Scott Carson

Stats man Scott Carson is now in his 18th season as "third man in the booth" during Blue Jays telecasts.

Alex Gonzalez and Jose Bautista are having career years for the Jays.

Not a lot was expected from the 2010 edition of the Toronto Blue Jays. Not from the pundits, not from the fans, heck, not even from their manager. But a funny thing is happening en route to what was supposed to be a written-in-stone fifth place finish: the team found a magic elixir and are hitting home runs at a current pace that will make them the second-most powerful team in franchise history.

At present, the Jays have hit 52 home runs through their first 36 games to lead the Major Leagues. Projected over the full 162 game schedule, that number turns into 234 which would be second only to Jim Fregosi's 2000 team that also led the Majors that season thanks to twin 41-home run seasons from Carlos Delgado and Tony Batista, 32 bombs from the moody Brad Fullmer and 31 more from Jose Cruz Jr. It was the only Jays team to ever sport four 30+ HR hitters in the same season, though they finished in third palce once again. Despite the offensive explosion, the pitching staff had a collective ERA of 5.14 and counted the likes of Clayton Andrews, Pasqual Coco, Pete Munro and Steve Trachsel among their starters.

The power coming out of the Blue Jays everyday line-up so far this season has been mind-boggling. When they broke camp in Dunedin to start the season, they ranked in the middle of the pack in terms of power numbers. But since the games have started to count for real, the team has relied almost solely on the long-ball to score. A healthy Vernon Wells set the tone for the season with four home runs in the opening series in Texas and the rest of their charges have followed suit. In fact, four Blue Jays hitters, at their current pace, will easily eclipse their career-highs for home runs:

A couple of things make the Jays' power surge all the more amazing.

First of all, this was a team that, until J.P. Ricciardi took his flawed offensive approach to ESPN, was built on working deep into the count, getting a bunch of men on-base and then using the long ball to pile up runs. Unfortunately, it never took hold. A new-age hitting guru by the name of Gary Denbo was brought in and all that was accomplished was that the hitters lost their aggressiveness. First pitch fastballs were often ignored and, in the end, the hitters were forced to take cuts at pitches that really weren't to their advantage.

That all started to change when Cito Gaston, Gene Tenace and Dwayne Murphy rode into Pittsburgh in late June of 2008 as the bench staff underwent a mid-season overhaul. Their first order of business was to de-program the hitters. "Working the count" was replaced with "Grip it and rip it". The results, while impressive in the home run department, have also led to a rise in the number of strikeouts, a stat they also lead the American League in.

What makes this even more impressive is that three of their everyday hitters - Aaron Hill, Adam Lind and Lyle Overbay - who hit 2, 3 and 5 in the line-up, have suffered through sub-par seasons to date. Hill, we all know, has been slowed by a nagging hamstring injury and isn't close to being the offensive force he was in 2009 when he captured the Silver Slugger award for slamming 36 home runs and 108 RBI. The opposition is now pounding Lind in with hard stuff after he showed a year ago (35 HR, 114 RBI) that his strength is when pitched out over the plate. Overbay remains the biggest mystery. After driving a career-high 92 runs in his first season with Toronto in 2006, he broke his hand the next season and has never been the same since. And if there is a less aggressive hitter on the Toronto roster, despite the fact that he was an extra-base hitting machine in his last two seasons with the Brewers, please point him out to me.

Down seasons by these three have left Wells to virtually go it alone from the clean-up spot. And yet this team put some crooked numbers on most nights, thanks to the blossoming power of Travis Snider and the arrival of Fred Lewis to finally give them a presence in the lead-off spot. Just imagine where this team would be offensively if Hill, Lind and Overbay were just having "average" seasons.

As they showed during their 7-3 road trip through Cleveland, Chicago and Boston, they have more than enough on-hand power to slug with any team. Now if they could just play a little better in front of the home fans.