Okay, we're looking at a small sample size here, but three games into his career with the Seawolves, Cameron Maybin is off to a hell of a start. Double-A ball might not be able to contain this kid.
Yesterday, Maybin hit his third home run since joining the Seawolves, which means he's hit a homer in every one of his games with Erie thus far. I don't want to get too carried away, but if he kept that pace up, he'd give Erie 21 home runs for the season. And how does a .400/.538/1.300 line look to you?
He's not just putting up numbers when they don't have an effect on the game, either. Maybin's home run yesterday gave the Seawolves a 7-6 lead, and that turned out to be the game's final score. Take 75 North wonders if Maybin might be energized by playing meaningful games for a winning team, in front of bigger crowds. Maybe this is a guy who rises to the occasion.
If you'd like to nitpick, I suppose you could point out that each of his three home runs have been solo shots. But yesterday, Michael Hollimon cleared most of the runners off the bases before Maybin came to the plate.
Maybin's big day with the bat obscured a poor day on the mound for Dallas Trahern, by the way. Trahern gave up all six of Connecticut's runs (on nine hits) in four innings of work.
EDIT: One more Erie player that needs to be mentioned is Jair Jurrjens, who could be Wednesday's mystery starting pitcher. The likelier choice is probably Virgil Vasquez, since he's started two games for the Tigers this season, and showed major improvement in his second major league start. Two factors working in Jurrjens' favor, however, are his last three starts, in which he has an 0.78 ERA, and his performance against left-handed hitters (.248 BAA). I'm kind of rooting for Jurrjens to get the call. Not just because it would be exciting to watch him for the first time, but I want to hear some clarification on how to pronounce his name.