Since coming back from a tweaked hammy last week, Florida Marlin’s prospect Cameron Maybin has been playing well enough to make a strong case for the center field starting gig. He came back last Thursday and immediately showed that he felt no ill-effects from the injury, hitting a single in his first at bat and then stealing 2nd. His speedy performance prompted manager Fredi Gonzalez to say:
“It was like he was never hurt. It’s nice to be 20 again, feeling no pain.”
He has hit in every game since then, going 1-for-3 on Friday and 1-for-3 on Sunday and this spring is batting .294 with 2 doubles, 2 runs scored, 2 RBI, and a stolen base. According to Joe Fisaro of MLB.com, the only thing holding Maybin back is his lack of experience against big league pitchers, as he has only 69 at-bats higher than Class-A. Maybin will be a great source of stolen bases for fantasy owners if he starts, and it looks like soon we’ll have to bump him to the top tier on our 2008 Rookie Fantasy Sleepers page.
