Are you as frustrated as I am in trying to figure out the 2008 edition of the Toronto Blue Jays?

I have to admit, folks, I'm miffed. For the first time in my 16 years in the booth, I can't -- for the life of me -- figure out the 2008 Blue Jays.

Since the first of May, the team has won 10 of 15 games, sweeping the White Sox and Twins, both of whom were in first place in the Central entering the series. In the five losses, they scored a grand total of eight runs. Luckily, the rotation also wasn't sharp on those days so great pitching performances weren't being wasted like in April.

This has resulted in me changing my tact when watching this team. No more trying to think along with John Gibbons, just act like it's a roller coaster. Get on and see where it takes me, because, quite frankly, it's giving me a headache.

This road trip, which now pulls into Philadelphia for the first Interleague series of the season, has been all over the map. New faces arrived in Cleveland as Vernon Wells broke his wrist. They scored only one run in the first three games and were on their way to being shutout yet again in the series finale before scoring three times in the 10th and snatching a win away from Indians starter Cliff Lee. In Minnesota, the starting pitchers put in B-minus performances but the Jays started bunching hits together and took advantage of Twins’ miscues.

As poorly as they've played at times, they're only one of three teams with double-digit wins to this point of the month. So let's enjoy it for what it's worth.

Now If Alex Rios could just remember how to hit.

Blueprints for success

When you spend as much time as I do around the Blue Jays over a six-month span, there comes a time when you need to step back and take a look around. At this point in time, with the team playing frustratingly below the level that most expected, I start to think about what other teams are doing differently.

This current trip brings our road show to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, home of one of the most intriguing franchises in sports history. Despite playing in one of the smallest markets in the major leagues, the Twins continue to invent and reinvent, tool and retool themselves. Since 1987, with a payroll in the bottom third, they have won a pair of World Series titles and have been to the post-season on four other occasions.

Continuity and sticking with a program seem to be the main reasons that the Twins have enjoyed long-term success. Over that span, they've only had two managers -- Tom Kelly and Ron Gardenhire -- and three general managers -- Andy MacPhail, Terry Ryan and Bill Smith -- who have agreed on a game plan and stuck to it. They have used the draft to continually replenish the major league roster. When the stars began to shine too bright, free agency forced the Twins to either allow the players to leave or deal them early to get back quality. This is why Torii Hunter now plays in Anaheim and Johan Santana is a Met. But there was no picking through scraps to find replacements. In the Santana case, current GM Smith was able to pry away four prospects from the Mets, one of which is the current centre-fielder and super-sonic leadoff man Carlos Gomez.

The result of all this is that the Twins have blasted out of the gate with 20 wins in their first 38 games to sit atop the A.L. Central. And when you look around the game, similar shrewd moves and strong drafting have sent other teams into early playoff contention.

The most surprising is the Tampa Bay Rays, 15-7 at home to date and first place in the East ahead of the World Champion Boston Red Sox. Out West, Oakland sits right on the back bumper of the L.A. Angels despite dealing away ace starter Dan Haren and two-thirds of their 2007 outfield in Nick Swisher and Mark Kotsay. With solid scouting and the willingness to take a chance, a flood of prospects came back in return, two of which -- starting pitchers Greg Smith and Dana Eveland -- have turned the A's into one of the top pitching staffs in the majors at the quarter mark of the season.

Over in the National League, the Florida Marlins are leading the N.L. East, despite a league-low $21,836,500 payroll, proving that young, hungry players usually trump older discards, especially when they are allowed to play on a regular basis.

Will these teams finish where they currently sit? I didn't pack my crystal ball on this trip, but probably not. At least fans of these teams have something to look forward to and a reason to show up at the ballpark. And no one gave them any false hope.

One & only interleague thought

Here's what I propose to help make crossing over into the other league a bit more exciting: When all the games between the National and American Leagues are finished, the group with the most wins gets home-field advantage in World Series, not the winner of the made-for-TV All-Star Game. You would think that only a 70-plus year old commissioner could dream that scenario up ... oh, wait a minute.