By Adam Forsyth
Travis Snider – Outfield (LF/RF)
– (Maybe 1B???)
Pure power and a devastating cut-type swing can lead to many good things; however, it can also lead to many bad as well. A brief look at the 2009 season of this young Blue Jays stud and former 1st round selection will easily show that as he started off with such a resounding boom (2B and a HR against Justin Verlander in his first 2 AB’s of the season) only to end it with a disappointing thud.
Not certain where he fits into the picture, some feel that he should learn to play first base in preparation for the trading of, or loss to free agency of the ho-hum Lyle Overbay. To that, I say that I couldn’t agree more. Even with the smooth hitting David Cooper working his way up the ranks in the minor leagues the current answer right now would be to allow Snider to dig in as many times possible to see what they’ve got on their hands prior to making the ultimate decision.
Snider has the intimidating lumberjack chop approach at the dish at times, where he may be trying to hard to show the brute strength that he brings to the plate. This contributes in effect to the high K-ratio that he displayed (3.17AB/K! YIKES!) Patience must definitely be taught to inspire him to not whiff at everything and use (if possible) a more effective Jim Thome like approach where his walks increase in order to raise the OBP to a more acceptable level than that of the .328 OBP that he had in 2009.
Raw, young and powerful. Although a situation that is certainly considered high-risk/high reward, those three words are bliss to my ears when searching for a sleeper!
