Sanchez aims to stay positive
Sports notebook: Young ace hopes to turn rough season around with strong second half
TORONTO — This has to be eating away at Aaron Sanchez: This season from hell, for him and for the Blue Jays.
For a kid who knows who he is and what he’s capable of accomplishing.
This has to be eating away at him, no matter how much of a proud and happy face he’s tried to put on in this disaster of a season.
It isn’t just the injuries, the blisters, the fingernails, the blood, the surgery. It’s everything. It’s knowing how much he can do and how little is being done.
This was going to be the year Sanchez led the Blue Jays to the playoffs — just as he did a year ago — and get into the Cy Young conversation again. Only there hasn’t been a playoff push and there won’t be any award conversation.
Sanchez has talked about his love of baseball to me, about feeling like a 12-year-old on the mound and not losing that kid-like experience.
“You have to stay the same,” he said before all these problems happened.
That’s his challenge in the second half. Maintaining that belief and staying healthy.
Sanchez is the most important Blue Jay not named Josh Donaldson. Still fighting through the toughest half season of his young career.
DON’T DEAL DONALDSON
As a reliever, Sanchez gave up a home run every 12.6 innings pitched. As a starter last year, he gave up a homer every 12.8 innings, This season, in the year of the home run, he’s given up one every 4.3 innings ... For all those screaming to trade Donaldson, consider this: Since Alex Anthopoulos pestered the Oakland A’s into trading Donaldson to the Jays, Oakland has the worst record in the American League, 175-235. In the previous three seasons, with Donaldson healthy and playing third base, they had been a playoff team every year. This is likely the first season in which Donaldson doesn’t make the post-season ... The other noise around: Trade Marcus Stroman. Maybe we should talk to the Chicago White Sox about this. They sent Chris Sale to Boston. He may win the Cy Young. The four players Chicago received: One Triple-A hitter, a Double-A pitcher, and two players still in A ball. How long before any of them impact the last place White Sox? ... The Blue Jays are just about the worst defensive team in the AL. But it’s not the coach’s fault. Can’t be. All of them have been signed up for two more seasons. Management needs to find more players, I guess, who can catch, run and throw.
HOCKEY COUNTRY
This is how you know we live in a hockey country: Kyle Lowry signs a deal with the Raptors to become the highest-paid single season athlete in Canadian team history and nobody raises an eyebrow. Connor McDavid signs the largest contract in NHL history, which will pay him US$18 million a year less than Lowry will make, and we can’t stop talking about it ... How much of a bargain is McDavid in Edmonton? Factor it this way: the Oilers had no playoff dates in the nine seasons before McDavid arrived. This year, in Season 2, they had six home games or a minimum $18 million in team revenue. They could have $40 million or more in revenue before the big contract even kicks in for the 2018 season ... Can we please let Auston Matthews play his second NHL season before we decide how much he’s going to be paid a year from now? ... Alan Eagleson, who was wrong about so many things, was right when he fought against salary disclosure. Not necessarily for players, but for fans. Money has distorted our view of all sports. We can’t just watch a player and enjoy what he does anymore. We have to factor in how much he’s being paid and how his team manages their payroll challenges. It makes for constant conversation. But I’d rather the conversation, me included, just went away ...
THIS AND THAT
You’ll know Milos Raonic is ready to win a major when he starts winning matches that don’t have 7-6 in the score line. That will mean the rest of his game has caught up to his incredible serve ... Sorry, more money talk. James Johnson got $15 million to stay with the Miami Heat. I never should have put my kids in minor hockey ... Get well soon, Tito Francona ... The Vegas Golden Knights will have to move at least four NHL defenceman, maybe five, between now and the start of the season. That’s a lot of dealing to do and a not a lot of time for GM George McPhee ... So they offer Steph Curry $200 million over five years and what? Does somebody say that doesn’t work? We need $201 million ... Andrei Markov may be old and slow, but he can still help most NHL teams. His contract demands, though, remind me of a David Poile line: “I love your player at $2 million,” Poile has been known to tell agents. “I hate him at $3 million.”
SMOAK AND MIRRORS?
How much could you have made betting that Justin Smoak would start at first base for the American League in the all-star game? What a crazy, great, impossible, improbable season Smoak has had. And could it be this is real? ... Both the Houston Astros and the Los Angeles Dodgers are on pace to win at least 108 games. No one has won that many since Pat Gillick’s Seattle Mariners won 116 games in 2001 ... In this home run crazy season, the Red Sox, playing at cosy Fenway Park, are last in the AL in homers ... A rumour that won’t go away: Is Andrew Walker leaving Toronto’s Fan 590 for the new sports Sportsnet radio station in Vancouver? ... ... And hey, whatever became of Terry Puhl?