Toronto Blue Jays

Major League Baseball is only 30 games into its season, but we already have seen interesting—and, in some cases, controversial—story lines pop up.

We all know the big headlines have been Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez being caught with performance-enhancing drugs.

But that isn't the only good—or bad, depending on your affiliation—news we have around the league.

The AL East, AL Central, and AL West have had some surprising divisional leaders up to this point.

So who is the big winner?

More than a month into the season the Blue Jays have seen 3 pitchers make their MLB debut and are still on top of the AL East, the toughest division in baseball. How have they done it? The Jays came off a terrible offensive year in 2008, and the line-up did not change that much.
What did change is Cito Gaston is back, and so is hitting coach Gene Tenace. With them they brought an approach that the entire team has bought into, going to every at bat with a plan. It sounds simple enough but the proof is there, the Jays averaged a run more under Gaston than Gibbons in 2008.

I was one of the cynics when the Toronto Blue Jays called up Brett Cecil from Triple-A Las Vegas.

But two starts in, Cecil has looked really good.

On Sunday afternoon, the rookie left-hander shut down the Oakland A's to pick up his first big-league win, and the Blue Jays won, 5-0.

Cecil gave up just five hits in his eight scoreless innings. He walked two and struck out six.

Even the most optimistic Blue Jay fan couldn't have predicted just how well the boys in blue would start off this season.

After the first month they had a record of 17-9 and stood atop of the American League East, a sport hard to come by in a division that includes the Red Sox and the Yankees. That record has now improved to 20-11 after splitting a pair of games against the Angels of Anaheim.

The Toronto Blue Jays may be at the top of their division, but their bullpen still has yet to peak.

Tested by teams like the Kansas City Royals and Cleveland Indians, the Jays have had a great start to the season and continue to roll along.

Am I dreaming? I never thought I would be able to start a game recap with that headline.

Yet, it is appropriate, as Vernon Wells and Alex Rios hit their fourth and second home runs respectively to lead the Jays to a 4-3 win and a series sweep of the Baltimore Orioles.

Wells started it off for the Jays, hitting a two-run shot after Rios' double put him in scoring position.

Unfortunately, the lead did not last long, as Luke Scott creamed a pitch over the wall for his fourth of the year, tying it up 2-2.

After a winning series against Baltimore, the Jays will look to continue their series-winning ways against the Cleveland Indians, in a quick two game series.

The Indians have badly struggled at the start, going 9-15 early on.

Since the last time the Jays and Indians met, Trevor Crowe and Travis Hafner have either been injured or been sent to the minors. In their place, David Delucci, Matt LaPorta, and Luis Valbuena have joined the team, after strong starts in AAA Columbus.

The Toronto Blue Jays, expectedly, lost on Saturday night to the White Sox in Chicago, getting blown out 10-2.

Brian Burres kept the Blue Jays in it until the fifth, when he loaded the bases and gave up an RBI single to Paul Konerko, breaking a 2-2 tie.

Shawn Camp then relieved Burres and gave up another RBI hit before Alexei Ramirez clubbed a grand slam to put the Jays behind 8-2. Amazingly, that was Ramirez's fifth grand slam already, and he's only in his second season. He became the second-fastest ever in MLB history to reach five bases-loaded jacks.

Blue Jays fans received bad news on Thursday when Toronto placed rookie starter Ricky Romero (right oblique) and closer B.J. Ryan (left trapezius) on the 15-day disabled list.

Romero has looked great so far this season, going 2-0 with a 1.71 ERA in three starts. The struggling Ryan has a pair of saves, but has also blown two other save opportunities, and owns an 11.12 ERA.

I attended my first Toronto Blue Jays game of the season last night.  It was a usual Wednesday night at the ballpark, full of cheers, hot dogs, and a pint of beer. 

I was enjoying myself immensely until the ninth inning, when Michael Young of the Texas Rangers hit a solo home run off of closer B.J. Ryan to the section next to where I was sitting to tie things up at 7-7.

The young man who caught the ball had been sitting quietly all night long, enjoying the game with his girlfriend in section 141—one of the non-drinking sections at the Rogers Centre.