Kevin Maas

Falling down holding a splintery shard of a bat with a goofy look on his face. Yeah, that pretty much sums it up for Maas and his career.

Why we like him: Kevin Maas always seemed like one of those guys who just had a tough start to his career, but would one day show up somewhere and put together a few decent years and help a team find some success. He was the "heir apparent" to Don Mattingly's aching body in the Bronx. He was left handed and built like a Greek god, and fans and scouts just knew he would be peppering the right field bleachers in Yankee Stadium with season after season of ridiculous home run totals.

In his first 79 games in the majors, Maas cranked out an impressive 21 homers and 41 RBI, which by1990 standards, seemed like the second coming of Lou Gehrig, and he garnered enough votes to finish behind only Sandy Alomar Jr. in AL Rookie of the Year voting. The following season, which was Maas's only true full season in the bigs, the league figured him out, holding him to 23 homers and 63 almost harmless RBI in 143 games while posting a measly .220 batting average. Yuck. Definitely not what the world's most passionate baseball fans were wanting. The Yankees gave Maas two more years to figure things out, and it just never happened. He was released prior to the 1994 season and bounced between minor league assignments with the Padres and Reds before given another chance at the majors with the Twins after the 1994 season. He didn't exactly make the most of it, batting a sad .193 in 22 games in 1995. He was released on June 30. He signed with the Yankees July 1 and never appeared in the majors again. At least I have his rookie card. I'm holding onto it too. He's the next Donnie Baseball.

Ladies and gentlemen, Kevin Maas, baallplaayer.