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The Blue Jays destroyed the Twins again last night, and lost in all of the hoopla surrounding the Yankees' new park and the typical press received by the Red Sox and now the Rays, is the fact that Toronto sits atop the AL East. How are the doing it? It's all offense, as the Jays, as a team, are hitting over .300 and have scored more runs than anyone. Six of the nine regular starters have an OPS over .900 right now and one of them who hasn't -- Lyle Overbay -- hasn't been too shabby (.819).
Not that this is sustainable. The Jays are trotting out more or less the same lineup as last year that finished eleventh in runs scored, and it's worth noting that they have only faced AL Central teams so far -- Detroit, Cleveland and Minnesota -- a division which they pretty much dominated last year. Things are likely to be different once they get into their own division, which doesn't happen until they face the Orioles beginning on May first. I think the Orioles will soon fade, however, which means that the Jays don't face an actual contender in their division until the Yankees come to Rogers Centre on May 12th. How it is that they don't face the Rays until June 29th is a mystery known only to the schedule makers.
So if you're a Jays fan, by all means enjoy the current fireworks. Just don't be satisfied with them, because Toronto is going to have to sprint to put as much distance between themselves and the competition before they fall into the meat-grinder of division play.
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Just wanted to know what Camden Yards has to do with the Jays and the Yankees?
"Camden Yards" is Shysterspeak for "Rogers Centre." It's the Canadian spelling - gets everything switched around.
The O's will definitely fade, Craig, no doubt about that. But they might not do it until June or July. They do so like to tease their fans for the first half of the year...
(Remember when the O's and Nats were in first place at the All-Star break a couple of years back? What happened then? Did the other East teams think they were in an extended spring training that year?)
Craig missed one glaring difference between the 2009 Toronto Blue Jays and the 2008 Toronto Blue Jays. This year the Blue Jays have started the year with Cito Gaston as manager (a former batting coach) and Gene Tenace as batting coach. Gaston and Tenace joined the Blue Jays last June after the Blue Jays fired John Gibbons as manager.
Both Gaston and Tenace were key parts of the Blue Jays World Series victories in 1992 and 1993. Tenace was batting coach with the Blue Jays from 1990 to 1997.
So can the Blue Jays keep this up? Consider that before Gaston and Tenace took over last season, the Jays record was 35-39; under Gaston, the team went 51-37. Under Gibbons the Jays scored 3.98 runs per game; under Gaston, 4.68 per game. Pitching coach Brad Arnsberg has also done a great job, guiding the Blue Jays pitching staff to the best ERA in baseball last year (3.49).
The roster was weakened in the offseason, making it unlikely the Jays can keep this up all season. However, don't be so quick to count them out either.