RealGM

http://www.thestar.com/sports/baseball/ ... chris-sabo

Sounds like he's getting the fielding thing under control. Also some tidbits on Snider. Clearly, despite his Vegas numbers they want him to work on some subtle things so that he comes back to the majors a better hitter.

Defensively, the one-time catcher and second baseman has some edges to smooth out. Thus far, he’s made six errors playing home games on what Brown calls a “fielder unfriendly” infield.

Brown says the errors, most of which came in the early part of the season, were due to Lawrie trying to do too much or rushing his throw.

“He’s so athletic. On some plays, he was throwing off one foot instead of setting his feet and taking care of the play.”

He’s aggressive and he’s learning.

In his first major league season, Sabo made the all-star team. He hit 40 doubles, 11 home runs and stole 46 bases and was named National League rookie of the year.

Sabo, however, was 26 at the time.

At 21, Lawrie still has plenty of time to get to the big leagues and he knows it.

“He comes to play every day. He takes his career very seriously. He trusts that the Blue Jays and our staff will tell him when he’s ready,” said Brown.

“He does a lot of things that are major-league ready.”

Here's a related question.

Eric Hosmer has forced himself on the Royals roster. Now his AAA numbers are even more gaudy than Lawrie's. He's hitting .439 with a .525 on-base percentage. But this quote in Buster Olney's column struck me as interesting. Maybe it's my sensitivity to Rogers as owners, my perception they talk a good fight about money but arent spending and could be several years away from having to break through their velvet salary ceiling. But I like a management/owner that is more concerned about rewarding the fans now rather than in the after-life. And I certainly think we're leaving Lawrie at AAA in part to delay his Super 2 status down the road.

The Royals could have waited another month and perhaps ensured themselves of delaying Hosmer's arbitration eligibility down the road, as Moore noted. "But right now, he helps us put the best team on the field that we can," Moore said.

Here's an explanation of Super 2 status. It basically makes a top player major league arb eligible earlier than he otherwise would be.

A player and club who cannot agree on a contract may agree to salary arbitration, provided that the player has enough service time in the majors. The following players are eligible for arbitration:

(1) Players with at least 3 but less than 6 years of service in Major League Baseball;

(2) The top 17 percent of players with at least 2 but less than 3 years of Major League service. These are known as “Super 2” players. To qualify as a Super 2, a player must have accumulated at least 86 days of service in the previous year. Historically, the cutoff point for Super 2 status is 2 years, 128 days of service, though the requirement has been as high as 2 years, 140 days in years past.

Rich Griffin, among others, has suggested Lawrie will be left in Triple A until at least June in part to put off Super 2 status for a year if he develops as they anticipate. In the meantime, we pay major league prices to watch E5 throw somewhere in the vicinity of first base or watch Johnny Mac ground out with the bases full.

Super Two status might be a part of the calculation, but the bigger issue is that Lawrie really isn't major league ready yet. After his blazing start, he has posted a .213/.245/.298 line over the past ten games, and his K:BB ratio is approaching 5:1; it's doubtful that he'd add anything to our offense at the current time.

Not to mention his walk rate and strikeout rate aren't the greatest.

He needs time to learn how to play 3B. Thats all. Sure it benefits the contract status. But you cant deny he needed experience at that position.

Lawrie simply hasn't proven enough in all aspects of his game to consider risking super 2 stuff or just bringing him up period at his age for a team in the Jays position. If he's up in late June, so be it, but he better really earn it IMO.

Holding Lawrie back at this point is fine. He's got holes in his game at this point (K:BB ratio being the biggest) and he's only started playing 3B defensively this year. The selfish part of me would love to see him up here as a fan, but it's understandable at this point to be patient. He's also cooled off pretty significantly after the hot start.

I don't think the Super 2 stuff has much to do with it, the Jays have had cases in the past where they ignored that. All that stuff will be past us in about a month and it's probably a good idea to keep him down there at this point to clean up the rough edges in his game.

One thing he will never have compared to Sabo is awesome goggles.

The AL Central is so bad that the Royals might actually have a chance this year, but I'm still not sure I would have brought up Hosmer so soon and given up on Kila as an asset.

Lawrie just isn't ready yet. If he came up right now, he'd probably be like a regular E5 out there.