by Barry Stagg
May 1994
Segue to Syracuse
Syracuse, New York, is a nice industrial town a few miles inland from the southern shore of Lake Ontario. It is otherwise an obscure upstate New York town with nothing to relate it to Toronto and baseball other than it now being the home of Toronto's International League Baseball team and the home of Toronto most prized baseball prospect, Rob Butler. Butler went from wintertime toast of the town in Toronto as the Canadian rookie outfielder on the World Champion Blue Jays to being a late spring training cut of the Championship team.
Butler has flip-flopped with Carlos Delgado. Delgado was left at the AA level in Knoxville, last year while Butler jumped over him from Class A ball to Syracuse. It appeared that these two young prospects of 1992 had gone in different directions with Butler clearly surpassing the power hitting youngster from Puerto Rico. This season, Delgado put together a powerful spring training hitting spree and this was set off against Butler's own miserable performance in Florida. Butler never seemed to get over having missed playing winter ball in the Caribbean and it seemed that there was some sort of self fulfilling attitude that existed both with Butler and with Blue Jay management. Blue Jay management had expressed displeasure with Butler over the winter because of his decision not to play winter ball. Butler had resisted their requests and appeared to be using the winter as an extended period of recovery for his badly injured thumb, which he had injured early in his recall to the Blue Jays last season.
Butler must now work hard to avoid sliding down the same slippery slope that Rob Ducey endured after his first call up to the Jays. Ducey, also an Ontario product, never seemed to catch on securely with the Jays after being brought up to provide relief to the original Jay superstar outfield of Bell, Barfield and Moseby.
Butler is clearly not a power hitting outfielder and his skills, are in many respects, subtle and relate more to hustle, determination and intelligence than they do to brute strength. In contrast, Delgado is a pure power hitting outfielder and his six home runs hit in the early days of April are testimony to that ability. Delgado has the ability to excite both a team and the fans and he has done that superbly so far. Hitting two upper deck home runs in the opening series at the Skydome certainly secured at least his early season presence in the everyday Blue Jay lineup.
There is plenty of time left for Butler yet though. Many an April phenom has withered away in the hot days of mid-season baseball. For instance, last year's April superstar was first baseman, J.T. Snow of the California Angels. Snow came over from the Yankees as the star acquisition in the Jim Abbott deal. Snow tore up the league and at one point led the league both in batting average and home runs near the end of April. Unfortunately for him the league pitchers caught up with his big swing style and Snow ended the season on the bench with an average under .250. This season Snow is plying his trade in the AAA Pacific Coast League and his place at first base for California has gone to another prospect.
Here is hoping that Rob Butler pulls up his socks and gets back to the business of making himself a pure buzzsaw of motion, energy and success in Syracuse so that once again he can grace the plastic pasture of the Skydome with his East York training and skills and his valuable Newfoundland roots.
Until next month, be proud, be prosperous.