Daily Duce: Thursday, June 29th

Aaron Sanchez won’t be rushed back into big league action, as it was announced today that he’s set to make one more rehab start, this weekend for Buffalo, before returning from the DL. OK, sure.

Great stuff from Jon Shell at BP Toronto, as he writes an open letter to incoming Rogers CEO Joe Natale, telling him that the time has come for the company to sell the Blue Jays. The rumour we’ve heard about Natale is that he might want to focus more on Rogers’ core products — cable and cell phones — than their media and sports-team-owning sides of the business anyway, which makes this very much a real conversation that’s probably being had right now, somewhere. MLSE would work! Though they, of course, are partially owned by Rogers, too — and Jon seems, probably rightly, focused on the idea of individual ownership, rather continuing to have a corporate owner. It’s just the Jays and the Braves now that are corporately owned!

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette will be facing off against each other during the All-Star break next month in Miami, as they’ll be suiting up for the World Team and the U.S. Team respectively in the All-Star Futures Game. MLB.com has the full rosters for both teams, with short bios for each of the players involved.

Awesome stuff over at Clutchlings, as they get a mid-season prospect progress report from the Jays’ very own director of player development, Gil Kim.

Earlier in the week, John Lott of the Athletic spoke with Aaron Sanchez, who opened up about the blister problems that he’s battled this season, and that tormented him in 2016 as well.

Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet looks at what’s next for the Jays’ top draft picks, specifically first-rounders Logan Warmoth and Nate Pearson, now that they’ve all signed (as expected).

Interesting stuff from Travis Sawchik of FanGraphs on all the stolen bases given up by Miguel Montero — who the Jays are interested in — and Jake Arrieta of the Cubs this week. Turns out Montero kiiiiiinda had a point when he said that his pitcher wasn’t giving him much of a chance to control the running game by being so slow to the plate. He still shouldn’t have said it, but apparently it’s true! Arrieta is slow!

Elsewhere at FanGraphs, a great one from Jeff Sullivan on David Price’s peculiar problem: so far in 2017, if he’s not throwing a fastball, he’s not throwing a good pitch!

Ben Badler of Baseball America tweets that the Jays “are linked to five of the Top 50 international prospects, including the No. 1 pitcher,” as he sends out a link to BA’s list. Which three, beyond right-hander Eric Pardinho and infielder Miguel Hiraldo (who I wrote about back in early May)? I’m asking honestly — I have no idea!

Our friend Ryan from over at Jays Droppings has noticed some people talking about the Jays moving to a six-man rotation when Aaron Sanchez returns, and he’s none too pleased about it! (Nor should he be. This nonsense comes up every. single. year. and it almost never makes sense — last year being an exception. You really want to shorten your bench or your bullpen just so you can take a bunch of innings from your best starter and give them to you sixth-best one? Hard pass, kids.)

The Toronto Sun notes that beer tosser Ken Pagan has been given a year’s probation and 100 hours of community service for his actions in last October’s Wild Card game. Now let us never speak of him again. (Ken Bacon, on the other hand, we can definitely speak about.)

Lastly, great stuff via the Blue Jay Hunter, as Ian has spotted a clip from the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks’ YouTube channel, in which they talk to our old friend Munenori Kawasaki, about his time in Toronto, and the players (and manager) he misses. Mune content is always gold, so check it out!