Jays take OF Travis Snider in the 1st round

[Halladay_is_God]

http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/NASA...=.jsp&c_id=tor

TORONTO -- Under Toronto general manager J.P. Ricciardi's tenure, the Blue Jays have tended to steer away from selecting high school players in the early rounds of the First-Year Player Draft. A few weeks ago, though, Ricciardi hinted that the philosophy he's used in the last four drafts could have an exception.

"Some day we will take a high school kid," Ricciardi said on May 24. "It's just going to have to be the right situation."

The right situation came on Tuesday, when Ricciardi and the Blue Jays used their 14th overall selection on Travis Snider -- an outfielder out of Jackson High School in Everett, Wash. Baseball America rated Snider as the 18th-ranked prospect available for the draft and the fourth-best high schooler.

This season, the left-handed-hitting Snider posted a .522 batting average with 10 home runs and 39 RBIs in 60 at-bats for Jackson. The 6-foot, 220-pound Snider had 41 runs and 26 hits, including eight doubles and two triples.

Under Ricciardi's tenure, roughly 80 percent of the Blue Jays' draft picks have been from four-year colleges or junior colleges. Toronto has selected only 39 high school players across the last four drafts. The highest Ricciardi and the Jays have ever taken a prep star was at the 206th pick in 2002, when they picked pitcher Brian Grant, who was released this offseason after never advancing above Class A Auburn.

As a result of its busy offseason, Toronto doesn't make another selection until 120th slot in the fourth round. The Blue Jays inked free agent pitchers A.J. Burnett and B.J. Ryan to five-yar deals worth a combined $102 million this past winter, and the club lost its second- and third-round picks in the process.

[Roy31]

The guy has power dont be suprised if he is a DH for us down the road.

[SLAM]

.522 batting average with 10 home runs and 39 RBIs in 60 at-bats

This kid gots potential.

[Roy31]

Of course hes got potential lol, Otherwise we wouldnt have drafted him in the first round. Speaker of the obvious...

[SLAM]

Of course hes got potential lol, Otherwise we wouldnt have drafted him in the first round. Speaker of the obvious...

lol.... well there are busts... you never know..