PULASKI -- For proof of Travis Snider's star potential, check the Appalachian League leaders. Check the 2006 draft board, which lists the Pulaski Blue Jays outfielder as a first-round pick, 14th overall, to Toronto.

And while you're at it, check Linda Smith's front yard as well. Home runs of a certain vintage land there after sailing over the 23-foot-high wall in right field at Calfee Park. Many don't carry far enough to make it up the hill in front of the house. Others, though -- well, others are hit by Snider.

"Hit it back toward the table and chairs that I've got on the side here," Smith said. "That was probably the furthest this year."

He's only a kid, two months out of Jackson High School in Mill Creek, Wash., and six months past his 18th birthday, but Snider is a leading MVP candidate and a triple-crown threat with two weeks left in the season. Heading into Wednesday's games, he led the league with 11 home runs and 40 RBIs and was fifth with a .333 batting average.

"Our scouts told us that he had a good knowledge of the strike zone, that he had tremendous power potential, that he's a good athlete and that he's going to play well in the outfield," said Charlie Wilson, Toronto's manager of minor-league operations. "Everything that our scouts told us has been true."

Snider, a 5-foot-11, 245-pound right fielder, also is first in the league with 109 total bases, second with a .586 slugging percentage and fifth with a .413 on-base percentage. He's even got six stolen bases.

"I've got a guy in the big leagues right now, Alfredo Amezaga, who plays with the Marlins, who played for me in college," Pulaski manager Dave Pano said. "He couldn't do [what Snider can do] when he came to college."

Like most Appalachian League players, Snider draws a small salary, pulling down $3,300 for the three-month season. Unlike most, he has a $1.7 million signing bonus -- what's left of it after taxes, at least -- in the capable hands of financial planners.

He is the proud owner of a black 2005 Cadillac Escalade, the luxury SUV he had long dreamed of buying himself when he signed his first pro contract. He is about to close on a new home, a three-bedroom townhouse where his mother will live year-round and he will stay during the off-season.

Most important, he has the means to make sure his mom doesn't have to worry about her medical bills. Nearly four years after she nearly died of pneumonia, Patty Snider remains on a liver transplant list at the University of Washington Medical Center.

Travis Snider always had hoped for a professional baseball career, but his resolve grew stronger when his mother lapsed into a coma in November 2003. Powerful medicine saved her life but severely damaged a liver already weakened by hepatitis C contracted during a blood transfusion.

"I watched her breathe off a machine for 14 days," Snider said. "I mean, I don't know how much worse it can get than that. It teaches you ... life can go that quick, so you want to make sure when your time comes, you're doing what you love and you're satisfied with what you've been doing."

Snider, his sister Megan, now 21, and their father, Denne, supported Patty Snider through a difficult but ultimately successful recovery.

"My health is stable," she said this week during her maiden visit to Pulaski.

Travis Snider wound up with the Blue Jays after catching their collective eye last summer at the Area Code Games, a huge tournament in Long Beach, Calif.

"I didn't know exactly what to expect," Snider said. "I had a good buddy who played there two years before me and he just said, 'Go down and believe you're the best player.' "

Snider was exactly that -- or close enough -- and then rampaged through his senior year at Jackson High, leading the Timberwolves to an undefeated season and a state title in Washington's largest division.

He signed a national letter-of-intent with Arizona State, but knew his future almost certainly would be determined by the major-league amateur draft June 6.

Following along on the Internet, Snider didn't have to wait long before his name popped up.

Since hiring J.P. Ricciardi as general manager in 2001, the Blue Jays generally have drafted college players, but they made an exception for Snider, who was regarded in some corners as the most well-rounded hitter in the draft.

Keith Law, a former Ricciardi assistant now writing for ESPN.com, praised his former team's pick, calling Snider "the Jays' first shot at having an impact bat in their system in five years."

Snider celebrated with family and friends and soon set about building his immediate future.

Living away from home wasn't a huge adjustment. Last summer he lived with his sister, partly so he would be ready to leave the nest the following year.

Snider said, his parents, who are separated, are there when needed "to tell me I'm doing something wrong, but at the same time, I've been making my own decisions for the last three or four years."

On the field, Snider had a brief transition after arriving in Pulaski on June 22, the day after the season opener. He hadn't played in a few weeks and hit .263 while the Jays surged to a 13-1 record.

Even then, though, his potential was evident. His first home run came in his sixth game, a July 2 win at Kingsport, after the Mets brought in a left-hander to face him with the bases loaded in the 10th inning.

"The first pitch he saw, he didn't try to do too much," Pulaski hitting coach Clayton McCullough recalled. "He just stayed with it and hit an opposite-field grand slam. From a young guy like that, that's big-time. That shows you what he's capable of."

While several teammates faded after strong starts, Snider only got better.

On Aug. 7, he fueled a crucial win against first-place Danville with two doubles and two home runs, including a mammoth shot near Smith's house.

Pano, a second-year manager, said it was the longest home run he's seen at Calfee Park.

Snider is hitting .410 (25 for 61) with six home runs and 16 RBIs this month.

"He's the man, basically," right-hander Kyle Ginley said after Snider made two diving catches and a running catch in a July 31 win against Princeton. "He makes unbelievable plays."

Next month, per his contract, the Blue Jays will fly him and his family to Toronto for a home series and Snider will take batting practice with the major-league club.

Soon, he hopes, he'll be there to stay. Certainly he is on the right track.

"It's easy for us to get very excited, but we can't get ahead of ourselves," Wilson said. "It's just the beginning. ... But he's started off very well."