Blue Jays Morning Brew: Phillin’ their boots

The Blue Jays got back on track Tuesday night in Philadelphia, but things weren’t looking so encouraging for a while. R.A. Dickey had his first rough outing in a long while, but thankfully, the home run bats awoke for a five-run inning that lifted the Blue Jays over the wall, and over the Phils.

Mark Buehrle will take the mound in game two looking for a mini-sweep, so enjoy one more day of pitchers batting! To kick off your hump day, we take a look around Blue Jays land for the Morning Brew. Today’s cup is high in caffeine, enjoy!

Also on Jays Journal: Jays alter Stroman’s rehab schedule, optimism growing?

Blue Jays deadline reactions  –  Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY wrote a great piece on the reaction in Toronto’s clubhouse during the week surrounding the trade deadline. Longtime holdovers were left feeling overjoyed and finally supported while the fresh faces have been shocked at the outpouring of support they’ve received.

“It’s crazy around here,” David Price told Nightengale. “The Canadians are so passionate. I went home on my scooter the other day, and people stopped me so much for pictures, it took me almost two hours to get home, and my scooter almost died.”

Jose Bautista had my favorite take on the deadline additions. “It’s almost like being at war and running low on ammo,” Bautista said, “and the next thing you know, here comes a little parachute with a crate. And it lands right next to you. And it’s full of ammo. You’re like,’ Yeah, baby.'” Poetic.

The Myth of Osuna?  –  Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci gave the Blue Jays even more publicity south of the border when he addressed closer Roberto Osuna in his Tuesday column. Although, I’m not really sure why.

The “myth” that Verducci presented was that “The Blue Jays can’t win with a 20 year old closer”. Verducci went on to give some much-deserved praise to the young star, writing “Osuna is a rarity. He throws strikes, keeps the ball in the ballpark and shows no discomfort in tight spots. Toronto has no hesitation about handing to him its biggest ninth innings since before he was even born.” If someone thinks that’s a myth, though, they haven’t watched a single pitch of baseball in 2015.

The Triple Threat  –  Rachel Murphy of MiLB.com brings us a wonderful profile on Blue Jays pitching prospect and all-around interesting man, Conner Greene. Greene has worked as an actor and model when he’s not on the diamond, but one of his professional relationships caught me off guard. Charlie Sheen!

“I’m a big fan of his work, and he’s a big fan of baseball. We had a lot of questions for one another. We became good friends and talk baseball all the time. He loves to hear a good baseball story.” Just stay away from his parties, Conner, and keep #Winning.

The Lone Lefty  –  As Mike Rutsey of the Toronto Sun explains, the recent demotion of Aaron Loup to AAA Buffalo has left Brett Cecil as the only remaining left-handed pitcher in Toronto’s seven-man bullpen. They’re also without a traditional lefty-on-lefty specialist, but manager John Gibbons feels they can overcome that with some of their right-handers who have had success against the opposite hand.

“However, (Bo) Schultz he dominates left-handers better than right-handers and Hawkins has been tougher on left-handers than right-handers this year so we’re not caught short there. Ideally you have a specialist but you can have somebody pitching good like that too.”

Next: Michael Saunders will miss the remainder of 2015

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