JINOTEPE, Nicaragua – After swiping 25 bases in his rookie season for the San Diego Padres, Nandaime speed demon Everth Cabrera, 23, has set a goal to become the top base-stealer in Major League Baseball.

In his first season in the big leagues, Cabrera showed that his formidable speed on the base paths, which helped him steal a minor-league leading 73 bases while playing Class A ball in 2008, is nearly as effective against major league catchers. Despite missing two months of the season due to a broken hand, Cabrera still managed to finish in the top 10 in stolen bases for the National League last year.

This year, he hopes to do much better.

“It's not that I disrespect any catcher, but I don't care who is behind the plate,” Cabrera told The Nica Times during an interview following a workout last week in Jinotepe. “I would like to be the best base stealer in baseball, and I am working on that.”

Cabrera, who won the starting job as the Padres' shortstop last year, said the best moment of his rookie season was when he hit a walk-off grand slam off the Mets closer Francisco Rodriguez on Aug. 7 (http://sandiego.padres.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?content_id=5981591).

But the cat-like shortstop turned even more heads with his glove work (http://sandiego.padres.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?content_id=6341869) and cannon-for-an-arm (http://sandiego.padres.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?content_id=6938505).

Cabrera's on-field performance last year for the Padres earned him the honors of being named Nicaragua's Top Athlete of the Year for 2009, an award the young ball player will receive at the end of the month. After that, he'll report to Arizona for the Padres' spring training, where fans, teammates and sportswriters will be eager to see what he can do this year.

“The fan and media view of Everth is very positive,” said Bill Center, a sportswriter for the San Diego Union Tribune. “ San Diego likes the young man. Who couldn't like his story?”

Read this Friday's Nica Times print edition for the full, exclusive interview with Everth Cabrera.