Travis Snider looks ahead to his O's future, reflects on his past as a top prospect

Since Baseball America released its first list of the top 100 prospects in baseball in 1990, just six Orioles minor leaguers have made the top six on that list.

Here is the rundown:
No. 1 - Matt Wieters in 2009
No. 2 - Dylan Bundy in 2013, Ben McDonald in 1990
No. 3 - Jeffrey Hammonds in 1994
No. 5 - Brian Matusz in 2010, Arthur Rhodes in 1992
No. 6 - Arthur Rhodes in 1991

New Oriole Travis Snider can relate to the players on this list. Coming up as a young player with the Toronto Blue Jays, he was ranked No. 11 in 2008 (one spot ahead of Wieters) and No. 6 in 2009.

Called up to the majors for the first time in 2008 by Toronto, Snider had initial success, batting .301 in 24 games at 20. But he had his struggles after that, never hitting better than .255 until last year, and going back and forth often between the minors and major leagues. He was shuttled between the two levels every year from 2008 through 2013.

A first-round selection in the 2006 First-Year Player Draft, Snider was selected 14th overall out of a high school in the state of Washington.

He's now 27 and with 543 career major league games under his belt. I asked Snider to reflect on what it was like to be a highly touted prospect.

"You see some guys thrive in that role and some guys struggle," he said. "The biggest thing I've learned over the course of my career is keep your head down. You guys are going to write what you write and project what you project.

"Rankings, all that kind of stuff, it doesn't matter. At the end of the day, you have to show up and handle your business. Whether you are 20 years old or 27 or in your sixth year in the league. The focus has to remain on getting better every day, not what some writer thinks of your abilities."

Can being rated that highly add pressure and be a burden for a young player?

"If you allow it to be," Snider said. "At some points in my career, I allowed those distractions to creep in. Not just being a prospect, but a guy that wanted to play in the big leagues every day. What you have to learn as a young player is that everything up here is earned.

"Because you played every day in the minors and had success doesn't mean you will walk in here, hit third in the order and drive in 100 runs. When you focus on the numbers, rankings and statistics, that is the distractions that I am talking about. I don't focus on what my batting average is. I understand what the process is every single day and what I need to do to get better.

"You have to learn how to separate the noise from the focus. It is something I've simplified over the last couple of years in my career. Whether it is people writing nice articles about you, your mindset can't change."

Snider now enjoys passing on some of that knowledge to younger players. He did some of that last season with a player that came up and immediately started in right field, a position where Snider had started earlier in the year.

"I spent some time in Pittsburgh with Gregory Polanco last year," Snider said. "He's a perfect example of a tremendous first couple of weeks in the big leagues and then he hit a rough patch. You start to see the pressure that young players put on themselves.

"Gregory is a smart kid with a tremendous future. The conversations we were able to have were about putting that noise out of your head and focusing every single day."

After going through the ups and downs as a talented young player for several years, Snider had his best big league season in 2014. He hit .264/.338/.438 with 13 home runs and a career-high 38 RBIs in 140 games with the Pirates before being traded to the Orioles in January.

He had a particularly strong second half, batting .288/.356/.524/ with nine homers, 24 RBIs and an .880 OPS in 170 at-bats.

Snider said he's learned a lot along the way and is still evolving as player.

"Absolutely. I've been sent to Triple-A more than once and been hurt more than once. So I've seen both ends of the spectrum in terms of performance and health. Those are two keys at this level and when you are here you have to make adjustments," he said.

That includes adjusting to the hype and pressure that comes with being a top prospect.