Blue Jays Minor League Watch: Where’s Travis Snider At?

When the 2011 season first started, Travis Snider was supposed to be a staple of the franchise. Snider was to be given everyday duties in earnest for the first time in his young career – but after struggling in April, he was demoted in a midst of a 5-game hitting streak. We’re just over 2 months into the season now, and it doesn’t seem as though he on the verge of an imminent return to the big club. This being said, Snider has been toiling away at AAA working towards that goal – so how is he doing? For Snider, it’s a matter of getting his swing mechanics fixed up. I was particularly high on the kid when the season started, predicting a Bruce-like breakout; but somewhere along the way, Snider became a ground ball (46.9% GB rate, up from 40.8 in ’10)/pop-up (20%, almost double his career rate) hitting machine. It was hoped that Snider would get out of it himself at some point, but the Blue Jays management saw whatever bad habits that had gotten into...