Baseball America Top 100 Prospects

[Second Base]

Maitan should be fine in the long run. He definitely struggled, but that's as much a mechanism of the unfair hype as much as it's him not understanding what it takes to be a professional.

Yes, he has the upside to be a superstar someday.

But his swing was too long (a common occurrence among young prospects) and Maitan was unable to crush more advanced pitching the way he did as an amateur. As a result, he began learning a new, shortened swing that wasn't authentic to him and we saw some awkward, sluggish, ugly swings on his part.

That in combination with unhealthy eating habits sent scouts searching elsewhere for value.

But with patience (like the Angels have for him), this are all very fixable things. First, he's dropped the weight and is on a training and nutrition regimen which will definitely help. Second, he'll have a full year to continue working and fine tuning his swing before trying again. Third, the Angels have no reason to rush him when he isn't ready for a level. The hype is mostly gone and now they simply have a good, young, talented kid.

I wouldn't rank him in the top 100 right now because of just how much went wrong in his first year. But if he fixes it all the way he can, Maitan could be a top 10 prospect a year from now.