Monday Bantering: Sanchez and other links

We are into the last week of the season. It has been a frustrating one, but I’ve been enjoying watching the rookies play.

John Lott at the Athletic and Shi Davidi at Sportsnet are both writing about Aaron Sanchez visiting a specialist to look at the finger he jammed back in June. It sounds like he’ll be shut down for the last week of the season. With all the starting pitchers shut down for the end of the season, we are going to have to piece together a start or two with members of the bullpen. Good thing there is a couple of dozen of guys down there.

Last year it was a blister, this year it is a jammed finger. I’m feeling sorry for the guy.

Lott included this little bit of information:

This year, he apparently did not suffer from blister issues but struggled to regain his 2016 form. He said the mechanical changes he made last season while trying to pitch through pain sabotaged his normal delivery. Even after his promising starts, he said he was having difficulty erasing the bad habits from his delivery.

Trying to fix mechanical goes a little ways to explain his up and down season.

It really sounds like the jammed finger is more than a jammed finger. The good news is that he has the next five months to get it healed up and figure out his mechanics.

Shi also writes about Roberto Osuna’s upcoming return to Rogers Centre. He has a court date Tuesday. I think if I ran the Astros, I’d leave have him spend the three games in the bullpen and not run him out in front of the fans at Rogers Centre.

Speaking of closers, NBC Sports has a story about Ken Giles being happier in Toronto than he ever was in Houston. I can understand that, Houston in the summer is a place you really don’t want to be. I’ll admit a hate them using his Toronto ERA in non-save situations when it is such a small sample. His first 4 games with the Jays were non-save spots and he gave up 7 earned runs in 3.2 innings.

Giles also said “the communication was lost” with the Astros and it was something that came easy with the Jays. He said, “When I came here, they stayed patient with me. I said hey, I want to work on this thing till I’m comfortable. All right. OK, I’m comfortable, let’s move on to this next thing. Pitching, you can’t just try to fix everything at once. For me, I had to take baby steps to get my groove back. The Jays allowed me to do that. Yeah, the team was out of contention, but it doesn’t matter. It’s still my career. I still have to prove myself. Them being so patient with me, understanding what I want to do, was very, very big.”

I’m glad he is happy here. and happier he is pitching great.

MLB Trade Rumors talks about ‘silver linings’ for the Rays, Orioles and Jays. Not a surprise that Vlad and Bo is ours. And, of course, the other young guys. And this:

On the pitching staff, Sam Gaviglio has posted better peripherals than results, perhaps leaving some room for optimism.

I really have no optimism for Sam.

This is nice: