J.T. Snow sure played a lot of games at 1st Base for the Angels and did so very little with them. In addition to that, he ganked a comically easy play in the 1995 1-Game October playoff with Seattle which the Angels lost. Pretty much our franchise's Bill Buckner moment.
We traded a perfectly servicable Jim Abbot to the Yankees for Snow and two pitchers who sucked. The Angels front office needed to justify this trade for years by trotting out His Mediocreness. When we did trade him, we got stuck with the terrible Allan Watson.
For more ravings about the years lost to J.T., his 2005 Top 100 Angel profile has detailed rantings from the frustrated Angels faithful.
On the plus side, he had 102 RBI in that fateful 1995 campaign, perhaps the highlight of his professional baseball career.
0 recs | 19 comments
If yer so down on the guy, why did he make the list?
I never thought much of him as an angel
Big Bad , "VLAD"! - November 2, 2008
it is like this:
If you punch the clock long enough, you are gonna get the pension.
Rev Halofan - November 2, 2008
He only played 2 full seasons, and only had 1 good year.
Is that really good enough in angel history to make the top 100? I’m sure there must be other players in our history who played many more games that are more deserving of #99.
He should be in the top 100 of the Giants version of Halo’s Heaven.
Big Bad , "VLAD"! - November 3, 2008
And yet he was a good player for a decade after we let him go
The 1990s Angels are filled with guys we couldn’t develop or get production from, and then went bonkers or semi-bonkers elsewhere (Snow, Damion Easley, Gary Gaetti, Phil Nevin, Dante Bichette). Even Jim Edmonds didn’t really start hitting the tarnation out of the ball until he left town.
While the ultimate blame lays with the individuals, at least some, I think, should go to the hitting coach of the time — Rod Carew.
If we had kept J.T. Snow, and he would have produced for us like he ended up producing for San Fran, ’95 would have been an afterthought on the way to many more playoff appearances. Instead, the team convinced itself it had a “four outfielders problem,” traded Snow for a mediocre starter, shipped out Chili Davis for an even more mediocre starter, then filled the resulting hole at DH/1B with an ever-worsening series of calamities — Eddie Murray, Tony Phillips, Rickey Henderson, Cecil Fielder, Greg Jeffries, Mark Johnson, Mo Vaughn.
mattwelch - November 2, 2008
And Russ Springer is STILL pitching
Who would have believed that he would have hung in there that long? And according to BB-Ref, he’s made a cool $8M along the way….
johnnyangel101 - November 2, 2008
I am amazed at that too
I never thought he would play in the big leagues more than a few years
stolenbases - November 2, 2008
I remember when he hit 10 bombs in April-May in '95
…and thinking he was going to be a future stud. Still, he did have some productive years in SF and was always surehanded at 1B. In some ways, I thought Kotchman was a similar mold of JT Snow — smooth lefty swing with moderate power and a Gold Glove-caliber glove.
Hopefully we do better than a parade of the likes mattwelch mentioned above in the post-Kotchman years (read: signing of M. Teixeira…..in shallah).
Big Easy Halofan - November 2, 2008
He got off to the great start in 93 IIRC
MH252525 - November 3, 2008
You're right
Big Easy Halofan - November 3, 2008
Remember '93 as well
After having to go through that miserable ‘92 campaign that had absolutely no offense, aging players past their prime, players that should have never been playing everyday, and little talent other than the pitchers and maybe Chad Curtis, it was exciting to see Snow and Salmon in ’93. I was all excited as a kid thinking that Snow was going to be a superstar after those first 2 months and hit 40 plus homers a year, but of course we all know that didn’t pan out.
He was decent, but other than 1995 and those first months in 1993 his time with the Angels was a big disappointment especially after giving up fan favorite Jim Abbott. What Angel fan, especially a kid like myself at the time, didn’t love Abbott?
I still remember hating that trade of Abbott and wondered why the Angels couldn’t be like the “big market” Blue Jays at the time and just sign and trade for a bunch of studs. With Jackie Autry basically making the Angels the Pittsburgh Pirates and Kansas City Royals with her payroll, I never thought I would see the day when the Angels would actually try to sign star players such as Vladdy and Hunter.
Thank you Arte for actually wanting to win and not pocket a bunch of money.
stolenbases - November 3, 2008
Snow
i remember those 2 months in ‘93. he was freakin on fire. if i remember correctly didn’t Clemens brush back with a pitch around his head and after that it was like he got scared and never recovered. i’m glad Arte is the owner but you can’t blame Jackie or Disney. i think she basically inherited a baseball team that she didn’t want. she didn’t want to spend any money. disney just didn’t have the vision, but thats what you get if your a corp. owning a team. i’m just glad it worked out with Arte.
HALO_86 - November 3, 2008
The guy was incredible with the glove
He gets credit for that. It’s not quite enough to cancel out his horrific 1996 season offensively, but considering he put up decent numbers in 1995, I’m willing to give him some credit. I think 99 is a good spot, maybe a little low, but he didn’t play quite as much for the Angels as I thought he did – only 4 seasons, and one of those was mostly him being injured.
Coincidentally, I was in attendance for both of his grand slams as an Angel, and I only went to maybe two or three games a year.
Gorbachav5 - November 2, 2008
Dude
Do tell why you don’t go to more of these things called Angels baseball games. We like seeing grand slams.
Clutch - November 3, 2008
Great Defense
I went to a game where I had the best seats I’d ever enjoyed, maybe 20 rows back of home plate, and I remember a lined shot that he immediately leapt into the air and snatched. At the time there was no replay screen from my POV, so if you missed it, like my dad did, there was nothing to see afterwards, but it’s been burned into my memory ever since. Can’t even tell you who hit the ball, who the opposing team was, who was pitching, none of it. Just that Snow reacted faster than I thought humanly possible.
Kernel - November 3, 2008
as much as he may have done as an Angel...
the one moment that I will always remember of him was during the ‘02 World Series when he grabbed Dusty Baker’s son out of the way at home plate…
bighead - November 3, 2008
He was a great
To me as a seven-year-old, that is. The first home run I ever saw—that I remember, anyway—was by JT Snow, which I watched from my family’s seats that night on the upper deck. He was my hero from that point on and still holds a special place to me in my Angel fandom. I even went as JT for Halloween that year (1993).
‘Course, I wasn’t paying a ton of attention back then and only vaguely remember who I saw—for some reason Jorge Fabregas has always stood out…probably because I always thought he looked “flabbergasted” to be up there…
Clutch - November 4, 2008
Jorge Fabregas was awful
I remember some Yankee fans calling him “Flabbyass” and I actually agreed. He stunk so bad.
John Orton and Ron Tingley weren’t anything special either. For awhile that catching spot was a big black hole.
stolenbases - November 5, 2008
Ah yes I remember J.T.
growing up a young buck with the California Angels on K-Cal 9 with jerry reuss and steve psycioc.
I was sad when we let him go to the Giants
I didn’t really pay as great of attention to the games obviously in the detail I do today but I always will remember J.T. Snow being one of my favorite players growing up.
deejayelleseven - November 4, 2008
Highlight of his career?
How about getting hits in all 7 games of the World Series, or his game-tying three-run shot in the NLDS against the Mets? I think he even had a three-homer game. He had the second highest post-all-star break BA in the majors (after Ichiro) in 2004, and finished batting like .328. He won 6 gold gloves. He had multiple .280/25/100-type seasons.
So yeah, he had a mediocre 2 seasons with the Angels (one of them a decent offensive year), but he had a pretty decent good career. No, he’s not Vlad or Salmon, or Manny, or whatever, but he was a more-than-serviceable starter and a classy, classy, charitable guy. He fucked up one bad play for the Angels on a big stage, and that’s all we ever remember him as. I don’t like it at all.
Caseys Kiss of Death - November 5, 2008
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