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Calling it now- this kid is going to be lights out this year and dominate. He is going to mash the ball for power, hit for average, and play amazing D in the outfield. With Rios looking to take the next step to becoming a bonified star, Wells finished the season strong last year, Lind is looking good and will hit for power, Hill is going to win comeback player of the year....at least at the plate I think this team will be well ahead of last year.

My only worry is Overbay. He needs to figure out how to hit again or they need to move him out of the line up and stick Lind there or Bautista. We cant afford a .250 hitting 10 hr 50 rbi 1B this year. That goes for Rolen as well.

Snider will be in the running for 2009 Rookie of the Year by virtue of the fact that he has a starting spot and barring a massive collapse, he's poised for 500 ABs. However, he's not LeBron here. He's going to strikeout a ton this year and it will affect his ability to hit for average until he learns to curb it. Also it's still going to be a couple of years before he will be hitting 25+ HRs. Snider wasn't a good defensive outfielder to begin with so we should be happy if he's able to muster average defense everyday. I can see him positively contributing this year on the offensive end because he is a good hitter but his strikeout numbers will limit how good he does.

Besides, whenever the O's decide to bring up Matt Wieters, Snider wouldn't even be the best rookie in the division. Wieters has the ability for a Longoria/Braun rookie season impact.

I respectfully disagree with you completely on Snider. Snider isn't the starting LF for the Jays by default- there are other options. He's there because he's that good. I think you are underestimating his power and control at the plate. The Jays have invested a lot of time and patience in Lind and for Snider to start ahead of him is saying something.

Weiters is a great prospect and sending him down to Norfolk has everything to do with another year before arbitration and postponing free agency then it does with his ability to make the team. Baltimore isn't going to challenge for anything this year, so patience is smart in this case with this guy.

For me, what's special is Cito getting to work with a young talented hitter, when they're most apt to want to listen and learn. I agree we'll see big things from this kid this year. I either see Aaron Hill becoming a leader on this team, or if he's not that kind of guy (like Wells, Rios, everyone else), perhaps Snider.

But I can't call ROY without knowing the other candidates. Anyone have a rundown of who to look for?

As mentioned earlier, Matt Weiters is an excellent catching prospect with the Orioles. if they were going to be in contention, he would be starting the year as the everyday guy.

Travis Snider OF- Toronto
Elvis Andrus SS- Texas
Matt LaPorta OF- Cleveland
David Price P- Tampa
Camron Maybin OF- Florida (NL)
Dexter Fowler OF- Colorado (NL)
Colby Rasmus OF- St Louis (NL)
Tommy Hanson P- Atlanta (NL)
Andrew McCutcheon OF- Pittburgh (NL)

Got these from am SI article, but they pretty much match up to what everyone thought in my fantasy pool.

I wouldn't say hes ROY but he has a pretty good shot at it. Based on what we saw from him last season...in the last little bit, hes a pretty solid player. Hopefully he does the same for us this year.

I think Price will be a monster. As for Snider, he had a killer start to the season.

Wieters' entry in to the Majors will have to be pushed back at least to mid-May or June, and he'll have to underwhelm for Snider to have a shot at winning ROY.

Wieters is THAT Good. Most people think he's either on par or even better as a prospect than Joe Mauer was, and Joe Mauer impressed everyone when he first came up to the big leagues.
I think even PECOTA projects .311/.395/.544
Even if Wieters lives up to 3/4s of that billing, he'll still be a lot better than Snider will be this season, IMO.

I think they brought him up too fast though. He could have used another year in minors, but I guess Ricciardi is feeling the burn, and brought him up to take a gamble.
Snider should be a lot of fun to watch for Jays fans, considering the dearth of talent coming up from the minors over the past couple of years.

At the end of it all though, I think he'll be playing 1B/DH. I don't think he has too many days left at OF, especially considering his problems with fielding. Maybe a slightly better Pat Burrell (05-07?), with a better BA?

I think it's a little early to say that Snider will be ROY, I mean it's only one game into the season. Anything could happen...

arrpy wrote:I think it's a little early to say that Snider will be ROY, I mean it's only one game into the season. Anything could happen...

well to be fair, the OP wasn't judging after 1 game (even though he had a great game)... it was more of a pre-season prediction..

I'd say he has a good shot... Now I don't know much about this Wieters kid (sounds like a gem), so I'm pretty biased..

Matt Wieters is definately the favourite to win ROY. He's amazing. Simple as that.

His minor league stats are incredible, and what's really impressive is the fact that he drew more walks than strikeouts and got on base over 45% of the time. Not to mention he hit the ball for power as well. And despite the fact that the Orioles want him to improve his defense, he still threw out 40% of runners that tried to steal on him. This guy will be impressive no doubt.

Snider will still be a great player though, and may even win ROY this year, who knows. It's going to be a fun year to watch our young talent though.

Well I can't claim to be educated enough on the other top prospects to be able to make any kind of real prediction, but I certainly wouldn't be surprised if Snider took it. The guy projects to be a great power hitter which this team needs. Mike Wilner suggested that he could hit 30+ homers, which would be fantastic. He's still got the problem of striking out too much, but if he comes close to that number of homers it hardly matters that much.