If Snider is putting in the necessary effort - and all reports say that he is doing that this year - it's probably best to leave him in Toronto and let him get at-bats. Sending him down won't help his development; he's already proven that he can obliterate AAA pitching (in 48 games, he hit 14 home runs and batted .337). And there are some promising signs: his walks are way up, and his strikeouts are down a bit.

If he's hitting under .200 in mid-summer, maybe then it might be time to take another look at the situation. But I agree with Thomas Boswell's old maxim: you can't judge a ballplayer on a period of time shorter than one month. And the players he is taking at-bats away from, Jose Bautista and Fred Lewis, both turn 30 this year: they likely won't be part of the next Blue Jays contender (if there ever is one, sigh).

It's probably worth mentioning that the Jays came this close to losing out on Adam Lind: his struggles in 2007 and 2008 were severe enough that he was basically written off prospect lists, and John Gibbons had pretty much given up on him. (Thought: Cito Gaston's treatment of Lind, all by itself, might have been enough to make Cito's second go-round as Jays manager worth it, despite his other possible shortcomings.)

I pretty much agree with Law on this one: you have to let Snider play.

I'm with Law and Dave Till on this one.  While it's important to send the right message to your major leaguers, it's also important not to alienate the up-and-comers (especially with a rebuilding team).  It would speak very poorly to player development to send the message that if a guy hits the absolute crap out of the ball at the highest minor league level and then struggles a little bit in the majors, he'll soon find himself sent back down.  With some of the guys the Jays have coming up in the next couple seasons, the last thing they need is to send a message to the prospects that they better hit RIGHT NOW or it's back to the farm, meat.  Obviously this isn't an absolute; the two strategies have to be balanced.  But when it comes to blue-chip prospects with outstanding minor league numbers, I think it's a lot better in the long term to err on the longer end of the leash.

Also, as Dave said, it's not like playing Snider is taking at-bats away from much better players.  I'd go the same route with Wallace if he's still raking by the time it's safe to call him up service time-wise.  If he takes at-bats away from the empty shell of Lyle Overbay, big deal.

As he should. But there are limits. If he's still flirting with the Mendoza Line in June, there will be trouble. It's not just that you're announcing to the other 24 guys on the team that you're not serious about winning, and that the manager isn't making out the lineup card. Both of these things are bad enough and will, I promise, create big, big problems.

The Jays already sent the message to the players that they aren't serious about winning this season when they traded away one of the best pitchers in baseball for prospects and signed John Buck as the starting catcher. One of the worst things a rebuilding team can do is not give playing time to young players they believe will be part of the core of the next playoff contending club. Following this kind of logic, the Jays should be calling up Cecil soon to replace Tallet. This is an important year to sort out which youngsters the Jays should keep.

Facts first, then opinions.  At age 20, Travis Snider went .262/.357/.461 with 116 strikeouts in 414 PAs in New Hampshire.  At age 21, he went .337/.431/.665 with 47 strikeouts in 203 PAs in Las Vegas. For his major league career (2008-2010), he is now .239/.323/410 with 112 strikeouts in 402 PAs.   I think that he's ready to hit in the major leagues, but the evidence is mixed.

I would be a lot happier if he was an everyday DH and working exclusively on his hitting.  With the current configuration, he cannot be.  The one thing I would not do is shunt him between RF and LF.  If he is a left-fielder, then just leave him there.  The idea of having Snider as a regular left-fielder and then moving him over to right when Lind gets a turn in the outfield is, in my view, an unwise one.  Most outfielders can make the transition fairly seamlessly, but for Snider, it is just one more burden.

The real problem comes from giving special treatment to a player who hasn't done anything to deserve it.

While it's debatable what the best way to develop Snider is, I don't think it can be said he's done NOTHING to deserve a shot. Terrorizing AAA at age 21 is something.

If there's nothing else for him to do there then he arguably deserves a full shot in Toronto.

that's not to say there might not be reasons to demote him (attitude, work ethic, etc) or that you would ride him out even though you ahd other young options to develop (which we don't right now)

But, as has been said, when playing Snider means someone like Bautista loses playing time - that's an easy call. IMO.

A *very* long leash.  One of the effects of our internet age that I actually feel comfortable about citing is impatience.  We all want the things we want *faster* than before.  Now.  We do not want to wait.  It’s a shame Snider is so much in the spotlight.  Not that he can’t handle it:  he’s handled it throughout his career to date.  But it’s distracting from his development.   Just put the kid in the lineup; let him play; don’t shuffle him around.  Isn’t this a ‘developmental’ year for the Jays?  He might stink the place up, for months; and then come round.  Let it be.  Let it be.  Many, many fine players grew into being the stars they became.  Patience, please.  Lots of it.  (Patience today often seems to mean, O.K., I’ll wait til next week; next month at most.)  Give him all the leash he needs. 

Couple thoughts:

1. If you do send him down to Vegas at some point, how many more shots do you give him?

2. At least he's not Brandon Wood.

Service Time.

How much does Snider need to develop just because he's so young - i.e. increase his total baseball experience and how much does he need to develop through exposure to major league pitching? This is a pretty key question in my mind., recognising the gulf in class between AAA and the big leagues.

I remember watching Rios play through a couple of pretty dreadful seasons to 'develop'. How much would he have developed if he had just been left in AA or AAA in those first 2 (very ineffectual) years.

Becuase if Rios had developed as well or almost as well just by playing every day in AAA, then he hits arbitration 2 years later and we have a whole differenct scenario playing out to what actually happened (likely with felicitous results in this case). The Twins have always played this game.

You want to develop your players but you also want them locked up for their most productive years under favourable rules - and if they might benefit to a large extent anyway in AAA....

Because an extra year of cheaper Snider in 5 years could come in pretty handy when you are developing a serious contender.

 

 

If you do send him down to Vegas at some point, how many more shots do you give him?

He's 22. That leaves plenty of room for many more shots.

At 22, Lind was in AAA, nowhere near ready for MLB. Vernon Wells was having his 2nd consecutive uninspiring season at AAA. Aaron Hill was in AA. 22 is very, very young.

Service Time.

That boat has pretty much sailed. According to Cot's, he had 126 days of service time at the beginning of the season. If you send him down now and he does well, you pretty much have to call him up in September. April+Sept is enough to have him finish with more than one year of service (1 year = 172 days). And 126 days is also enough for him not be a super 2 (in all likelihood). The only way to delay free agency would be to send him down and not call him up in Sept or to send him back down next year.

While it would have been nice to delay FA, that was (mis)managed last year or at the beginning of this season. At this point, you might as well let him keep trying at the major league level unless you believe that this messes more with his head than sending him back down. But since none of us are in his head, we have to trust the managers who know better (by the virtue of being able to talk to him) to do the right thing.

One of the important differences between Wells and Snider at AAA, obviously, is the minor league hitting environment. Wells played at Syracuse in the IL, in a pitcher's park in a pitcher's league. When Wells was 22 (in 2001), he hit .281 there with 12 HR in 413 AB. He was obviously major league ready, more major league ready than Snider right now. Wells would hit .313 in his third major league callup that very September, and has been in the lineup ever since.

Snider's raw AAA numbers are far more impressive - but most of it was in the Pacific Coast League, and a very healthy adjustment for context is required. A very healthy adjustment. (Does anyone happen to remember Mike Marshall? Not the pitcher.) Anyway, the year before, Snider hit .262/.357/.461  at AA New Hampshire, and those numbers seem more relevant to his future than Las Vegas. And this is one of the problems with having the AAA team in Las Vegas, I suppose - it makes a lot of young hitters look like the second coming of Babe Ruth...

Still as long as he hits at least .220, I don't think there's a big problem with letting him play.

Correction - when Wells came up to stay in late August 2001 it was his fourth major league call-up. He'd been a September call-up in 1999 and 2000, and had also filled in for an injured Jose Cruz for two weeks in May 2001.

A very long leash. And service time should not factor into it at all. You can take your time to bring a prospect up, but once you bring him up, you don't bring him down just to reduce the guy's pay.

he's been hitting balls right at people

I knew that one but I had no idea just how bad his BABIP is: .120. Last year his BABIP was .316 over 276 PA in the majors. If he were there right now, he would be hitting around .300 after tonight.

Watch that come back to bite me....

Carefuly invoking the reverse-reverse jinx...

And we get a good night for Morrow, Bautista, Snider, and Overbay. All of whom needed one. Snider hit another shot right into someone's glove, but he finally got sometnhing of a cheap hit as well.

The Mets batted Frank Catalonotto cleanup last night. Presented without comment.

The Mets batted Frank Catalonotto cleanup last night.

Even more alarming, they had him playing first base. Ike Davis is arriving just in time.

The real problem comes from giving special treatment to a player who hasn't done anything to deserve it.

Special treatment is appropriate for special cases.

Snider has earned it by ripping up AAA. There are probably no players in history that have ripped up AAA at such a young age and not become at least competent major league hitters (barring serious injury).

Snider is a special case. You may think about a change of approach if he hits around .200 over 700 AB's, but until that happens, the best option is to give him the playing time to develop into a monster.

I would give him occasional days off against tough lefties, but otherwise stay the course with him. Focus not on results, but on the quality of at-bats. From what I've seen this year, he's generally grinding out good at bats.