Where’s the Buzz for Yuniesky Maya; Leslie Anderson
Myworld first intimated about his defection on July 30th and reported it here: http://myworldofbaseball.com/wordpress/?p=1527. When myworld went to the leader boards at baseballdecuba.com we noticed the absence of Yuniesky Maya. We then did some googling and found an article in the Havana Times that spoke of his defection here: http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=14418
According to http://www.cubanball.com/Images/History/RedBall/Defect/Defect.pdf he defected and is currently in the Dominican Republic. His defection time is listed as September 2009. This may prevent him from signing with a major league team until the 2010 season has started since it will take some time to declare him a free agent. Another player who defected with him is Camaguay’s slugging outfielder/first baseman Leslie Anderson. He is currently stated to be in Mexico. Both of these players are still young, 27 and 28 years old respectively.
For those who are not familiar with Yuniesky Maya, he was voted as the best right handed pitcher in the Cuban 48th series awards. While Aroldis Chapman throws lefthanded, he didn’t even win the award as the best lefthander. That went to Maikel Folch. Also, Maya finished his year with an ERA of 2.75 in 96 innings of work (though myworld remembers it being down in the 1.5s), while Aroldis Chapman had a 4.03 ERA in 114 innings of work based on stats http://www.baseballdecuba.com/playerpitchers.asp?id=1192&pos=2&title=Vegueros. Aroldis is a thrower with a 100 mile per hour fastball whose character many question. Maya doesn’t throw 100, but is a pitcher that knows how to slice and dice the corners. He throws in the low 90s and mixes in a curveball, changeup and slider. At 27, Maya can probably help a rotation now. Chapman is probably going to have to spend a year in the minor leagues working on perfecting the command of his pitches.
If you look at their 2009 WBC performances, Chapman started two games and finished with a 5.68 ERA. He pitched 6 innings, gave up six hits, walked four and struck out eight. Maya made three appearances and one start, finished with a 1.23 ERA, threw seven innings, gave up five hits and only walked two with four strikeouts. Maya also pitched in the 2006 WBC and threw three shutout innings in three appearances. His four hits and two walks were not quite as impressive, but no one scored off him.
Aroldis is a thrower who is looking to hit paydirt, ready for the night life of New York, the pretty girls and the bling. Maya is a pitcher who carves batters up, defected because of a domestic issue and not because of the lure of big money and does not appear to be attracted to the big lights and the bling. Of course, this is only based on what I have heard and read. Major league teams would have to meet with these players, interview them to get a read on their character. But if myworld was going to be spending the big money on a Cuban pitcher it would be on Yuniesky Maya. He has the potential to be a Greg Maddux light type pitcher. Aroldis Chapman could become a Daniel Cabrera clone.
Leslie Anderson is a slugging first baseman/outfielder in the mold of Kendry Morales. He may not eventually hit for the power that Kendry showed in 2009, but he did hit .381 in the Cuban League with 13 homeruns. That would be a 30 homer season in a 162 game schedule. Leslie is a player that could fill the first base position and even play the outfield. He may have to work on changing his name from Leslie.
One last Cuban note: Everyone is impressed with the good start of the Guantanamo Indians. That 15-2 record looks pretty impressive, except when you realize that they are 9-0 against three teams that have a combined record of 6-46. If I’m the teams below the Indians I don’t worry about the Indians yet. They will falter once they sprinkle in some of the far more superior teams.