had a logjam at second, though. No, indeed, very soon after that move we had only one second baseman.

The Reds got Phillips from the Cleveland Indians for a player to be named later or cash. The player later named turned out to be Jeff Stevens. With the Indians organization, Phillips was known for his glove and a propensity to swing for the fences. They apparently got tired of waiting for him to be satisfied with hitting for average and sent him packing to the ‘Nati.

With the Reds, first thing he did was be named the NL Player of the week. Apparently being on a team with a half-dozen home run sluggers took some of the pressure off. Or maybe some of their skills just rubbed off; his Player of the Week week included two home runs.

The deal for Brandon Phillips is one of three major deals made early in the tenure of Wayne Krivsky that solidified the legitimacy of the new general manager. The other two deals being those for Bronson Arroyo and David Ross. While all three players have been performing admirably in the first half of 2006, Phillips appears to have the most staying power. Arroyo has already begun falling off, and Ross is on the disabled list, but Phillips might just be the real deal.