Our weekly look at one item tying together each of Boston's AL East opponents looks at the Blue Jays. Which relatively unknown player could make a name for himself in Toronto in 2011?
Travis Snider was such a dominant offensive performer at various minor league stops that it was almost expected that he would just hit the majors and keep on producing at a high level. The fact that he has hit .255 with roughly a strikeout a game in parts of three years has not made him a bust. Heck, he's only 23. But Blue Jays fans that were so high on him are itching for that breakout year, or at least one with a relative degree of good health.
Snider, who has already been limited in camp due to a rib-cage injury, had a right wrist ailment that hampered him in 2010. He was hitting .241 in mid-March when he was sent to the disabled list. The former first-round pick didn't get right until the end of the year, batting .297 with six home runs in his final 29 games.
Toronto, which slugged its way to 85 wins last year, has question marks up and down its lineup. Will Jose Bautista even approach 54 home runs again? Will the production of Vernon Wells (31 homers in 2010) be missed? Can Adam Lind and Aaron Hill, both of whom struggled mightily last year, bounce back?
An improved, and healthy, Snider could go a long way toward making the answers to those questions a bit less pressing.
