The Snider Slide

This post comes as a response to several analysts view on Travis Snider. Now the source that finally ticked me over the edge was a purchase of my own and may be a little unknown for some people - MLB 11 The Show for the Playstation 3. Every time Snider comes up to bat (in the game) the announcer proceeds to explain that it is "now or never" for Snider and that he's been in the league for so long and has yet to live up to his potential. This is not the first time I have heard this belief that Snider is a washed up prospect.
First and foremost lets look at Snider's Major League career so far. He played his first game in a Blue Jays uniform 3 years ago. He was a September call up in 2008 and played 24 games. He batted .301 while compiling 2 hr and 13 rbi. The next year he was hindered by injury, while playing in 77 games he batted .241 with 9 hr 29 rbi. Not a great year although I would argue that his lack of production was a direct result of his injury. Now here is where things get a little interesting, 2010 was another year where injuries hurt Snider's production. Another problem here was a wonderful manager who decided that Snider should be batting lead off. . . Yes the prospective Home Run king would bat lead off. I generally like Cito in most regards but that decision still gives me nightmares. Snider was still able to compile 14 hr 32 rbi (6 sb - lead off material?) while batting .255. Generally 3 years into their career it is expected that a prospect begins to consistently show signs of his potential, however Snider's situation isn't that of a regular prospect. Most prospects spend 3 or more years in the minors before making it to the show, but Snider spent those 3 years IN the major leagues. So right off the bat we can understand that Snider's 3 years in the majors and his journey to the majors is different than most prospects; very few players rocket themselves to the major league level at 20 years of age. He is only 23 years old, most prospects don't even think about the majors until after their 23rd of 24th birthday!
Snider was drafted 14th overall in 2006 among current MLB players as Evan Longoria, Clayton Kershaw, Tim Lincecum, Drew Stubbs, Brandon Morrow and Kyle Drabek. Other than Longoria, Stubbs and Lincecum all of the above prospects have had their struggles (that is without mentioning the other 11 players picked before Snider who have yet to truly impact their team; i.e. first overall pick Luke Hochevar). There is an outlier here though that needs to be mentioned and that is age. Lincecum & Stubbs are 4 years older than Snider, Longoria 3 years older. Current Toronto prospects Morrow (4 years) and Drabek (1 year) are still older than Snider. Clayton Kershaw is the only player in the aforementioned group that is the same age as Snider and he has shared his mix of trouble and success. To say that Snider's time is up is ridiculous because Travis was drafted as a youth with an unbelievably high ceiling and in some regards is way ahead of his draft class. Snider's potential made him a viable pick among All-Star caliber players even though he was 3-4 years younger than them, which means that he will take 3 - 4 years to reach where they were (mentally, physically and with consistency) when they were drafted.
My point here is that players who have impacted their franchise at the major league level - Longoria, Stubbs, Lincecum - were about 3+ years older than Snider. Snider is now going into his 4th tour at the major league level, equivalent to the age difference between him and those in his draft class. In those 3 years Snider has been given major league level teachings, workouts and experience, which I argue puts him above those in his draft class because by age 23 none of the aforementioned impact players had any major league experience. The numbers are in accordance with my belief that 2011 will be Travis Snider’s break-out year. His potential is there, the timeline is right and in the event that he doesn’t turn heads and break Bautista’s 54 hr record, lets be honest he is just starting out as a properly aged and physically ready prospect and any success he has in the next two years will be a bonus for Blue Jay fans as he will only be flirting with his peak years. We have something special here a player more prepared than most at his age, still young for a prospect and we are already expecting great things from him before his most beneficial years.

G.