Steve Sanders was asked to give his scouting report on a young pitcher.



As the director of amateur scouting for the Blue Jays, he gets this type of query all the time. Specifically, though, he was asked to assess a 6-foot-1 right-hander who pitched for Northwestern University during the 2010 season.



Sanders laughed. Then he kindly obliged, turning the focus back on himself.



“The more pitchers I watch now, the worse my scouting report would have been on myself,” he said, with a smile. “I didn’t have big stuff, again, after the surgery. I didn’t have a big fastball. I pitched off a changeup, and had to rely on deception more than anything to stay off of barrels.”



The surgery was to repair the torn labrum in his right shoulder. Sanders suffered the injury in his senior year of high school. He still attended Northwestern but sat out for two baseball seasons while he recuperated. He pitched for the club team in his...