Scott Carson

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

Vernon Wells.

Time to sit back and enjoy a surprisingly successful season for the Blue Jays.

It sure seems like the same fork in the road. But it just doesn't feel like it.

It was a year ago Wednesday that the Blue Jays embarked upon a season-altering nine game road trip to Boston, Atlanta and Baltimore. Before heading out, the Jays had just swept a four-game series at Rogers Centre against the Chicago White Sox. After 41 games they held the Majors best record at 27-14.

Then in the span of a week and a half the wheels came completely off and fans of the team jumped, en masse, off the bandwagon. They stopped hitting, pitching and playing defence. To that point, all three had been above-average. Moving forward, they never played like that again... until this season.

Not a lot was expected from the 2010 Blue Jays. Roy Halladay, arguably the best pitcher in the game and certainly the best to ever be developed by the franchise, asked out and was traded in his Blue Jays black, blue & silver for Phillies red. That alone didn't leave a lot of the glass-is-half-empty crew in Toronto thinking about anything other than a fifth place finish in the basement of baseball's toughest division.

But a funny thing happened en route to what was being predicted as a 100-loss season: the team didn't pay any attention to the naysayers and just went out and played ball. No pressure, certainly not without any expectations. So after the first games this season, they have a solid 24-17 record, good for third in the East ahead of a suddenly aging Red Sox team and within striking distance of the front running Rays and Yankees.

Now, before you all get your fingers tied up in a knot typing out "but who have they played", I'm sitting here telling y'all that the Jays are suddenly in a position to play October baseball. Odds are very long that would actually come to fruition. So why not just enjoy what has gone down to this point and realize that the glass is, actually, half full.

First of all, no team pounds the long ball like the 2010 Jays. With 65 home runs as I type this, they lead the Majors by 10 over The Red Sox. The wild part is that they have been doing all this with limited contributions from their best two hitters in '09 - Adam Lind and Aaron Hill - both who were feted after last season with Silver Slugger awards. And you can also throw Lyle Overbay, this season's target for the hecklers and the boo-birds, into that mix as well. Thanks to a return to health of Vernon Wells, the everyday contributions from Jose Bautista, and the steady hitting of Alex Gonzalez, the Jays can erase deficits at any time and put up some crooked numbers at will. Just think where this team would be if Lind, Hill and Overbay were just having average seasons? John Buck, signed to a modest free agent contract in the off-season, has been one of the top offensive catchers signed since the calendar flipped over to May. And who would have thought that Fred Lewis, acquired for a mere $75,000 after being designated for assignment by the Giants, would step into the lead-off role, providing some much needed speed both on the bases and in left field? Certainly not San Francisco general manager Brian Sabean.

While the offence has been lauded for it's daily ferocity, the pitching has also held up it's end of the bargain. The pundits scoffed at a rotation that consisted of Shaun Marcum (returning after Tommy John surgery), Ricky Romero (ran out of steam in his rookie season), Brian Tallet (best suited as a long reliever), Brandon Morrow (making the transition from erratic closer in Seattle to starter in Toronto), and Dana Eveland (plucked off the Oakland scrap heap after a 7.16 ERA in 2009). But all have made solid contributions (that actually might be the understatement of the year to date). When Tallet went down with an elbow injury, Brett Cecil, one of the youngsters rushed to the Majors during last season, returned and has shown enough to have members of our broadcast booth mention that they see a lot of Jimmy Key in young Cecil. High praise, indeed.

Then there's the bullpen. Kevin Gregg, another one of Alex Anthopoulos' shrewd off-season acquisitions, has stepped into the closer's role and blown just a single save to date. By stepping into the ninth inning breach, it has allowed Scott Downs and Jason Frasor to step back into set-up roles, which is where they are best suited. Casey Janssen has finally recovered from his arm problems of a couple of years ago and is becoming a dependable long man, as is the under-rated Shawn Camp. Yes, there have been some stumbles, but not as many as everyone predicted. Much of that credit should go to the always positive Bruce Walton, who made the move from the bullpen to sit beside the manager after Brad Arnsberg took his negative vibes with him to Houston.

So, there you have it. The old statsman is quite satisfied with what has happened to date. And trust me, I'm enjoying it probably more than the rest of you. After all, this is my 18th season in the booth and outside of 1993 (my first year), I've seen a lot more losing than winning. At least I was getting paid to watch.

You should all enjoy this as well. Or I guess being a sports fan in Toronto has left you jaded and bitter. Fine, be that way.