No One's Getting Out Without Stadium Love: 5/1 Minor League Recap
by hugo on May 1, 2011 7:37 AM EDT
in Toronto Blue Jays Minor League Recaps
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PrintLas Vegas lost to Sacramento, 5-4:
Travis Snider was 4-4 with a walk and a double. Nothing left to do in the minors.
That was it for extra base-hits.
Brad Mills, by the way, had another great start on Friday. The Vegas offense did nothing, but Mills threw 6 scoreless innings while striking out 9 and walking just 2.
New Hampshire lost 4-1
Joel Carreno started and gave up 4 runs over 6 2/3 innings. Carreno struck out 7 and walked 2 which is good, but the two home runs were less good and the fact that he only had 2 groundouts (8 flyouts) was downright awful.
Anthony Gose was 3-4 with three singles, and also stole two bases. No one else got on base multiple times and no one had an extra-base hit.
On Friday, Mike McDade and Mark Sobolewski both had two hit days, with Sobolewski hitting a double. Craig Stansberry homered.
Dunedin lost to Daytona 4-2.
Deck McGuire made the start and it wasn't a great one. Deck pitched 6 1/3, gave up 4 runs (3 earned). He struck out 3 and walked 3, and gave up two home runs. Lots of groundouts, though, and his season is still going pretty well (3.65 ERA, 19/8 K/BB ratio over 24 2/3 innings), particularly considering he started his pro career at high-A.
Chris Hopkins had the only extra-base hit (a double), while going 1-4. Hopkins also walked.
Kevin Ahrens and Justin Jackson each had a single and a walk. Jackson was playing right field and is hitting well so far this season. .310/.423/.381
Lansing saved the day with a 2-0 win over West Michigan:
Marcus Knecht was 2-4 with a solo home run. .378/.451/.622 on the season.
No other extra-base hits for the team. The other run came on a Michael Crouse sacrifice fly.
Casey Lawrence had a great start, pitching 6 scoreless innings. Lawrence struck out 6, walked none. 3.38 ERA and 16/1 (!) K/BB ratio over 24 innings. The K numbers are a little low but Lawrence has been getting a ton of groundouts.
Today's title from the Toronto band Metric and their song "Stadium Love"
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Thanks for continually updating us on the minor league system!
100% agreed on Snider. That sort of result is going to continue. People think Lawrie and Thames are doing well on AAA, Sniddy’s going to DESTROY that baseball in AAA as always, so what’s he learning?
He is getting himself out of a "rut" and working on his mechanics.
by Muscle-Dolphin on May 1, 2011 9:21 AM EDT up reply actions
Im not sure he would have had time to do anything with his mechanics before his 1st game there. And he went 4-4
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hopefully he'll find his confidence while he is done there and
invite it to make the return trip with him to Toronto.
If he can do well in AAA with a flawed swing, how would they know if his reconstructed swing is an improvement?
by Minor Leaguer on May 1, 2011 9:43 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
That is exactly my worry
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Now, I am no way saying I know anything about what the Blue Jays are doing here, nor that I agree with it, but my only guess is that instead of looking at the results, they are looking at the process. From what I could gather from the AA press conference, the issue really isn’t Snider’s approach, it is that there is a mechanical flaw that is causing him to not be able to crush the ball the way he can, and his raw natural power and skill is letting him get by with some moderate success (5 game hit streak for example).
As far as the results go, 3 singles and a double, do not really indicate that the problem (loss of power) is fixed. Going back on what I said, they may be able to tell that he has corrected his mechanics when he starts to really crush the ball, instead of slapping some singles and finding the gap (NOTE: he very well may have made good contact last night for all I know, but that last statement was for effect … which was probably lost by me explaining it but would rather avoid a flame war on my first post here :).
by Playoffs!!!!1 on May 1, 2011 10:08 AM EDT up reply actions
PILE ON!
You didn’t actually watch the game whatdoyouknowhecouldhavehittheballhard blah blah blah
Oh wait you covered yourself. Damn
I think you'll find I'm universally recognised as a mature and responsible adult.
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welcome to the site!
you make some great points. come by anytime.
my concern is that it is major-league pitching against which Travis has to be at his best in order to succeed. You can’t tell by watching him hit against his old high school team whether he has made the necessary adjustments, and I’d posit that you can’t tell by watching him hit AAA pitching in the PCL either. That said, I don’t think it really matters – he’ll hit well and come back to the majors soon, where he belongs anyway.
"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman
Just browsing around the jays web
and it’s truly sad how many people are jumping on Snider’s results last night and using them to argue he’s fixed already. Using statistics to argue a problem is fixed with no actual physical evidence is almost as annoying as those that ignore the stats completely in the firstplace.
If you are saying the same to Hugo, he was saying the same thing before Snider was sent down. Hasn’t changed his tune at all.
I think you'll find I'm universally recognised as a mature and responsible adult.
Twitter is the thing with all the tweets...
Nope, no issue with those that think he shouldn't have been sent down
Disagree with them but it’s a fair arguement. It’s the idea that one start automatically proves AA made a mistake in sending him down, it’s being ridiculous for trying to hammer home an arguement.
Time will tell, I honestly feel the time down will help, others don’t, to make a claim already either way as to the success of the process is being silly.
I'm not saying
see, here’s how I know he shouldn’t have been sent down, or offering up his performance yesterday as evidence. All I am saying is that Snider (1) had four hits and a walk last night in five trips to the plate; and (2) has nothing left to show in the minors. I’m not using one as proof of the other.
I’m not saying he can’t use the time in the minors to clear his head or to make some adjustments in his swing without the glare of the major leagues. I’m not saying it can’t be helpful for him. But I am saying that he’s too good for minor league pitching, and I stand by that statement whether he goes 4-4 every night, or spends the next week in the minors waiting for his next hit. A 23-year old who has held his own in the majors for the past two seasons despite injury problems doesn’t have anything left to learn in the minors.
"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman
Honestly wasn't aimed at you hugo
Was refering to the six or more people who have made that jump between (1) and (2) today, was an observation rather than a critique.
by TtD on May 1, 2011 4:16 PM EDT up reply actions
Did any of you hear the Texas broadcasters?
They were talking about a slumping Texas player and how Washington’s philosophy was to stick with the player longer than most would. He believes if you stay with the guy long enough, he will figure out for himself ‘how’ to get out of a slump, and the next time he finds himself in a funk….it will take less time for him to get out?
And, I guess it helps that Texas has been winning, too.
This is a crock
Snider should have stayed with Jays. This whole thing with the swing is a crock. They could have worked with him at the Major League level to fix anything out. I have to agree with Richard Griffin. This is a diversion from the plan, as somebody is pressing to win now. Unfortunately it’s not going to happen this year.
Not a crock at all
It has been widely discussed in the weeks prior to LB45 going down that his swing was flawed: Too long and sweeping.
Hugo thinks I'm a lazy academic
by bluejaysstatsgeek on May 1, 2011 11:42 AM EDT up reply actions
Meeooww!!!
For Pete’s sake , everyone on this site has had a “love-in” with the Jay’s decisions ( except EE) all season. Let’s see what happens, they are the experts or should we check our medical insurance for coverage required for all the bandwagon jumping!
Yeah everyone agrees and has a love-in with the Jays decisions. Thats why I was pissed about leaving Escobar on the field. Didn’t agree with wemoting Snider/Litsch/Cecil, and question the day to day lineup decisions on some days.
They are the experts, sure. But I can still question their decisions and just because they are the experts doesn’t mean they are mistakes.
Please don’t make it seems like we just back the team on whatever they do.
I think you'll find I'm universally recognised as a mature and responsible adult.
Twitter is the thing with all the tweets...
Ugh, I meant to say just because they are experts doesn’t mean they don’t make mistakes.
I think you'll find I'm universally recognised as a mature and responsible adult.
Twitter is the thing with all the tweets...
this is just an appeal to authority
which is a fundamental logical fallacy. If we can’t question decisions made by the “experts,” because they are the experts, there is no point to the site. And of course “experts” do not always all agree, and we have no way of knowing if they all agreed in this case. Finally, as Johnny points out, experts are frequently wrong. Of course, they are arguably more likely to be right than not in any given question, but that doesn’t mean they are right every time.
"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman
How many of us are experts on swing mechanics?
Yes we can argue, any poster can argue anything . I could argue with Stephen Hawking’s Quantum Physics Theories, but my opinions would have zero validity and I’d end up sounding like an idiot to anyone who was an expert in the field. People who do have knowledge of swing mechanics (like Zaun) point out the issues Snider is having. So why do we say that’s not the issue or that having a 5 game hitting streak is “proof” he’s OK?
Zaun has also came out against the team about their decision to send down Snider.
I think you'll find I'm universally recognised as a mature and responsible adult.
Twitter is the thing with all the tweets...
That's an opinion
What I argued against are the people who say he doesn’t have the swing mechanics problem that Zaun and others pointed out. The mechanics problem’s a fact. Now, we can all have an opinion as to where he would be best served to work it out, here or in Vegas. Personally, I think Murphy has had his chance, and judging by his lack of success with Travis thus far, Vegas may be the best place, with a different hitting coach. I may be wrong, but that is my opinion, just as Zaun and others feel he can get it corrected up here.
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