Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Did I say that all eyes are on Asheville’s baseball prodigy, Cameron Maybin? Yes. You knew that. But in case you didn’t, here more proof, in the form of a long Miami Herald piece that tells us even more about Maybin:
JUPITER – Ask Cameron Maybin what he would say to introduce himself to Marlins fans and his fast, easy smile reveals a mouthful of braces.
”All I’ve got to say,” he replies, ‘is, `Stay tuned.’ ”
Maybin isn’t old enough to buy a beer and has a kid’s face that would blend in on most high school baseball teams, but the confidence is full-grown. He surely won’t volunteer he expects to become one of the all-time greats, but if you suggest that’s where his potential seems aimed, you’ll get no argument.
You want to make Fredi Gonzalez smile? Just say Maybin’s name and nothing more. A baseball manager inheriting this kid, at age 20, is like an art teacher inheriting Michelangelo before the oils have dried on his first painting.
”You start seeing that swing,” Gonzalez said. “That bat they all talk about.”
The care and handling of young Maybin will be one of the intriguing elements of this Marlins spring training as the team’s first full-squad workday unfolds Thursday up here in Jupiter.
Watch this child-star unlimber his 6-4 frame and send moonshots over the wall. Watch him get from the batter’s box to first base as if chased by the devil. Watch him take a double to center field and make it disappear in his glove for an out.
Then keep telling yourself he is the youngest player by two years on a very young team. That he is a rookie with barely a year in the minors.
Gonzalez was kidding Maybin this week about the club’s facial-hair policy for players. Mustaches are OK, but no beards. With some guys, this is not an issue.
”I told him he had a little beard going,” Gonzalez said of what appeared to be a shadow of fuzz on Maybin’s face. ‘I said, `Can you grow a little Fu Manchu instead?’ ”
Sheepishly the kid shrugged and said, “No, that’s all I got.”
Marlins stars Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis were traded to Detroit in December in the Marlins’ latest cost-cutting move, with six prospects arriving in return, including Maybin, Florida’s center fielder of the future — and likely present — and left-handed pitcher Andrew Miller. The two prospects are supposed to make a Marlins fan forget all about once hating the trade.
…
Now arrives Maybin, and the best thing about his potential is that we might get to enjoy it, rather than see him traded in yet another cost-cutting move just when he gets good enough to command big dollars. That’s the presumed byproduct of the new Marlins stadium that could finally be approved as soon as Thursday.
Maybin leads the first wave of incoming stars the club might actually be able to afford to keep.
The long-term Marlins future we’ll believe when we see. But the stardom seems all but guaranteed. Gonzalez describes Maybin as having the speed to be a leadoff man but with the power to be a run producer. He could bat first through fifth.
”I’m wide open,” said the manager, enjoying the dilemma. Where Maybin will be on Opening Day isn’t certain, either.
”There are some in the organization who want him to start in Double A,” Gonzalez admits. “But some say bring him up right now. We’ll do what’s best for him.”
The Marlins don’t want to rush Maybin and put pressure on him; neither do they wish to keep under wraps what is poised to bust out.
”His potential is off the charts,” Gonzalez said. “And I think his character and makeup will allow him to do that.”
…
He was a batboy for the minor-league Asheville Tourists. By high school, scouts were swooning. His advisers were Ken Griffey Jr.’s agents, spawning a friendship that has lasted. Griffey is why Maybin wears No. 24.
”He looks out for me,” Maybin said of Griffey. “He’s left-handed, but we have some of the same abilities. I always admired how he made such a hard game look easy.”</blockquote
