Blue Jays Morning Brew: Young Arms & Old Legs

Blue Jays’ Marcus Stroman warms up at Fenway Park. Photo by Shaun Doyle

Good Morning. Wipe the sleep from your eyes because we’ve brewed up a fresh pot of Blue Jay goodness to start your day. Here’s your Blue Jays Morning Brew.

In Halifax, our local news paper, The Chronicle Herald offered up a piece on Lansing Lugnuts pitching coach, Vince Horsman. Horsman and I went to the same high school! The Dartmouth native signed with the Blue Jays in 1984 as an amateur free agent. He went on to play 4+ season, mostly with the Oakland A’s. The focus of the Chronicle Herald’s piece is to highlight the potential impact Horsman has had on the talented young arms that have risen through the minor league system.

Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi tells us that Jose Reyes has been playing with a sore hammy…again. At least, that is the explanation for a decline on already questionable defense. Reyes is trying to avoid “blowing up” his hamstring. He says he consciously trying to avoid getting hurt. I’ll leave that one up to you all to accept…or not.

At The Sun, Bob Elliott looks ahead to the Blue Jays starting rotation. In particular, he describes the role of Marcus Stroman and Aaron Sanchez- “S & S”.  Elliott looks for comparisons for the two young guns. Stroman is being compared to Tom Gordon and Pedro Martinez. Sanchez is being held up against the likes of Jim Palmer, Matt Cain and A.J. Burnett. If these two can live up to the comparisons, I’d say it is a great 1-2 punch for years to come. But, then again, as Elliott throws in at the end, Daniel Norris may be even better than the two above. Really?! that could be an impressive 1-2-3 punch!

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And, Bobby E is at it again. Over at the Canadian Baseball Network, Elliott looks at Jose Bautista‘s place among all time Blue Jays home run hitters. Right now, Joey Bats sits at 200 HR, good for 5th place. By season’s end, he should pass both George Bell (202) and Joe Carter (203) to take over 3rd spot. Assuming health, he will pass Vernon Wells (223) next season. Bautista has a long way to go to pass the great Carlos Delgado‘s mark of 343.

Finally, I’ll leave you with a couple tidbits from the Twitter-verse:

Firstly, from Rob Fai, Vancouver Canadians broadcaster:

Congrats to @vancandians SS Franklin Barreto, named Baseball America's Player of the Year (short-season). Very well deserved!

— Rob Fai (@RobFai) September 13, 2014

And from Alexis Brudnicki at the Canadian Baseball Network…

AFL #BlueJays include Blake McFarland, Sean Nolin, Roberto Osuna, Arik Sikula, Sean Ochinko, Jon Berti, Dalton Pompey & Dwight Smith Jr.

— Alexis Brudnicki (@baseballexis) September 14, 2014