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I'm not saying we should demote Thames over a small 10 game sample size. **** happens. But, if things continue with Snider tearing the cover off the ball in AAA, and with Thames struggling, when do we consider letting Snider have another crack at it? 30 games in?, 50 games? 80 games?

Hopefully sooner rather than later. The writing is on the wall when he consistently gets pulled in the 9th inning of close games because they are that worried about his defense and he isn't hitting well enough to justify starting like when he first came up. Even if Snider bats just as bad as Thames his assists would at least save some runs.

It's great he's tearing it up in the minors and showing to be more selective, but just like you said, it's a small sample size. Let him continue to build more confidence if he's truly part of our long term plans and stop messing around with his psyche.

Attonitus wrote:Hopefully sooner rather than later. The writing is on the wall when he consistently gets pulled in the 9th inning of close games because they are that worried about his defense and he isn't hitting well enough to justify starting like when he first came up. Even if Snider bats just as bad as Thames his assists would at least save some runs.

what about giving francisco an opportunity?

Hard to say Thames is "struggling" when hes currently on a 5 game hitting streak.

Too early for this. don't want to ruin both players... give thames another month and if Snider is still playing well and has shown continued improvement with his swing and pitch selection, then bring him up.

Thames is hitting 7 for 19, or .368 in his last 7 games. Snider always does well in AAA and then struggles up here.

Reef wrote:Thames is hitting 7 for 19, or .368 in his last 7 games.

Yep.
If that was Snider people would be talking about how hes finally starting to get hot.

I think the plan was to play out Thames to build some value until Snider is 100% ready.
Thames will come around, but Snider is probably the one the Jays want out in LF long term.

I like Thames, lets give him a good chance.

Griff83 wrote:Hard to say Thames is "struggling" when hes currently on a 5 game hitting streak.

I'm not sure how this means he isn't struggling. They are all '1 for x' games. And in 4 out of 5 of them his 1 hit was a single.

I'de say over the course of the season so far, having 1xbh (a double), 2 walks, a .641ops, and poor fielding, all contributing to a team low -0.3 WAR is struggling, no? I think we should definetly give him some more time, but I don't see anything to suggest that he hasn't struggled to this point in the year.

Thames is striking out very little, the power is gonna sort itself out very soon. His defence is terrible but overall he's okay, maybe below average LF'er but you don't have to have all stars at every position, i trust him more than Snider who i think is just broken as a hitter.

Thames kind of sucks, but he's not going anywhere for a while.

My view of Thames is that he is a 4th OF and will likely be that for most of his career. Maybe he could start on a division 2 team but not a 1st. The Guys on the DJF podcast talked about him and my views are pretty similar to theirs. Thames is the starting LF only because they want Snider to be completely ready, so for however long that takes Thames will start in LF be it 100, 200, 300 AAA at bats whatever the number Snider will get it. They will most likely give Thames at least 200 AB so that they can say to fans and media "We gave him a chance" but once Snider is up they will stay with him and give him at least a good 600 MLB AB's before they declare it a failure and go get a LF via trade, or call up Gose/Sierra/ who ever and try it again.

WpgPage wrote:My view of Thames is that he is a 4th OF and will likely be that for most of his career. Maybe he could start on a division 2 team but not a 1st. The Guys on the DJF podcast talked about him and my views are pretty similar to theirs. Thames is the starting LF only because they want Snider to be completely ready, so for however long that takes Thames will start in LF be it 100, 200, 300 AAA at bats whatever the number Snider will get it. They will most likely give Thames at least 200 AB so that they can say to fans and media "We gave him a chance" but once Snider is up they will stay with him and give him at least a good 600 MLB AB's before they declare it a failure and go get a LF via trade, or call up Gose/Sierra/ who ever and try it again.

Your views are a little more than similar to the djf guys, you typed their podcast verbatim

But yea, thames is awful. Id be surprised if he doesn't get replaced in 1-2months.

Thames is hitting .269 with a solid .330 OBP which is 3rd and 5th best on the team out of the regulars. His productivity doesn't justify getting a demotion.

It does so happen that we also have Rajai Davis who is very good against lefties & late in games can get a run almost by himself with his base running. It's not so much a knock on Thames as it is making sure you can utilize every aspect of the team to generate runs.

Thames will have to lose the spot, not Snider take the spot. Snider could OPS 1.500 and still be in AAA as long as Thames is half decent in the majors.

Personally I hope we don't swap them. I think Snider is our answer for the future but right now he needs to work on his swing. Right now its crazy and his numbers wouldn't translate well into the MLB. He swing with 1 hand, then another 1 handed chop at a ball in the dirt, then two hands, then he finally does a 2 handed swing for a HR. It's also worth noting Vegas is an insane hitters park, and it favors lefties like crazy. Last year he wrecked AAA too, even after his terrible MLB stint. In his case, the two leagues just don't see to translate.

My opinion in a sentence: Thames should only be swapped/traded when Snider is READY by scouts standards, not statistically.

jrsmith wrote:
Your views are a little more than similar to the djf guys, you typed their podcast verbatim

But yea, thames is awful. Id be surprised if he doesn't get replaced in 1-2months.

Yeah, In my defense I was of that opinion headed into the season so I'm going to go ahead and take credit for that idea. Stupid Stoten taking my idea's.

Griff83 wrote:

Reef wrote:Thames is hitting 7 for 19, or .368 in his last 7 games.

Yep.
If that was Snider people would be talking about how hes finally starting to get hot.

WOW he's batting .368 in his last 7 games! And with that 0 HR's and 1 RBI on the season your right he's really killing it.

He's batting a solid .000 with RISP. His one RBI on a sacrifice. Please explain how this is not struggling?

Seriously though, he will get slightly better eventually but this guys decline started last season, people are stuck on the few good weeks he had when he came up. It also seems a little ironic that everyone wants to give Thames a fair shot and let him works things out but that was never on the table for Snider.

Oh and jut FYI, I know it's AAA but still here are Snider's #'s so far in Vegas:

12 GP, 3 HR, 17 RBI, .426 AVG, 1.266 OPS

By far the most promising aspect of Snider's performance so far is his K:BB ratio is 6:7 through 47 ABs. That's right, Travis Snider of all people has walked more than he's struck out. He's never come close to doing that before at any level. And he's done so while mashing the baseball. I'll be keeping a very close eye on that ratio going forward. Someone also posted that he had a one-handed swing going for a while there; hopefully that was fixed as quickly as it appeared.

Too early to make a switch. Thames is a better ball player than this tiny 27 AB sample has shown, and in a semi-platoon role he'll be OK. Snider still has the higher ceiling IMO.