2009 Impact Rookie: Cameron Maybin

by
February 25, 2009

Florida loves its rookies. Cameron Maybin has been a top prospect since high school and he was taken by the Detroit Tigers with the 10th overall pick of the 2005 draft. Maybin was also the key trading chip (along with pitcher Andrew Miller) that sent Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis to Detroit prior to the 2008 season.

After spending the majority of the 2008 season in Double-A, Maybin is poised to enter 2009 as the Marlins’ starting center-fielder. The athletic, right-handed hitter batted .500 (16-for-32) in a brief MLB trial in late 2008 with the Marlins. He stolen four bases in eight games, but also whiffed eight times. Maybin could be one of those players, not unlike Florida shortstop Hanley Ramirez, that rises to the occasion, basks in the spotlight, and posts better numbers in the Majors than he did in the minors.

Last season in Double-A, Maybin hit .277/.375/.456 with 13 homes and 21 stolen bases in 390 at-bats. He also posted a respectable walk rate of 13.3 BB%, but a high strikeout rate of 31.8 K%, which could very well hurt his batting average early in his career if it does not improve.

Maybin can impact a game in a number of different ways. He has raw power and should be good for 15-20 homers in his prime. Maybin also has the speed to steal 30-40 bases in a season. Defensively, he has game-changing range and instincts, while also possessing a strong arm. Once he learns to hit breaking balls better, he could improve upon his .297 career minor league batting average. Maybin struggled with runners on base in 2008 and hit just .232 in those situations.

Maybin’s biggest competition for a starting role in 2009 is himself. He has to keep things simple and trust his natural ability; only a terrible spring will keep him off the opening-day roster. Other outfielders on the 40-man roster that can play center include Cody Ross (ticketed for left field), Alfredo Amezaga (a solid utility player), and Brett Carroll (fringe MLB starter). For fantasy purposes, Maybin could be a solid sleeper but don’t spend a high pick on him. He should hit about .270/.345/.390 with 10 homers and 20 stolen bases in his first season in Florida.

You Aren't a FanGraphs Member
It looks like you aren't yet a FanGraphs Member (or aren't logged in). We aren't mad, just disappointed.
We get it. You want to read this article. But before we let you get back to it, we'd like to point out a few of the good reasons why you should become a Member.
1. Ad Free viewing! We won't bug you with this ad, or any other.
2. Unlimited articles! Non-Members only get to read 10 free articles a month. Members never get cut off.
3. Dark mode and Classic mode!
4. Custom player page dashboards! Choose the player cards you want, in the order you want them.
5. One-click data exports! Export our projections and leaderboards for your personal projects.
6. Remove the photos on the home page! (Honestly, this doesn't sound so great to us, but some people wanted it, and we like to give our Members what they want.)
7. Even more Steamer projections! We have handedness, percentile, and context neutral projections available for Members only.
8. Get FanGraphs Walk-Off, a customized year end review! Find out exactly how you used FanGraphs this year, and how that compares to other Members. Don't be a victim of FOMO.
9. A weekly mailbag column, exclusively for Members.
10. Help support FanGraphs and our entire staff! Our Members provide us with critical resources to improve the site and deliver new features!
We hope you'll consider a Membership today, for yourself or as a gift! And we realize this has been an awfully long sales pitch, so we've also removed all the other ads in this article. We didn't want to overdo it.




 

Marc Hulet has been writing at FanGraphs since 2008. His work focuses on prospects and fantasy. Follow him on Twitter @marchulet.

Comments are closed.