Travis Snider's Swing

[Satyr3206]

He reminds me of Jay Gibbons when he is up to bat. That is not a compliment.

At least Gibbons would smoke one every once in a while. I haven't seen that from Snider this year.

[El Gordo]

His swing better suited for a Pitch n Putt.

[Norfolk orioles]

Please give Alvarez a chance!

[Redskins Rick]

Amazing how folks that have never played the first pitch of professional baseball at this level, can be so darn critical.

[mdbdotcom]

He hits like Urrutia did in the brief time he was up a few years ago. His numbers say he should be better. Every now and then he gets a valuable hit, but it still isn't hit with authority. Weird.

[CA-ORIOLE]

Amazing how folks that have never played the first pitch of professional baseball at this level, can be so darn critical.

Well it is a baseball discussion board. Be kinda lonely here if we limited opinions to professionals only. That said I'm certainly open to more knowledgeable opinions than mine about what's going on with Snider.

[Redskins Rick]

The "I never played the game" rap is old, Rick. By that definition, most every baseball writer including Roger Angel, Tom Boswell, and hundreds more should have no voice or criticism of players in the game.Sometimes the fact that a writer HASNT been on the gravy train of baseball and part of its "code" to me is EXACTLY the reason I read or listen to them.

Well it is a baseball discussion board. Be kinda lonely here if we limited opinions to professionals only. That said I'm certainly open to more knowledgeable opinions than mine about what's going on with Snider.

I was not poking shots at you and the media.

But, you see some posters in OH, complain about certain hitters make their eyes bleed, it just seams like they think its so easy to play the game and that the coaching staff and FO are just total clowns. I know, the vocal minority is the not the majority. I got to keep telling myself this.

[Redskins Rick]

Well it is a baseball discussion board. Be kinda lonely here if we limited opinions to professionals only. That said I'm certainly open to more knowledgeable opinions than mine about what's going on with Snider.

I didn't mean it, the way it came out.

[Orioles4Life21]

I was just making an observation. Haven't seen anybody really disagreeing either.

[Satyr3206]

I would like to see some more video of Snider. I've only seen him 4 or 5 times this year and it looked like he was reaching for the ball in order to make contact but wasn't really swinging with authority. That has worked for numerous high average singles hitters, but not so much for a corner OF'er that is supposed to have some pop.

[DrungoHazewood]

This is a good point. So far this season, Snider hasn't been himself. If it's a tweak by the coaches then they did a bad job. If it's a little injury, you shrug your shoulders. Seeing the "pudgy" comments above I wonder if he's not in game shape.

Snider usually has much more line drive / potential HR power than this. Some of us may recall the analysis of how far his batted balls travel, and it was one of the best in league.

This kind of reminds me of Markakis. For some reason no one could quite put their fingers on he had a power outage. I'd be willing to bet that Snider and the coaches have a pretty fair idea, but we're not privy to that. So we're left to guess. When a fan is left to guess the most common idea is "he's playing poorly, replace him." That's not necessarily wrong, but we don't have all of the information to make an informed decision. I usually at least leave room in the argument for "they're sticking with him for a good reason - they think he's going to go back to what got him here."

[sportsfan8703]

Well it is a baseball discussion board. Be kinda lonely here if we limited opinions to professionals only. That said I'm certainly open to more knowledgeable opinions than mine about what's going on with Snider.

Great post. People forget how boring this place would be if we all agreed on everything. The main point about Snider is that he's reworking his whole swing mechanics. Mid Season. That's something that needs to be done in the off season or in an environment where wins and losses don't matter. We're in a playoff race. He's not Cal Ripken. You take away the first series and this guy is OPS'ing under .600. Combine that with the base running and mental errors and needs to be gone.

[Satyr3206]

I had some really good Coaches when I played at various levels and when someones swing got in a funk or they had a prolonged slump there were two things I was taught to do.

Get a good pitch to hit. Slumps make you tend to press and swing at bad pitches.

Try to drive the ball through the box into center field. Once your timing is back and you can square up and hit it up the middle you can lengthen your swing to the alleys and go for more power. Sort of a Charlie Lau approach that leads to more power.

[25 Nuggets]

Here's the thing though, Snider's not in that much of a slump:

2015: .252/.327 - 0.23 K/PA

career: .246/.312 - 0.25 K/PA

2014: .264/.338 - 0.19 K/PA

He's doing a little better than career average in making contact, and a little worse than 2014 in Pittsburgh. It's a definite power outage with him.

2015 SLG = .326

career SLG = .400

2014 SLG = .438

The way baseball works though, all it takes is one week with 3 HR from him and he'll be right there.

[Satyr3206]

Here's the thing though, Snider's not in that much of a slump:

2015: .252/.327 - 0.23 K/PA

career: .246/.312 - 0.25 K/PA

He's doing a little better than career average in making contact, and a little worse than 2014 in Pittsburgh. It's a definite power outage with him.

2015 SLG = .326

career SLG = .400

2014 SLG = .438

I meant a power slump. Schoop, Lough, and Flaherty have more HR's than Snider.