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Is Cameron Maybin Here to Stay?

 

The scouting report on Cameron Maybin hasn’t changed much since the Detroit Tigers selected him 10th overall in the 2005 amateur draft. “A prototypical five-tool player trying to learn how to turn his potential into performance.” Well here we are ten years later, and the once glorified minor-league prospect appears to finally be tapping into the potential that scouts used to rave about. At age 28, Maybin is blossoming into one of the biggest surprises of the 2015 season and is showing no indications of slowing down. Do we have another Jose Bautista case on our hands? Perhaps to a much lesser extent, but let’s not get carried away just yet.

Will there ever be a way to validate the Tiger’s decision to take him over Andrew McCutchen back in 2005? Of course not, but nine other teams passed on McCutchen as well so that’s not the point. The point is that in 2015, Maybin is proving that he can be a useful, everyday player in the big leagues with the ability to perform slightly better than your league-average center fielder. Through 81 games, Maybin ranks 7th in OBP and 10th in wRC+ among center fielders with at least 200 plate appearances. He is sporting career highs across the board and has given the Braves an unexpected and extremely valuable bargaining chip as the trade deadline approaches.

So what exactly has changed? Maybin has been asked this same question on multiple occasions throughout the season and each time he responds, praise is thrown in the direction of new Braves hitting coach, Kevin Seitzer, who’s hitting philosophy revolves around driving the ball up the middle. Now, I am sure that many other hitting coaches have this same philosophy, but for whatever reason, Seitzer has been able to get through to Maybin and successfully revamp his entire thought process when it comes to hitting. Let’s take a closer look at how.

Seitzer immediately recognized that at 6-foot-3, Maybin had a naturally long swing that was slow through the strike zone. To correct this, he recommended that Maybin start with his hands closer to his body, which would provide a shorter and more compact swing.  This slight mechanical adjustment is allowing him to hit the ball with more authority than ever before. Check out Maybin’s line-drive percentage on a yearly basis since 2010 in the table below.

Year LD%
2010 14.2
2011 15.9
2012 16.1
2013 19.0
2014 17.0
2015 23.6

Maybin’s whole approach to hitting has changed under Seitzer as well. He has never owned a strikeout percentage to write home about and his 2015 mark of 17.4% is no different. However, it’s worth noting that this is down 3.2% from last year, so signs of improvement are not exactly absent in that regard. What’s even more worth noting is that Maybin is walking more than he ever has which is a direct product of his astronomical improvement in situational hitting. Check out Maybin’s walk to strikeout ratio on a yearly basis since 2010 in the table below.

Year BB/K
2010 0.26
2011 0.35
2012 0.40
2013 0.44
2014 0.34
2015 0.55

Maybin is thriving with a .400/.452/.898 slash line with runners in scoring position this year (all career highs), showing that he really is taking Seitzer’s philosophy to heart. For the first time in his career, he seems to have a plan every time he steps into the batters box. He is putting the ball in play to the right side 30.9% of the time in 2015 which is 7.1% better than his previous career high in 2012. Nothing illustrates the change in Maybin’s approach better than the spray charts below. In 2011 with San Diego, which is his best completed statistical season to date, you can see that he was almost exclusively pull happy. The shift in the distribution of hits in 2015 shows that Maybin is succeeding in his effort to shorten his swing and drive the ball the other way.

                          

 

Can he keep this up? That remains to be seen, however, this does not have the makings of a complete fluke. Surely his BABIP is due to come down eventually, but it’s hard to think that he will revert completely back to his old habits. Maybin said earlier this season that he had always felt like he was missing something when it came to hitting. With the help of Kevin Seitzer, the former North Carolina high school standout has finally found it, and it’s a joy to watch.