Travis Snider is the real deal!

Believe the hype! Travis Snider will be a force patrolling Left Field for the Blue Jays for many years to come. In 4 stops in the Jays organizational ladder last season, Snider had 25 HR's, 104 RBI in 157 games, including 10 RBI in 22 games with the big club...

Snider followed up a torrid spring raking at a .381 clip with 4 HR's, 10 RBI, by smacking two extra base hits in the opener last night including his first home run of the campaign. As mentioned in a previous post, there is absolutely no way Toronto will continue to have him hit at the bottom of the order if Snider is such a force. Both Adam Lind and Snider will be right in the middle of that lineup, which, if everyone remains healthy, could be fairly potent...

A bonus to Snider's game is his underrated defense. He is an upgrade over Lind in left, and he manages to get to most balls hit his way, and has a pretty good arm. For being a stocky guy, he's able to cover more of the field that would seem to be the case...

There is only one potential road block in Snider's ascent to stardom is his penchant for striking out. Snider struck out quite a lot in AA, and in the brief time in AAA, he did so as well. Obviously, if he piles up the power numbers that he's been doing since being selected with the 14th pick in the 2006 draft, it won't be too much of an issue. However, there is a possibility he might go in prolonged slumps. Then again, for a 21 year old rookie, you can't expect too much...can you??