The American League East is always an entertaining division. You\'ve got two predictably good, high payroll dynasties in the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. Every now and again, though, a Cinderella team from this popular division crashes the party and proves to be the fairest of them all despite clear economic disparity. Last year the Tampa Bay Rays were the plucky underdog of the AL East, ousting the Yankees from the playoffs and driving all the way to an American League championship. This year, the Blue Jays have been the surprising upstart of the division. Toronto Blue Jays tickets are flying off the shelves, the team is hitting like a title contender and there are signs that the pitching could get to an elite level soon.

In a division filled with World Series contender, nobody thought this would be the most impressive team right out of the gates. At points this season the Blue Jays have been 13-5 and 18-9, and now, as of May 9th, 2009, Toronto is 21-10. Still, the Red Sox are right on their tails, just a game out at this point. Even though the Yankees have had their share of pitching problems, they\'re five games out, they just got A-Rod back, and CC Sabathia is starting to get hot. There\'s still a lot of baseball to be played.

The major reason for Toronto\'s superior play is offense. Looking though the roster prior to the regular season, it was widely speculated that the Blue Jays would be in the top half of the league in scoring runs. However, nobody predicted they would be this good. The Jays are ranked No. 1 in the American League in team batting average and hits, and trail only one AL competitor in team slugging percentage and walks. Why the sudden upswing in hitting stats? Role players are swinging like superstars. Catcher Rod Barajas, for example, is playing outside of his scull.

In the past 8-plus seasons in the big leagues he\'s accumulated a career batting average of .244. Right now he\'s batting .319. He\'s one of several Blue Jays playing well above his potential. Aaron Hill already has eight home runs, so he\'s on pace to more than triple his previous season high. Irregular lineup members Jose Bautista and Kevin Millar are both batting over .300.

While the offense gets credit for being the reason for Toronto\'s hot start, if the they expect to be selling Toronto Blue Jays tickets for games in October, it will have to be because the pitching crew improves. As of May 9th, the Blue Jays are just a middle-of-the-pack defensive team, ranked 8th in the American League in runs allowed. Roy Halladay is being Roy Halladay. He\'s 6-1 with a 3.29 ERA and a team-high 44 strikeouts. Scott Richmond is proving he wasn\'t a fluke last year, and rookie Rickie Romero is earning lots of fans already. If there\'s one thing this pitching staff could use, it\'s some improvement from the middle relievers.

Closer Scott Downs has only three saves thus far and guys like Brandon League and Shawn Camp could be better than what they\'ve shown to date. Overall, it\'s not unlikely that the Blue Jays could be the AL East Cinderella this season. If StubHub.com is going to sell tickets to a World Series games played in Toronto, the batting will have to keep red hot and the pitching will have to improve slightly.