Blue Jays Morning Brew: Podcast, Sanchez, news and notes

Coming off an 11-3 bounce-back win, the 36-31 Toronto Blue Jays head to Philadelphia for their final two games of the series

NEW PODCAST EPISODE
The Jays Nest Podcast is back for another week of Blue Jays goodness with Shaun Doyle and I. Before you have a moment to question your own definition of goodness, head over to Jays From the Couch and enjoy the show. We talk MLB Draft, John Gibbons, on-base-percentage, and take your reader questions.

You can also subscribe below on iTunes for iOS or Stitcher if you’re an Android user to get the episodes delivered right to you each Tuesday morning.

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PUSH IT TO THE LIMIT
From John Lott over at VICE Sports comes this piece on Aaron Sanchez, who’s met every expectation since winning a spot in the Blue Jays rotation. The Blue Jays can easily convert him to a back-end bullpen piece if he slows late in the season, but crafting a strategy to keep him a starter as long as possible remains the clear priority.

“I think that’s just one of those things we’ll talk about when the time comes,” Sanchez told Lott. “I’ll just try to get as many starts as I can under my belt before that even comes up. I don’t know. We’re treading in uncharted waters when you see what’s going on with (Matt) Harvey and guys like that.”

TRAVIS vs. UEHARA
Greg Wisniewski’s “One At-Bat” series at BP-Toronto is always a must-read, and the latest instalment features an 11-pitch battle between Devon Travis and Red Sox reliever Koji Uehara. The commentary on Boston catcher Christian Vazquez is especially interesting, as Greg looks at how his role in the sequence could have better benefited his pitcher.

GRILLI’S BULLPEN IMPACT
For a reliever that was close to being released by one of baseball’s weakest teams, Jason Grilli has been one heck of an addition to the Blue Jays. Mark Zwolinski at the Toronto Star recently profiled the veteran righty and they discussed his boisterous personality on the mound.

“Everybody looks at my reactions and its raw,” Grilli told Zwolinski, “right in moment . . . it’s the only way I can let out the adrenaline from getting to (pitch with the Jays), being with the organization and being with a team that I was a fan of growing up. Now I get to pitch here as a grown man . . . It’s humbling, opposite to what I show or feel on the field.”

MONDAY MORNING MAILBAG
This week’s Monday Morning Mailbag went live on, well, you guessed it. We’ll be upping our video content over the summer here at Jays Journal, so feel free to send in your questions at any time. Twitter is always the quickest way to our hearts (and eyes):  @KeeganMatheson or @JaysJournal.

Next: Looking back fondly on the failed Saunders-Bruce trade

ROMANO RETURNS
We mentioned this briefly in the minor league recap that wrapped up Monday night’s games, but Michael Avallone of MiLB.com does a much better job of capturing the return of Blue Jays minor league pitcher Jordan Romano from Tommy John surgery.

“When I first started to throw, there were some doubts in my mind,” Romano told Avallone. “It’s a major surgery, and when you have it, your arm looks pretty bad. You look at it and it’s swollen and scarred and you wonder to yourself, ‘How will I ever throw again?'” Throw he did, tossing seven innings of shutout ball in his debut with the Lansing Lugnuts.