Adopted: Cam Maron

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"Train like a big leaguer! Just not too much like a big leaguer."

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Cam making like early Ron Hodges, per Adam Rubin, who reports that on Sunday 4/7, in a 1-0 St. Lucie win, "Catcher Cam Maron held onto a throw from left fielder Dustin Lawley during a plate collision with Austin Barnes for the game's final out. Maron's second-inning double plated Aderlin Rodriguez with the lone run."

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Newsday takes note of Strong Island boy making...I was gonna say good, but more like making progress.

By Gregg Sarra Hicksville's Cam Maron calls it the grind -- the exhausting trip through the minors on the path to The Show. But the Mets' catching prospect is right where he wants to be. "There is a plan for everyone in our organization," said Maron, in his fourth season with the Mets' organization. "You have to be focused on the job and know where it's going to take you. I have been fortunate to be in a system that rewards work ethic and achievement with advancement." Some might say that Travis d'Arnaud, the Mets' Triple-A prize catching prospect, might be a huge stumbling block to Maron's road to the majors. But things can change quickly. D'Arnaud is on the disabled list with a fractured left foot. The Mets moved Dave Centeno from Double-A Binghamton to replace him at Las Vegas, creating a domino effect of movement throughout the system. "You never know," Maron said. "So you have to be prepared." Maron, currently at the Mets' Class A affiliate in Port St. Lucie, Fla., opened the season with two game-winning hits against the Marlins' Jupiter Hammerheads but fell off and entering Saturday was hitting .221 with a .241 on-base percentage. "The season is a long journey of ups and downs," said Maron, 22. "You have to be able to balance the highs and lows to be successful. I'm very pleased with my progress with the Mets." Maron was honored with the organization's Sterling Award in 2011 as MVP of the Kingsport Mets. "It was an incredible feeling to be recognized by the organization," Maron said. "Every year you learn a little bit more and the experience is immeasurable. I'm moving up quickly in the system." Maron's offseason training regimen and preparedness have helped him accomplish that. The lefthanded hitter batted .300 for Class A Savannah in the South Atlantic League last year. "We started training in his sophomore year of high school and he's the complete package," said hitting instructor Joe Francisco of Performance Factory in Farmingdale, who played in the Atlanta Braves farm system. "He has the big league makeup. He has the head and the work ethic and the intangibles that don't show up on a radar gun or a stopwatch. I think Mets scout Larry Izzo got a steal here." Maron has developed into a trusted catcher at Port St. Lucie, where the Mets will play a 140-game season. He said Mets catching coordinator Bob Natal has worked with him on his defensive skill set. "It's been easier to call games," Maron said. Maron, a two-time minor-league all-star, has thrown out 21 percent of would-be base-stealers in his minor-league career. Entering Saturday, he had thrown out five runners this season. "I'm getting five starts a week, so I'll play around 110 games this season,'' he said. "I've developed an excellent relationship with the pitching staff."

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Quiet year for the Hicksville Hacker, but he'll be continuing it in the Arizona Fall League.

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About-to-be Scottsdale Scorpion filed a .235/.327./.295 line at St. Lucie in 2013. No homers.

OTHO, Cam tweets that he's happy to be back on Long Island.

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Cam's AFL season:

.216, 0 HR, 1 RBI
12 BB, 12 K, 0 SB, 0 CS
.365 OBP, 51 AB, 0 E

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Cam Maron, with fringe on top.

Maron has some real talent, and as a lefty-hitting catcher in the Mets farm system, he has some serious potential to advance. His bat has never been known as his strong suit, as it lacks some of the power that is expected out of most catchers, but his eye at the plate is what intrigues most scouts. He is an extremely smart batter, and that intelligence shows in his 11.7 BB%, and while his power may not be there just yet, he is still too young to factor out the possibility that he can work some pop into his swing. Maron is also known as having a strong athletic base and good fundamentals; only helping to develop his defensive abilities. The essentials are all there for Maron, he just needs to prove that he can adjust to the increasing pitcher abilities as he moves up the ranks. If he continues to work on his bat, there’s no reason why Maron won’t continue to work his way up the minor-league ladder. 2014 is the year for Maron to show that he has, once again, improved his skills and is able to adjust to improved pitching. He has moved quickly through the ranks up until this point showing flashes of greatness along the way, however, he had some trouble with his bat in 2013. I suspect that he will, at the least, start in St. Lucie again this year. However, his many other advanced abilities lead me to believe that if he can bring his average up a bit and add some more power to his swing, the Mets will have no problem promoting him once again before the years end.

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This isn't a case of Sherman Lollar or Gus Triandos not making the majors because Yogi Berra was blocking them.
So far, the only thing blocking Maron's progress is Maron.

Later

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Maron fiancee Jenn Austin was slated to sing (and presumably sang) the national anthem at Tradition Field yesterday. St. Lucie's most talented couple this summer!

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A Florida State League All-Star this season.

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Cam possibly headed up to Binghamton, according to Mr. Rubin. Stay tuned.

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Cam didn't head up to Binghamton but was named to Florida State League All-Star team for his work at Port St. Lucie.

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Up to Binghamton for Eastern League playoffs.

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The Binghamton media's got the Nimmo Fever.

Nimmo earned Florida State League midseason All-Star honors while with St. Lucie before his promotion to Binghamton. Combined between the two levels, Nimmo this season has scored 97 runs, driven in 51 runs, hit 21 doubles, nine triples, 10 home runs and logged an on-base percentage of .396 to go along with a .429 slugging percentage. "We're very pleased with where Brandon is right now," DePodesta said in an email. "Since this is just his age 21 season, we're very happy that he has spent the second half of the season in AA and is already making the adjustments to succeed at that level. For a guy who didn't play with the amateur competition in somewhere like Florida or Southern California, he has been very quick to make adjustments at each and every level." Big things ahead Nimmo has just begun to tap into his power potential with added muscle this season on his 6-foot-3 frame. He has as many home runs this season as his previous seasons combined. B-Met manager Pedro Lopez has put Nimmo in the leadoff spot 41 times in 61 games, but he believes his future will include batting near the middle of the lineup. "I'm almost positive that's going to be his role whenever he gets to the big leagues," Lopez said. "... He's got some pop. He drive the ball to all fields." Now that he's no longer chasing big brother, Nimmo has has found other driving forces. "Now I'm chasing my personal dream of being a major-league baseball player," Nimmo said. "Once I got drafted it's all about leaving no regrets that I gave it everything that I had. I like to think that I'm not only making a name for myself, and I'm trying to uphold a reputation of my family — obviously I want the Nimmo name to be a well-known name and I want to honor my parents and my brother — but also just the fact that people hear Wyoming and they chuckle." Nimmo bristles at the idea that baseball does not count or is not played at the same level in Wyoming as in other parts of the country. "In Cheyenne, baseball continues to get bigger and bigger and kids dreams continue to get bigger and bigger," Lain said. "People follow him and not just in our program. People across the state follow Brandon." Mets fans all over the Northeast also follow Nimmo. On the road or at home, he does interviews and he stops to takes pictures and talk with folks who are eagerly awaiting his arrival in New York. Their expectations never seem to overwhelm him. He greets them all with a smile. Then again, it shouldn't be surprising considering Nimmo embraced his brother's mantle as the guy paving the way for an entire region of baseball players. "If anybody out there that's from where I am back in Wyoming — and I know that South Dakota is similar to that and North Dakota — if they have a dream that they want to be a professional baseball player, a major-league baseball player," Nimmo says, "I want to be one of those guys that broke through the barriers and said, 'If you work hard enough. If you make the sacrifices and have no regrets about what you do. You work as hard as you can, then dreams can come true.' "

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Cam & Jenn, just married. The happy couple is honeymooning in St. Lucia.

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And that, unless the transactional fates have other ideas, puts a wrap on prospective Met Cam Maron. Selected by the usually catcher-heavy Reds in the minor league draft today. New marriage, new team. Tweeted a couple of gracious thank yous to the Mets organization and fans.

Good luck, Hicksville-raised Mets fan.

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Long Island's own has been invited to Marlins camp.

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Had a good year in helping the Double-A Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp to the playoffs. But still nowhere near the majors eight years after the Mets drafted him.