Bringing Up Babies, Concluded

Saturday, November 27 2021 @ 08:00 AM EST

Contributed by: Magpie

Way back in August 2010, I posted the initial version of Bringing Up Babies. At that moment, we were all a little worried that Travis Snider hadn't yet taken the league by storm. Like he was supposed to.

The discussion in that moment tended to focus, not on the player, but how the player was being handled by the organization. The various views expressed seemed to range from  "the kid should be out there every day" to "the kid has been rushed through the system for no readily apparent reason."  I thought it might be helpful to get away from all the people, myself included, who were just spouting opinions, and look at how other young hitters had come through the system. Snider happened to be 22 years and 7 months old at that moment in time, which is certainly very young to be attempting to deal with major league pitching. So I compared what Snider had accomplished so far with what all the other Jays hitters of note I could think had done at the same age.

Looking back, I think this was mostly a grim effort to convince myself that the struggles of Travis Snider weren't on him. I didn't really believe in Snider. I certainly wanted to. I just didn't. But if all I was really trying to accomplish was just make myself feel better about young Travis - it worked. It quickly became very evident that Snider had indeed been rushed to the majors in a godawful hurry (and for reasons I'm cynical about to this day.) That context provided, Snider actually looked pretty good compared to almost everybody else. It still seemed very unlikely he'd develop into as good a major league hitter as McGriff or Delgado. But he still had a shot to becoming a decent player if the strikeouts didn't swallow him up. And I was able to suspend my basic disbelief in him just a little longer.

I updated the piece ten years later, towards the end of the 2020 season. At that time, a great many folks in these parts were expressing various degrees of disappointment in an even younger Jays hitter, Vladimir Guerrero. Once more, I hauled out the list of Young Blue Jays, adding a few players I missed first time around. Once more, I counselled patience. But this time I truly meant it. Because Guerrero was so very young. Guerrero was so young that he was still more than a year away from reaching the same age as all the other youngsters in this model.

Well, it's now October 2021 and at last - our Vlad is finally old enough! To drink, to vote, to be fairly compared to the other Young Blue Jays! So let's wrap this up, shall we? I have since gone through the records and hauled in almost every young Blue Jay who got a crack at hitting in the majors by the time they had reached this magic age of 22 years and 7 months. As you'll recall, that magic age was chosen solely because that's how old Travis Snider happened to be in August 2010.

I didn't quite include everybody. Not included is Junior Felix, who was at least 25 years old in 1989, though he was officially listed as being 21;. I didn't include Cesar Izturis, because the Jays traded him away after he'd played 46 games as a 21 year old, hitting .269/.279/.388 (which would prove to be about as well as he would ever hit during his 13 year career); and I didn't include Ted Wilborn, who went hitless in 12 ABs at age 20 in 1979 and was then traded to the Yankees.

But I think I've got everyone else. My Data Table should now be comprehensive, for once. The "22 and 7 Club," listed in order of career plate appearances.

Player                          G    PA    AB   R    H   2B  3B  HR  RBI  SB  CS   BB  SO   BAVG   OBP   SLG   OPS
                                                                                
Vladimir Guerrero (Oct 2021)  344  1455  1289  209  372  68   5  72  213   5   2  152  239  .289  .368  .515  .881
Lloyd Moseby (May 1982)       358  1407  1284  126  296  64   7  28  142  27  26   84  280  .231  .279  .357  .636
Alfredo Griffin (April 1980)  200   816   743   97  205  27  12   2   41  25  23   46   73  .251  .322  .353  .675
Danny Ainge (Oct 1981)        211   721   665   57  146  19   4   2   37  12   5   37  128  .220  .264  .269  .533
Brett Lawrie (Jul 2012)       139   584   533   85  153  27   7  18   63  20   9   38   91  .287  .343  .465  .808
                                                                                
Travis Snider (Aug 2010)      153   556   496   66  124  33   1  19   63   4   3   52  152  .250  .323  .435  .759
Felipe Lopez (Dec 2002)       134   501   459   56  110  20   7  13   57   9   7   35  129  .240  .293  .399  .692
Alex Gonzalez (Nov 1995)      126   484   420   58   97  22   5  10   43   7   4   48  131  .231  .310  .379  .689
John Olerud (Feb 1991)        117   429   366   45   98  15   1  14   48   0   2   57   76  .268  .364  .429  .793
Bo Bichette (Oct 2020)         75   340   319   50   98  27   1  16   44   8   5   19   77  .307  .347  .549  .896
                                                                                
Tomas Perez (July 1996)        90   298   270   28   68  11   3   2   22   1   1   22   37  .252  .308  .337  .645
Tony Fernandez (Feb 1985)     103   292   267   34   72   6   4   3   21   5   8   19   17  .270  .318  .356  .674
Manuel Lee (Feb 1988)         155   257   239   31   55   2   4   2   18   3   5   12   32  .230  .265  .297  .562
Willie Upshaw (Oct 1979)       95   250   224   26   53   8   2   1   17   4   6   21   35  .237  .298  .304  .602
Jesse Barfield (May 1982)      68   236   215   26   54   8   4   5   28   5   5   17   46  .251  .312  .395  .707
                                                                                
Anthony Gose (March 2013)      56   189   166   25   37   7   3   1   11  15   3   17   59  .223  .303  .319  .622
Richard Urena (Oct 2018)       61   183   167   16   43   8   0   2   10   3   1   13   60  .257  .311  .341  .652
George Bell (May 1982)         60   168   163   19   38   2   1   5   12   3   2    5   27  .233  .256  .350  .606
Carlos Delgado (Feb 1995)      45   161   131   17   28   2   0   9   24   1   1   26   46  .214  .354  .435  .789
Sil Campusano (July 1988)      65   148   133   12   27  10   1   2   12   0   0    9   30  .203  .267  .338  .605
                                                                                
Dalton Pompey (July 2015)      40   134   122   15   25   7   2   3   10   3   0   10   34  .205  .261  .369  .630
Shawn Green (May 1995)         44   127   120   16   26   5   0   5   15   1   2    5   25  .217  .260  .383  .643
Vernon Wells (Jun 2001)        35   125   120   14   31   6   0   2   10   3   1    5   24  .258  .288  .358  .646
Cecil Fielder (April 1986)     41   116   109    8   28   5   0   6   22   0   0    6   26  .257  .296  .468  .762
Lou Thornton (Nov 1985)        56    75    72   18   17   1   1   1    8   1   0    2   24  .236  .267  .319  .586

Alejandro Kirk (May 2021)      26    71    64   18   18   3   0   4   11   0   0    6   10  .281  .343  .516  .859
Shannon Stewart (Sep 1996)     19    62    55    4   11   1   0   0    3   3   0    6    9  .200  .290  .218  .509
Rob Ducey (Dec 1987)           34    57    48   12    9   1   0   1    6   2   0    8   10  .188  .298  .271  .569
Willie Canata (June 1994)      38    57    47   12   10   0   0   1    3   1   1    6   15  .213  .309  .277  .586
Paul Hodgson (Nov 1982)        20    46    41    5    9   0   1   1    5   0   1    3   12  .220  .273  .341  .614
                                                                                
Miguel Cairo (Nov 1996)         9    30    27    5    6   2   0   0    1   0   0    2    9  .222  .300  .296  .596
Fred Manrique (July 1984)      14    29    28    1    4   0   0   0    1   0   1    0   12  .143  .172  .143  .315
Jeff DeWillis (Dec 1987)       13    28    25    2    3   1   0   1    2   0   0    2   12  .120  .185  .280  .465
Domingo Ramos (Nov 1980)        6    18    16    0    2   0   0   0    0   0   0    2    5  .125  .222  .125  .347
Kelly Gruber (Sep 1984)        15    16    16    1    1   0   0   1    2   0   0    0    5  .063  .063  .250  .313
                                                                                
Matt Stark (Aug 1987)           5    12    12    0    1   0   0   0    0   0   0    0    0  .083  .083  .083  .167
Greg Myers (Dec 1988)           7     9     9    1    1   0   0   0    0   0   0    0    3  .111  .111  .111  .222
Brian Milner (May 1982)         2     9     9    3    4   0   1   0    2   0   0    0    1  .444  .444  .667 1.111
Fred McGriff (May 1986)         3     5     5    1    1   0   0   0    0   0   0    0    2  .200  .200  .200  .400
Tom Quinlan (Oct 1990)          1     3     2    0    1   0   0   0    0   0   0    0    1  .500  .667  .500 1.167
                                                                                
Josh Phelps (Dec 2000)          1     1     1    0    0   0   0   0    0   0   0    0    1  .000  .000  .000  .000

Yeah, young Vlad's looking pretty good now, I'd say.

Lloyd Moseby clearly wasn't ready for prime time, and he wouldn't be ready for another year. Moseby spent three whole years being a bad player, an experience that  might have easily destroyed any player equipped with something less than the Shaker's unshakeable belief in himself  And completely wasting the first three years of your six years of control over the player, having him play badly on a terrible team, just seems like madness from a modern perspective.

I think we forget how young Alfredo Griffin was when he came up - he'd already had three season ending cups of coffee with Cleveland before coming to Toronto, the first coming when he was just 18 years old. In 1980, he was coming off his Rookie of the Year season, when he hit .287/.333/.364 at age 21. He would never surpass any of those figures over the rest of his 18 year career.

Danny Ainge was probably only in the big leagues because they hoped to keep him away from basketball. It seems obvious now that his major league struggles drove him back to hoops. Maybe after three years or so in the minors, riding the buses and living off those crappy per diems, he might have become a major league hitter. But when the NBA is always there and waiting for you, an instant alternative... nah. It was never going to work.

Brett Lawrie. All downhill from here.

I don't know what made them think rushing Felipe Lopez to the show was a good idea. He was drafted eighth overall out of a Florida high school in 1998 and by June 2001 he was having a very nice year at AAA Syracuse (.279/.337/.506 with 16 HRs in 89 games.) So the Jays put third baseman Tony Batista on waivers and called up Lopez. Batista was indeed having a lousy first half of the season but he was still just 27 years old and he had hit 41 HRs the year before. The Orioles snapped him up with a waiver claim and Batista would hit 89 HRs over the next three seasons. Lopez, aged 21 came up and took over at third base for the rest of the season. He was a shortstop who had never played third base before. That winter, the Jays let Alex Gonzalez walk as a free agent and traded away their other young shortstop (Cezar Izturis) and handed the job to Lopez. It simply didn't work, and the Jays sent Lopez down to Syracuse in July (Chris Woodward took over) and traded him away when the year was over.

Alex Gonzalez was another one of those players who had already become everything he was ever going to be by the time he was 21. He did develop considerably as a defensive player, but not very much as a hitter.

I could be wrong, but I think going straight to the majors was one of the conditions of John Olerud signing a pro contract. It turned out that he was good enough to stay, even if he wasn't yet John Olerud.

Yes, Bo Bichette has the best hitting line of any of these young players who batted more than 10 times in the majors. Better than all of them. Vlad zoomed past him in 2021 while Bichette basically stayed where he was. He led the AL in hits this past season while doing so. Bo is so good already that he doesn't need to get better. It would just be nice if he did.

Tomas Perez was one of several Rule 5 picks in our group, and was only on the roster getting at bats because the rules so insisted.

They sure took their sweet time getting Tony Fernandez into the majors. He'd been more than ready for quite a while. But Alfredo Griffin was blocking him.

Manuel Lee and Willie Upshaw were also Rule 5 picks. Lee would spend most of 1986 and half of 1987 in the minors, but he was in the majors to stay by 1988. Upshaw spent all of 1979 in the minors and made the Opening Day roster in 1980. But there was nowhere for him to play, so he went back down until September.  He spent all of the strike year of 1981 in the majors, but still didn't have anywhere to play. He was used mostly as a pinch runner and pinch hitter.

Other Rule 5 picks in this group were George Bell and Kelly Gruber, both of whom would eventually become very accomplished major league players and Lou Thornton and Willie Canate, who wouldn't.

There do seem to be a lot of infielders who were most likely around as September call-ups, or to fill out the bench during an emergency - Richard Urena, Miguel Cairo, Fred Manrique, Domingo Ramos, Tom Quinlan.

There are also several young outfielders who simply didn't pan out: Sil Campusano, Dalton Pompey, Anthony Gose, Rob Ducey.

Shawn Green was almost ready for prime time - he only needed a couple more months (and the elimination of LH pitchers from his working life) before he'd start to hit in the majors. And Shannon Stewart had probably been ready for a while but Gord Ash had gone and signed Otis Nixon to play his position, so he had to wait a couple of years. It had long been assumed that Stewart was the centre fielder of the future, as no one seemed to have considered how that throwing arm would play in centre field.

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