Cabrera's Climb Appears To Be A Hit

Handling pitchers has two distinct meanings to Bradenton Marauders catcher Ramon Cabrera.

The switch-hitting Cabrera, who has shared the team’s catching duties with rehabbing major leaguer Chris Snyder and Carlos Paulino this season, is off to the best start of his young career with a team-best .432 batting average. The 21-year-old Pittsburgh Pirates prospect from Venezuela has collected two or more hits in four of the last 10 games he has started and hit safely in each of the last 11 games.

“I’m still trying to make adjustments to continue this good start,” said Cabrera, who was not in the starting lineup for Monday morning’s game against the visiting Palm Beach Cardinals. “You have to continue to work hard every day.”

In his first full season of professional baseball, Cabrera learned the importance of using each at-bat as a learning experience. He hit .286 through the West Virginia Power’s first 15 games of the 2010 South Atlantic season, but it took him hitting .284 and.286, respectively, in August and September to finish with a .269 batting average.

After signing a contract with the Pirates in 2008, Cabrera hit .264 with 16 doubles, 22 RBI and 24 runs scored in 56 games for the club’s Venezuelan Summer League entry. After hitting .312 in 20 games with the same team in 2009, he was transferred to Pittsburgh’s Gulf Coast League affiliate in Bradenton.

It is rare that an organization would transfer a Venezuelan prospect in the midst of a season, but Cabrera did not disappoint by hitting .291 with 11 doubles in 37 games for the GCL Pirates. The fact that Cabrera is the son of former Arizona Diamondback Alex Cabrera may have given him an advantage not afforded to most other aspiring professionals.

Alex Cabrera signed with the Chicago Cubs in 1991 and spent time in the Tampa Bay organization before getting the call to play in 31 games for the Diamondbacks in 2000. He has spent the last 11 seasons in Japan, where he claimed 2002 Pacific League Most Valuable Player honors after tying Sadaharu Oh and Tuffy Rhodes’ single-season record of 55 home runs.

“He told me that this game is hard and that I had to play hard,” the younger Cabrera said of the early advice passed down to him by his father. “He told me that if this game was easy, then everybody would play it. Everybody wants to play it, so that’s why you have to play hard.”

Cabrera’s work ethic is apparent to Marauders first base coach Milver Reyes, who also works with the team’s catchers. Reyes feels that Cabrera has added to his already impressive skills with the strides that he has made defensively and in calling a game.

“He’s in the process of learning how to take care of pitchers,” Reyes said. “He’s a very smart kid. Inside and outside the bullpen, he is very professional. This is High (Class)-A. It’s like when you are going to graduate to Double-A. This is the level where you have to learn to call pitches. When you learn how to call pitches, you’re one phone call away from Double-A. That is why it is very important for him to learn how to handle those aspects in the Florida State League.”

The patience and focus displayed by Cabrera could eventually lead to another promotion and another stop in a baseball journey, which began in Venezuela and included a season with his father in Japan. He knows the only parts in that equation that he controls is his approach to the game and his performance.

“My goals are to put my team in the playoffs, have a good year and get to the next level,” Cabrera said. “When (the promotion) happens, it happens. I have no control over that. I just have to work hard and keeping focusing on my adjustments.”