When Tigers prospect Cameron Maybin makes contact, he usually hits a ground ball. Over 60% of his batted balls are ground balls and, fortunately, he uses his speed to turn many ground balls into base hits. In many ways, this fact shows off some of Maybin's talents, particularly his hustle and quickness on the basepaths. On the other hand, it's also a reason for concern.

Why is this a bad thing? First, let's take a look at the best infield hit rates among all hitters with at least 30 ground balls hit to infielders this year:

PLAYER         LEVEL  AVG
Darren Ford     A    .394
Michael McBryde A    .325
Greg Burns      A    .321
Alex Presley 	A    .316
Peter Bourjos   A    .313
Willy Taveras   MLB  .308
Ray Olmedo      AAA  .308
Joshua Flores   A+   .306
Ovandy Suero    A+   .302
Carlos Gomez    AAA  .289
Jacoby Ellsbury AA   .276
Jose Tabata     A+   .273
Gregory Golson  A+   .270
Cameron Maybin  A+   .263
Jason Denham    A    .261

This matters because as many of the above players face better fielders on better turf in the upper minor leagues and major leagues, they are unlikely to have the same kind of success when infielders handle the hitters' groundballs. Cameron Maybin has been able to maintain a high batting average despite striking out at an alarmingly high rate this year. We should not expect this to continue as he moves up the ranks of professional baseball.