'Tis the Season

For small-town local papers to appreciate the conquering heroes who possess the good sense and natural athletic gifts to flee their two stoplight prisons! The kind of towns in which the sports headline "Big Pirates Too Much for Mossyrock" are not out of place.

While Adam Lind may seem like a life-long Blue Jay and Toronto native, he's actually from the Outer Mongolian reaches of Indiana. The Jays mashing lefty finally emerged from Jimmy Chitwood's shadow in his hometown of Anderson to garner a mention in the Anderson Herald Bulletin's year-end editorial. After fulfilling MY lifelong dream of mention in the same breath as Octomom, Lind is held up as an example to the teeming masses as a done-good story.

Highland graduate Adam Lind, the Toronto Blue Jays designated hitter/outfielder, wasn’t in town to make a difference, but his exploits on the baseball diamond made him a local celebrity and, of course, a role model for sports-minded youngsters.

That's right kids, learn to use the entire field with power and you too can experience the joy of local architecture greater than 10 stories tall.

While listicles are a great way to encapsulate the now-ending decade for pageview hungry bloggers, local sports scribes aren't immune to the allure of lists and two hour lunches. Jays stud Travis Snider is honored as the second best high school athlete of the decade by Evertt County Washington's Heraldnet! Travis Snider's high school numbers are surely eye-popping, but let's not count out his contributions as starting fullback for some other dude!

As a senior, the burly yet relatively fast outfielder batted .500 with 45 runs batted in and 11 home runs, helping nationally ranked Jackson go 27-0 and win the Class 4A state baseball championship. An Arizona State University recruit, Snider instead opted to go pro and was a first-round Major League Baseball draft pick of the Blue Jays, who gave Snider a $1.7 million signing bonus. Before deciding to focus on baseball, Snider was a standout football player. He was Johnie Kirton's lead blocker in 2002 when Kirton rushed for 2,675 yards.

Snohomish County's online news source goes to great lengths to explain why local stud Grady Sizemore does NOT qualify as prep athlete of the decade. Awesome to think of Travis Snider using his burly yet relatively fast abilities to run game all over a rainy pine-encircled burb.

Aaron Hill is no stranger to the spotlight in Toronto, where he's quickly being positioned as Face of the Franchise. Tell that to the good people of Visalia California and you're sure to get some odd looks. A quick poll of elementary school attendees at Hill's first annual baseball camp showed support for the hometown boy could use some boosting.

Several of the campers were asked who their favorite Major League Baseball player was and Jeter was one of the names repeated more than once.

The campers, who were fourth through eighth graders, listed off players like Manny Ramirez, Albert Pujols, David Ortiz and Evan Longoria as their favorites.

Poor Aaron Hill. Can't a man come right the fuck out of nowhere to knock 36 dingers earn some respect around here?? Also awesome are the comments that follow this Visalia Times-Delta piece which immediately claim Hill's All Star game exposure is due in large part to Chase Utley's injury and withdrawal from the game. Visalia California &mdash baseball hotbed.

I shouldn't tease these small town papers and players of lily white humble beginnings. Hell, much puffier puff pieces appear in every paper in Toronto when born in South Africa, raised 3000 KM away Steve Nash comes to town. It is awesome to see guys like Aaron Hill make the most of the tax breaks available to them and give back to their community. Jesus, doesn't this cynicism switch have an off position? Hope everybody had a good Christmas!

Image Courtesy of Picasa User Stumpekyle

Wring Out the Funsponge

I decided against predictions before this season started as they're a good way to look like an idiot. I have no problem doing that on a daily basis, no need to fuel the fire. I did go out on a limb with one clear forecast among my nebulous stabs in the dark:

Travis Snider will have a good season and spend time in Vegas.

Sadly, I feel the time has come for Sniderman to spend a couple weeks gathering himself in America's preeminent adult playground outlet mall epicenter.

You may say "Vegas? He won't learn to control the strikezone or improve his pitch recognition when everything he wheels on flies out of the park!" You'd be right, to an extent. The situation seems very, very familiar. Almost as though the Jays went through it with Carlos Delgado in 1994. Ahh, those were the strike-shortened days. King Carlos started the season like house on fire, clubbing 8 tater tots in the April. The signs of trouble were evident though, as Carlos did almost all his damage before April 20th and didn't hit one double until his home runs dried up.

Right now, Travis Snider is scuffling. He's not making great contact, flying out too much, and generally doing too little at the plate. Going into tonight's (Monday) game; his BB/K is down to 0.43, lower than Delgado's 1994 mark. His line drive rate has shrunk to 11% with his GB/FB sitting even at "way too fucking high." Even his rate of home runs per fly ball is getting a little on the low side (for a clear-cut power hitter.) The strangest fact is one I wasn't prepared for: he's almost stopped striking out. Snider's only struck out 3 times in the past 8 games. Encouraging, no? Except that he only has one walk over that span and a mere three line drives. Hrm.

Maybe I'm overreacting? Perhaps Travis Snider is one slight adjustment away from returning to a state of constant mash. What does the contact information suggest? Travis Snider doesn't get cheated, that much is for sure. The second swingingest guy on the team behind Rod "Youkilis" Barajas. One key difference between Rod and Snider: contact. Travis Snider swings at almost the same percentage of pitches outside the zone but only hits 44% of them, by far the lowest on the team. Maybe that's a good thing, maybe he's being fooled by offspeed pitches (he's seeing a lot) and getting himself into 2 strike holes? Perhaps Snider became wary of his strikeout numbers, shortened up to avoid the Ks and now fancies himself some sort of budget-Ichiro? God, I hope not.

The million dollar question remains: while he may be out of sorts at the big league level, what will Travis Snider learn from a month or two in AAA? I encourage you to correct me if I'm wrong, but AAA pitchers are more likely to be journeyman junkballers hoping for a spot-start than the live-but-raw-armed prospects of the lower minor leagues. Doubly true in the PCL, where errant fastballs go to die. Let Snider work on his pitch recognition or whatever you want to call it, rebuild the confidence Cito's failed to imbue in him by forcing him to bunt and sit against lefties and off you go. To me; Snider's yet to enter the "nothing left to prove at AAA" stage.

This isn't what I want, I love to watch Snider play. He's actually impressed me in the field and he seems to be a good soldier that enjoys a good walkoff mosh. But he needs to sort some stuff out at the plate. If the Jays continue to play well and compete, can we honestly justify him learning on the job at the expense of the team? I know it's too early to suggest such things, but why not bring up some outfield stiff (or Buck fucking Coats for laughs) and let Millar DH until his bat runs cold. Maybe even slow down Snider's clock a little bit, just for fiduciary shits and giggles. Let's just make get him right, sooner rather than later. It worked out for Delgado, didn't it?

Image courtesy of Daylife thievery corporation

Feats of Strength

Last season baseball fans were lucky enough to witness a huge number of major individual milestones achieved by a variety of players. 756, 3000, Thome, Glavine. Some of the biggest names reached some of the biggest numbers. Even our own Big Hurt celebrated his 500th laborious trudge around the bases. The prospects for this year...not so much with the glamour. Unless you are excited to celebrate Scott Spiezio's 1000th career hit or Greg Zaun's 200th career double (Double up on your ham and eggs to commemorate this two-bagging milestone! No time for dental floss! More celebreakfast for all!) you'll have to dig a little deeper to find interesting Blue Jay career milestones.

Congratulations will be in order for AJ Burnett as he inevitably passes Mike Hampton for 13th place all-time on the most DL trips list.

Russ Adams is looking to pass Huck Flener for most miles racked up on I95 between Niagara Falls and Syracuse in a "career".

Vernon Wells has the opportunity for two milestones in 2008. His career expletives shouted having just missed a hanger should surpass 1000 this summer and Joe Carter's club record for most times feebly waving at third strike sliders in the dirt should fall.

David Eckstein must be proud to be closing in on Craig Counsell's career marks for smallest hat size and most jerseys stolen from the children's section.

Aaron Hill hopes to build on his strong finish to last season. Seriously, he had TWENTY hits in his last ten games. No joke, he's great.

Many bloggers and columnists are bullish on the starting rotation this year, believing it to be poised for greatness on numerous fronts. Shaun Marcum is clearly threatening Esteban Loiza's consecutive days without a shower record while potential 5th starter Gustavo Chacin is approaching Julian Tavarez's career mark for most Goonies DVD's signed. Staff stalwart Roy Halladay is bearing down on a long established record: Bob Gibson's 3268 iterations of the cut/evil/stink-eye.

Longtime Blue Jay baiter and paragon of virtue Alex Rodriquez, while not a Jay, is also on the cusp of noteworthy accomplishment. If he maintains his current pace he could murder his 500th puppy, shove his 250th old lady in the street, and burn down his fortieth orphanage all in 2008. Time to earn that big extension Alex!

Thanks to The Competitive for the image.