Cameron Maybin has been one of the most frustrating and intriguing players to watch over the last eight years. After flying through Detroit’s system just under two years, he made his first appearance in 2007 with lackluster results. Following that 2007 season, he was the centerpiece, along with Andrew Miller, in the Miguel Cabrera deal between the Marlins and the Tigers. He opened the 2008 season with the Marlins AA team and put together his best season to date, when in 459 AB’s, he gave us a line of 73/13/49/21/.277. He followed that with a September call up where he stole 4 bags and scored 9 runs in 32 PA’s. I remember being disappointed in 2009, when after that great call-up, he was set to start the year in AAA and we all had to wait to add him when he got the call. At the time I didn’t know SAGNOF yet, but I was playing it. Always searching for the cheap SB’s or anyone playing against Chris Young when he was on the Padres. For those that forgot, in 2006 and 2007, Chris Young gave up 41 and 44 SB’s respectively, which averaged out to about one every four innings. YIKES! Sorry, back to Maybin. After that, it was just one long roller coaster of solid minor league performance followed by MLB disappointment until a trade that put him in a San Diego uniform, with a chance to start over.
2011 was his best pro-season, when he scored 82 runs, stole 40 bags, and had 41 XBH in 137 games. What a steal he was that year! Pun point! He battled small injuries, but for the most part was able to put up back-to-back 140 game seasons. Last year, he was limited to 14 games as he battled knee and wrist issues, and was lost for the season. Since joining the Padres this year on April 27th, he’s batted .361 with 5 runs, 5 doubles and a stolen base. Unfortunately, he has spent all of this season in a pitcher’s park, and the Padres have been offensively asleep for most of that.
When I seek out my hitters of the week, I like to find guys with good match-ups and playing in favorable parks. We need to take advantage of the circumstances. This week, Cameron Maybin gets a sink or swim test, as he gets to travel to Cincinnati and Colorado for 6 games starting on Tuesday. These two parks are ranked 1st and 3rd respectively for home runs, and what else do we need to know….right? Cool, I’ll see you all next week…
I keed I keed. He has no history with Mike Leake or Alfredo Simon, but I’m not too worried about that. Bottom line is, he’s been hitting well and a streak is a streak. The other Cincy pitcher he gets is Johnny Cueto, who has been a stud so far this year, but will likely see that 0.134 ERA rise up to his norm at some point. Maybin has hit .444 with a home run in the couple of games he’s faced him. The sample size is small, (that’s what she said), but I like the hot hitting Maybin to continue his comeback in the mini-park in the city that used to be called Porkopolis. Excuse me for a minute, but really? I’m calling for a name change, even though I don’t live in Ohio. Can you imagine the T-shirts, Porkopolis is for lovers, I had my heart attack in Porkopolis, Porkopolis or bust, and I went to Porkopolis and all I got was lousy artery blockage. The real meat of the week for Maybin is his trip to Coors. He’s Bichetter in the thin air! Lifetime he’s batted .320 with 4 HR’s in 24 games. That is the most home runs for him at any away ballpark. When you have a player that is a 10 HR guy, you want as many of those you can get, and this is the week where opportunity outweighs pessimism.
He’s in his age 27 year, which is a favorite urban basement legend, and is regularly hitting doubles. He’s doing this while having a higher than usual GB rate and a very low LD rate. Those numbers should start to come up, and that only means more doubles shouldn’t be out of the question. His speed helps him turn well placed hits into stand-up doubles, and leaves him in scoring position. I don’t think it would be out of the question to see 6 runs, 1 HR, 2 SB, and and a happy owner at the end of the week. With the rash of injuries right now I know a lot of you are looking for help while we wait for our “studs” to come back and are having to resort to batty calls to get us through these difficult times.
Others under consideration: Drew Stubbs, Gerardo Parra, Corey Dickerson, C.J. Cron, Chris Denorfia, Denard Span, Carlos Quentin(if off the DL)
