Jackson High's Snider beats his first big slump

Even though he was hitting .349 in mid-June, Lansing (Mich.) Lugnuts right fielder Travis Snider knew something was wrong.

"The swing I had all my life just wasn't there," said Snider, who led Jackson High of Mill Creek to a 27-0 record in 2006. "I was still hitting singles, doubles and triples, but I wasn't hitting home runs. I didn't have the extra whip that I always had. I had always been able to hit home runs everywhere I played, but I had just three."

And then, the singles and doubles and triples went away for the Class A player. For the first time in his life, Snider, 19, was in a prolonged slump. The confidence that had propelled him to being a first-round draft pick of the Toronto Blue Jays (the No. 14 overall selection) in June 2006 was gone.

No longer was it as easy as it was last year at short-season Class A Pulaski (Va.), when he was named Appalachian League player of the year after hitting .325 with 11 homers and 41 runs batted in.

A 2-for-28 slump over a nine-game stretch dropped his average to .298 on July 5.

"It was the first time in my life that I didn't feel completely in control of the situation," said the left-handed hitting Snider, who is 5 feet 11 and 245 pounds. "I didn't have the confidence that I could hit my pitch. You go through a bunch of no-hit and one-hit nights and you begin to question everything."

An important test for any bright prospect is how he reacts to the first slump. Snider has passed that test, going 9 for 20 (.450) his past five games, including becoming the fourth person in team history to hit for the cycle. Perhaps more importantly, Snider says his swing is back. It was the result of hours of watching video and working with his team's hitting coach, Charlie Poe, and the organization's roving hitting instructor, Dwayne Murphy.

"My swing had gotten too long," Snider said. "I was trying to pull everything or hit everything away, rather than just react like I always had before. I am back to seeing the ball and hitting it, letting my natural quick reflexes take over."

Even before he hit for the cycle, Snider could tell he was back. He was back to putting on shows in batting practice, crushing pitches well into the stands, something that had been missing.

Snider got game confirmation July 6, when he had two hits, including a home run. The next day, he homered in his first at-bat, tripled in his next, then doubled, hitting the ball once over each outfielder's head.

"After I got the two hardest parts done first, I started thinking about it," he said. "Then, when I got the double, I started to wonder what I would do if I hit a ball in the gap the next time. Do I stop at first, or do I take the double? You don't want to be thinking about it, but you do anyway."

Snider didn't have to make a tough decision. Trying to hit the ball back up the middle, he instead hit a broken-bat fly that fell in front of the center fielder.

"It was a pretty weak hit, and it usually would have been an out, but because I had hit the ball over the outfielders' heads three times, they were playing me way deeper than normal."

Snider added another hit, going 5 for 5. He has hit four home runs since the Midwest League All-Star Game June 19, and has raised his season average to .309, with seven homers and 56 RBI overall.

But Snider will also tell you he's not the same. He said going through the slump was a great learning experience, and he also is working hard on his defense and base running, facets of his game that had always been considered inferior to his hitting.

"I was making the kind of mental and base-running mistakes you would expect from a 19-year-old," he said.

While breaking out of the slump has renewed Snider's confidence, a trip back to Seattle in early June for his grandmother's funeral gave him a refreshed perspective on life.

"Although I hadn't lost touch with people back home, it allowed me to reconnect with my family and my friends and gave me time with the people who mean the most to me," he said. "My grandmother collected thousands of pictures of me, from the time I was just a little kid playing, and I went through all of them. It was a sad reason to have to go back, but it was important for me."

What isn't as important to Snider is trying to predict how quickly he will move through the Blue Jays' organization.

"I realize now how much goes into developing a player for the major leagues," he said. "It's not just hitting, it's everything. At each level, the game gets quicker. I just need to play. Like all minor-leaguers, I want to move to the big leagues as soon as possible, but I have trust in the Toronto Blue Jays that they will put me in the right spots."

Scott Hanson: 206-464-2943 or shanson@seattletimes.com