I’m pretty high on Kenny Maiques.
Background
Kenny Maiques began his college baseball at Long Beach State, where he was a teammate of Jered Weaver and Troy Tulowitzki. He first popped up on the prospect radar when he flashed a 95 MPH fastball in the Alaska Summer League. Maiques had the decision to duke it out for playing time with Cesar Ramos (1st round, Padres), Marcos Estrada (6th round, Nationals), and Jared Hughes (4th round, Pirates in 2006), or to try and blaze his own path in a place where he was more certain to get playing time. At the 11th hour he opted for the latter, and attended Rio Hondo JC to beat up some substandard opposition. It was like playing MVP 2005 on rookie for Maiques, as he put up some outlandish numbers while earning the National Junior College Player of the Year award. Maiques threw 2 perfect games, posted a 0.66 ERA and struck out 133 in 82 innings pitched. Baseball America predicted he wouldn’t last past the third round, but right before the draft Maiques was dealt a devastating blow-He snapped his UCL and would need Tommy John. He thought his baseball career might be over, but the Cardinals took him in the 37th round and paid for his surgery.
Scouting
I’ve had the advantage of seeing Maiques on several occasions, and he is pretty nasty. He throws a 92-94 MPH 4-seam and 2-seam fastballs and just a sick, sick sharp breaking slider. It’s more of a hard slurve, it breaks more vertically then horizontally. Being a Michigan native, I am nominally a Tiger fan 2nd after the Cardinals and when I saw the pitch, it reminded me of Jeremy Bonderman’s. Because of his injury history and smaller frame (6-1, 185), there is some concern about his stamina if he were switched to starting. He also does throw with some effort. I’ve also read some concern about him being regulated to the facing right-handed batters primarily, but his platoon splits show no evidence of him struggling against lefties, rather he has dominated them both.
Stats:
Year Age Team BB/PA K/PA BABIP GB% HR/Air FIP BsRA9
2006 A- State College 18.8% 25.0% .333 67% 0% 3.55 3.24
2007 22 A Quad Cities 9.6% 27.4% .256 55% 5% 3.10 2.55
Not much to not like here. Maiques misses bats, burns worms and keeps it in the park. He set the all time record for saves for the Swing with 31.
Outlook
I’m higher on Maiques then most, I went as far to rank him our #9 prospect when others have him more in the bottom middle of their rankings. Reason being, I’ve seen him pitch and I was very impressed. With his two dominant offerings and (if you can pardon the corny baseball colloquialism), bulldog mentality, I think he’ll go far. Maybe I’ll regret saying this, but I believe that he has the stuff to close not just in the minors but also throughout his career. The consensus view is that he will make a fine late inning reliever if he can stay healthy. Right now, Maiques is probably ticketed to move up the next rung to close games for Palm Beach, but he should see time at AA at some point this season.
Filed under: Kenny Maiques, prospect profiles
erik
azruavatar
fewgoodcards
roarke49
theredbaaron
I agree. I caught this guys throw at a Kane County game and his stuff looked filthy. If he can tighten that breaking pitch into a later breaking slider, he will be better than Perez.
BJM–While you know I love Maiques, I’m not sure I can go along with you there. Maiques throws 93, 94. Perez is like 95-98. Maiques slider is a think of beauty, Perez’s is a WMD. It’s just sick, and it comes in very hard. I’d give the edge to Perez hands down. The only way he’d be better is if Perez’s command worsens.
I honestly haven’t seen Perez throw, but from what I have heard from others who have seen him that have seen him throw is that he has a long way to go on command to be effective. My former High School coach, who is an area scout for the Nats, saw Perez toss last season and thought that he almost had too much movement on his pitches. It is almost a Kip Wells type argument, in that his pitches move so much that all a catcher can do is sit up a target in the middle of the plate and let his movement do the rest. I am not sure how effective that kind of pitcher can really be. So yes–I will give you the fact that Perez ceiling is higher, but I am not convinced that he will ever reach that ceiling. I have a lot more faith in Maiques reaching his maximum potential. On the case of sliders though Perez currently has a much better one, hence the statment that Maiques needs to tighten his up–but this also contributes to Perez’s control problems. That is my caveat. Generally I think Maigues has a better shot of improving his slider, than Perez has of improving his control. Just my take.
I would really like to see him make the jump to Springfield, given that the closers’ role is there for the taking. Plus I’m greedy given that I could see him in person too.
GForce9 - Gregerson is probably slated as the closer for AA although I too think he should skip to that level if he’s going to stay in the pen.
erik,
In regards to Maiques’ slider, you said it has more of a vertical break than a horizontal break. The only time I’ve seen Bonderman pitch was in the World Series, so I haven’t had a good look at his slider. Is it similar to K-Rod’s and King Felix’s slider/power curve? Those two have basically a mid-80’s 12-6 curveball with a very tight break…
k-rod is another good example, yes. i should’ve thought of that earlier.
azru,
Good point but also a good problem to have! I just want to see progression, and it seems the texas league has been the measuring stick for many of our younger relievers.
I played high school ball with Kenny Maiques and I am just thrilled to see him doing so well. He was pretty much unhittable then as well. I really hope to see him make the show sometime over the next few years.