Oooh, great headline. I glanced at it and thought, " Hm, could that be an EEdmund Fitzgerald reference? Nahhh ... nobody references Gordon Lightfoot these days  ..." But it was! And you did! Hip-hiip!

The legend lives on
From the Chippwea on down
To the big lake they call
Gitcheegoomee ... 

His swing is not fixed.

It's amazing how someone who has likely never even seen one of Snider's AAA swings can proclaim this. Especially when, in the other thread, he makes a point to quote our GM on that very subject.

“I started out without knowing anything about evaluating,” Anthopoulos said. “I thought I could evaluate just by looking at numbers on a page.....”

If we're discussing what's amazing, I'd say it's amazing that so many people were so quick to proclaim that Snider would immediately destroy AAA pitching and nobody would learn anything from his performance at AAA.  He hasn't demolished AAA pitching so far.  Quite possibly he eventually will.  He hasn't done it yet.

I totally agree with your larger point that I shouldn't rely solely on the numbers.  I'm not in a location where the Internet connection speed is fast enough to provide live video of the MILB feed of Las Vegas games.  If anyone can provide some detailed analysis of Snider's performance in Las Vegas -- based on what they see with their eyes over the course of several games -- I would totally keen to see their comments. 

In fact, is there anyone on Twitter or elsewhere who is monitoring Las Vegas games and providing regular analysis on them?  Is there any Las Vegas equivalent of "Lugnut Fan"?  Is it possible maybe to ask someone in the Las Vegas media to provide an occasional commentary to Da Box on what they're seeing from the players?  It would be greatly appreciated by everyone here, I'm sure.

Just checked the 51s page of the Las Vegas Sun website.  Top of the page is a story on Randy Ruiz and the exciting news about his promotion to the Blue Jays....    So, not much up-to-date information there.  My sympathies to the Minor League Update crew -- I'm starting to realize how hard it is for them to find reliable sources, beyond the boxscores, for analyzing the 51s.  And Gerry's scouting reports, which are extremely valuable and appreciated by everyone here, are much harder to do from a city in Nevada which is not exactly driving distance from Toronto....

Some Blue Jay nuggets from BA today, first the bad news from their chat today:

Clint (BC, Canada): I thought Zack Stewart had a strong finish last year, but this year he seems pretty mediocre for a 24 year old repeating AA. His K rate is down from last year and I heard at the start of the year his velocity was sitting around 88-92mph. Is my hope of seeing him in the Jays starting rotation this year unrealistic?

Ben Badler: I think his future is in middle relief.

And now for the somewhat good news, their mock draft is up, I like their choice for the Jays:

21. BLUE JAYS: Toronto spent $11.6 million on its first draft under GM Alex Anthopoulos last year, going over slot several times to sign high-ceiling prepsters. Doing so again would land them Bell, the most talented player remaining in this scenario, or Baez, who has similar offensive potential.

Projected Pick: Josh Bell.

Sure, McDade's a prospect. He is more than holding his own in the Eastern League having turned 22 last Sunday.

Agreed.  And he's holding his own from both sides of the plate at that age.  He's actually a month younger than Hechavarria, who himself is young enough that AA struggles aren't overly worrisome yet.

I do wonder why the F-Cats trot out such an old rotation by AA standards.  Carreno just turned 24, which is still more or less age-appropriate for AA, but then there's Stewart (25 in Sept), Gonzalez (26 in Nov), Beck (already 26) and LaMura (already 30).  I would understand if there's an AAA-aged starter the club wanted to shield from the PCL environment, but that's likely only true of Stewart.