Snider belongs with Jays in middle of order

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Travis Snider's demotion to AAA Las Vegas is hardly consistent with the "patience" dictum that Blue Jays management sold to their fan base at the beginning of the season. (Abelimages/Getty Images)

If the Toronto Blue Jays want Travis Snider to hit in the middle of their order, they should give him a chance to hit in the middle of their order.

To me, it's that simple.

Into his fourth partial season with the Jays, the left-fielder has never batted third, fourth or fifth in the lineup for an extended period. In 25 games this season, the 23-year-old slugger hit seventh 22 times.

At the start of this campaign, Jays brass promised that Snider would be plugged into the lineup and left there for the entire season. But with the youngster scuffling at the plate, they changed their mind and shipped the 2006 first-round pick to the minors on April 28.

Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos said he wants Snider to work on mechanical flaws in his swing that have him pulling off balls and flailing at breaking pitches. Showcasing a .184 batting average with just one homer through 25 games, Snider obviously needs to provide more offence, but it should also be noted that Snider was hitting .155 through April in 2010, before rebounding to finish with 14 homers in 82 games.

Heading into 2011, Jays fans were encouraged to be patient. With exciting, young cornerstones like Snider, J.P. Arencibia, Kyle Drabek and Brett Lawrie, the Jays were building a club that would contend in the near future. It was a sales pitch most supporters bought into. But the decision to demote Snider is hardly consistent with the "patience" dictum that the club sold to their fan base.

It's hard to think of a Jay that has been asked to alter their swing more than Snider. In 2009, manager Cito Gaston seemed to be in the young slugger's ear after every at-bat and heading into this season, Snider was asked to work on turning on fastballs. Now with opponents serving him a steady diet of breaking pitches, the team is asking him to change his swing again.

So if Snider looks confused at the plate, you can understand why, and the Jays have to assume some of the blame for this. At some point, the Jays have to stop tinkering and see what kind of hitter Snider can be.

Making the demotion even more baffling is that Snider is now at AAA Las Vegas honing his swing with Chad Mottola.

Wouldn't it make more sense for Snider to be working with big-league hitting coach, Dwayne Murphy, who's the best batting instructor in the organization?

Inferior pitching

Over the past three seasons, Snider has proven that he can hammer minor league pitching, so it's difficult to comprehend how sending him to a hitter's park to bat against inferior pitching will aid his development. Further complicating matters is that there are five active outfielders (and two more on the disabled list) on the Las Vegas roster.

How are the Jays going to ensure that Snider gets enough at bats, when they also have to find playing time for Scott Podsednik, Dewayne Wise, Eric Thames and Adam Loewen?

Perhaps most perplexing is that while Snider competes in Las Vegas, valuable big-league at bats are being wasted on Juan Rivera, Corey Patterson and Mike McCoy - three players not in the Jays' long-term plans. In a conference call last Friday, Anthopoulos told reporters he had an obligation to win games right now and that Snider wasn't helping the team offensively.

He may be right, but does anyone truly believe that the Jays are better with Rivera, Patterson or McCoy in left field than Snider?

Keep in mind that even with a .184 batting average, Snider had driven in 12 runs, which led the team for a good portion of the season. A hard worker, Snider had wholeheartedly embraced Jays manager John Farrell's aggressive approach on the base paths, swiping five bases in 25 games. And with three outfield assists prior to his demotion, he had also improved defensively.

Anthopoulos has said that he still sees Snider as a middle-of-the-order guy in the future. But one has to wonder how Snider would have fared this season if the Jays would've batted him ahead of Jose Bautista.

With Bautista hitting behind him and Rajai Davis, one of the American League's best base stealers, batting in front of him, Snider would've seen more fastballs and fewer breaking pitches. True, his numbers may not have merited elevating him in the order, but in a year in which developing their young talent was supposed to be the focus, why not try batting Snider third?

The latest demotion is not the end of Snider as a Blue Jay, but it does represent a significant step back for the player and the organization. The solution, however, seems simple.

If Snider is to become the middle-of-the-order hitter the Jays want him to be, they need to hit him in the middle  of their order - and not ship him to the minors.

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