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Around SBN: The End Of Sabanball: Details, Barbarians, And Precision

The Season That Was: Travis Snider

Travis Snider was the unanimous choice as number one prospect in the Jays organization when he was called up at at the end of August in 2008. Everybody looked at him to become a big time power hitter. The knock against him was that he struck out a little too much and wasn't the best defensive outfielder. In spite of his young age, he was just 20 when he was called up but he hit great for the month he was in the majors, .301/.338/.466.

He quickly became a favorite here and earned the nickname 'Moonraker' which is much better than what they gave him in the minors, 'Lunchbox'. We had high hopes for him this season. In the Community Project we marked him down for a .320 OBP and a .450 SLG in 525 PA. We were a little too optimistic.


G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG
2009 - Travis Snider 77 241 34 58 14 1 9 29 29 78 1 1 .241 .328 .419

Actually we didn't miss by much, he beat our OPB guess by 8 points and was 31 points short in SLG but really not far off what we guessed, except for plate appearances, where we were high by 249. How were we to know that Cito wouldn't play him against lefties and that the team would be impatient with him and send down when he slumped. A couple of injuries after he was shipped off to the minors may have slowed his recall. So he didn't have the season we hoped for, Fangraphs had him at a 0.3 WAR.

He hit right-handers (.244/.327/.448) than lefties (.225/.333/.275) but he was only allowed 40 at bats against left-handers so the small sample size warning fits. In the minors, over the years, he didn't hit that much worse against southpaws. I'm hoping that Cito doesn't convince him that he can't hit them by always sitting him against them

He hit better at home (.256/.357/.446) than on the road (.225/.299/.392). 

He got on base well, with RISP, but didn't hit great, .236/.386/.345.

Cito had him bat 9th most of the time he played (36 games), 8th some (18 games) and 7th some (13 games) and then had him bat a game or 2 in every other slot in the batting order other than leadoff. 

By month he hit:

April          .258/.324/.484

May           .216/.237/.243

August      .184/.340.421

Sept/Oct   .260/.355/.443

So he slumped a bit in May and they shipped him out. 

His longest hitting streak was a big 4 games. 

His favorite team to play was the Twins (.500/.619/1.188) over 7 games. Least favorite was the Royals, hitting .133/.188/.133 in 4 games. 

Defensively he wasn't great. He played 435.1 innings in LF and had a -1.2 UZR/150 according to Fangraphs. He played 173.1 innings in RF and was worse there with a -18.5 UZR/150. Maybe small sample size could explain that. He made 4 errors in the OF for a .969 FP.

He clearly wasn't one of Cito's favorite players. Of course, Carlos Delgado and Shawn Green also weren't favorites of his. It wasn't the season we hoped he'd have, but then he is just 21 years old. He was the 6th youngest player in the AL this year. Only one of the 5 younger ones wasn't a pitcher, Elvis Andro. I'm not worried about him, he'll still have a great career, it just will start a little slower than we hoped. My only real worry is that Cito doesn't learn to like him this year and he ends up sitting way too much. But then Delgado and Green over came his not wanting to use him in time. 

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that Oct/Sep OBP vs. avg differential is quite a gulf. Did he get walked that much or was it a small sample size?

by aagoodfella on Nov 4, 2009 5:28 PM EST reply actions  

God I hate the Yankees

Something’s wrong with the world if Hinske and Burnett have WS rings and Doc doesn’t

Congrats Yankees. You bought yourself a WS title and are the epitome of what is wrong with baseball.

Johnnie Morton: The Man. The Myth. The Legend.

by craig in calgary on Nov 4, 2009 10:25 PM EST reply actions  

There's still 3 more innings....

maybe the phillies will pull it together!!!! Maybe……

by Carm on Nov 4, 2009 10:39 PM EST up reply actions  

I'm not holding my breath

Nor am I watching.

Johnnie Morton: The Man. The Myth. The Legend.

by craig in calgary on Nov 4, 2009 11:01 PM EST up reply actions  

nor I … cannot stomach it

by aagoodfella on Nov 4, 2009 11:24 PM EST up reply actions  

He now has 2 WS rings and has played in the last 3

Right? BoSox 2 yrs ago, TB last year and Yanks this year?

Johnnie Morton: The Man. The Myth. The Legend.

by craig in calgary on Nov 5, 2009 12:07 AM EST up reply actions  

Yep, Sportsnet did a special on him saying how he turned it around and is showing the Blue Jays wrong….. Yeah ok… a bench player that barely plays and gets dumped by each team after they get to the series? They can keep him.

Life as a Toronto Sports Fan?... *sigh*... It is what it is...

by JohnnyG on Nov 5, 2009 8:38 AM EST up reply actions  

it is all laughably Forrest Gump – ish

by aagoodfella on Nov 5, 2009 9:05 AM EST up reply actions  

amazing coincidence or error

Snider’s road split and v.RHP split are identical.

I thought it was a great debut season for Travis, given his age. He will be a beast at 25.

by ayjackson on Nov 6, 2009 10:52 AM EST reply actions  

Bloggers can't vacation until mid-January

and then only until pitchers and catchers report. it’s pretty much the law.

by ayjackson on Nov 6, 2009 11:51 AM EST up reply actions  

Well....I'm going to break it...

Actually we is going away in December, over Christmas from like the 20th to January 2nd. So expect the Jays to make a lot of moves over that 2 week span.

by Tom Dakers on Nov 6, 2009 12:44 PM EST up reply actions  

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