Toronto Blue Jays

James Paxton is by all accounts a great prospect. So great, in fact, that the Toronto Blue Jays plucked the Canadian lefty with the 37th pick in last year's Amateur Draft.

Enter Scott Boras.

Boras is a man who provokes extremes in those he brushes up against. For clients he's literally money. To owners and cheapskates (who are not mutually exclusive), he's Gordon Gekko with a baseball.

Many of the so called experts predicted the Toronto Blue Jays to end up in the cellar in the AL East.

So far, this hasn't happened as the Blue Jays have stayed within striking distance in the AL east, and currently own the AL's third best record.

How have they done this you may ask? Well, it is simple. They currently lead the league in home runs and the pitching staff has stepped up and pitched pretty consistently.

Brett Cecil has been making the most of his second stint, in as many seasons, in the Blue Jays rotation. He goes into tonight's start against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim fresh off a solid outing on May 19th against the Seattle Mariners. In that start he went 6 1/3 innings allowing two runs, earned, on seven hits. He walked just one batter for the third time in his six starts and struckout four. There was little margin for error in that start either as the Jays would hold on to win, 3-2.

If nothing else, the 2010 edition of the Toronto Blue Jays may be the most exciting team in Baseball.

Off to their second best start in 15 years, this year the team isn't using smoke and mirrors or benefiting from mediocre play from the Yankees and Red Sox.

They are literally HAMMERING their way to a 25-17 record—good enough for third in the AL East and a mere one game behind the Yankees for the AL Wild Card.

With power arms and even more powerful bats, this team is starting to make the rest of the league take notice.

Can the Blue Jays maintain this torrid pace?

Lyle Overbay is pressing.

If you feel inclined to add a pithy, "Yeah, DE-pressing" to the above, feel free and may the gods of '90's sitcoms be with you. But the fact remains: Overbay is looking for love in all the wrong places.

Take a look at what's going on with the Jays and it might explain his troubles. 

Alex Gonzalez and John Buck, picked up for their defense and handling of pitchers respectively, have torn the cover off the ball. No one could have predicted this without the aid of witchcraft.

Just as Travis Snider was on his way to an outstanding month of May at the plate he's now on his way down to Dunedin, Florida for an MRI and rehab. Snider injured his wrist in Friday night's game, a game in which he went deep for the second consecutive night. It's not clear yet how long he will be out and wrist injuries can be a tricky injury to recover from.

In yesterday's 3-2 win over the Red Sox all the Blue Jays runs came courtesy of Travis Snider . Both of his hits, a double and home run, came off Sox starter Tim Wakefield. However, a couple of hits off Wakefield, a knuckleballer, tells us absolutely nothing about Snider's development as a hitter this season. Just in the same way a hitless day against Wakefield would tell us nothing. 

Championships are not won or lost in May, but if the Minnesota Twins plan on making a serious playoff run and contend for the World Series this year, the next seven games could tell us plenty.

The Twins embark on a three-city road trip with three games against the Yankees and two each at Toronto and Boston.

If anybody should be upset about the Toronto Blue Jays playing a home series in Philadelphia in June, it should be Jim Haslett.

Haslett, who is currently the defensive coordinator for the Washington Redskins, was the head coach of the NFL's New Orleans Saints from 2000-2005, including the season in which the city of New Orleans was rocked by Hurricane Katrina.

While New Orleans was healing and rebuilding, the hometown Saints were finding new places to play, which included three games at Houston's Alamodome and four games at LSU's Tiger Stadium.

As a former bat boy for the Tampa Bay Rays, baseball has been a lifelong goal for Jesse Litsch.

Originally drafted by the Colorado Rockies in the 37th round of the 2003 Amateur Draft, you can say that Litsch fell into the Toronto Blue Jays' lap.

Not signing with the Rockies was probably the best thing for this former South Florida Community College Panther.