Jays Have Power Stroke Going

April 9, 2013; Detroit, MI, USA; Toronto Blue Jays center fielder Colby Rasmus (28) runs the bases after he hit a home run off Detroit Tigers relief pitcher Joaquin Benoit (53) in the ninth inning at Comerica Park. Detroit won 7-3. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY SportsNot a lot has gone right for the Toronto Blue Jays so far this season. The one expectation they’ve lived up to so far is that they’ve hit homeruns. (Except for the game I started writing this before, making this post ill-timed but that’s my luck. And I’m certainly not going to let them have another homerless game before I publish this.)

They obviously have to do a lot more than just hit homeruns to win games but if they weren’t hitting home runs that would also be one of their problems. If you’re one of those people that want to say the Yankees suck this year because they scored most of their runs from homeruns last season and they don’t have as much power this year then you can’t complain about the Jays scoring most of their runs from homeruns 8 games into the season.

You can’t get hung up on early season problems but you can enjoy the good things.

The Jays have already hit 12 homeruns in 8 games. Sure 5 of them came in 1 game but still.

Mark Derosa has 1 homerun in 6 games which is his first homerun since his lone homerun in 2010. (Side Thought: Has he really already played in 6 games!!?! EWWWWW!)

Maicer Izturis has 1 homerun which is half of how many he hit last season.

So between Derosa and Izturis those 12 homeruns are somewhat misleading when it comes to looking at the Jays power so far.

Jose Reyes has by far been the best part of the Blue Jays season so far. His 1 homerun is just another part of his hot streak to start the season.

Edwin Encarnacion has just 4 hits so far. 2 doubles and 1 homerun included that helped the Blue Jays win a game. So at least he’s hammered the pitches he’s gotten hits on, which is a good sign when the season is so young.

Jose Bautista has 2 homeruns in 5 games. He hit a 400 something foot ball to deep center in Detroit which resulted in an out but in most parks would be a homerun. So Bautista’s wrist injury is looking like a distant memory and his power stroke has been there to start the season.

Colby Rasmus and J.P. Arencibia both already have 3 homeruns. Arencibia had 2 of his in 1 game. Arencibia also would be leading the team with 4 if it wasn’t for Don Kelly robbing him of one with a defensive gem in a game against the Tigers. They’re both also leading the team in strikeouts with 13. That’s a lot of strikeouts and homeruns for just 8 games. You can’t expect them to keep hitting homeruns at this pace but you probably can’t expect them to keep striking out at this pace either.

There are a lot of things about the 2013 Toronto Blue Jays that make them a great team they just haven’t shown it yet. So far you can check power stroke off the list.