MLB Daily: The Blue Jays Can't Lose; Max Scherzer Remains Amazing

Welcome to MLB Daily on a Monday, aka the first day of the rest of your life … 

Living in the Limelight: Let’s start the week off with a confession: I kind of love the 2015 Toronto Blue Jays, or more specifically the idea of the Jays — an all-hit, no-pitch bunch of mashers — aka a slowpitch softball team. Toronto won its 11th straight on Sunday, beating the Red Sox 13-5. During the winning streak — which began against Washington and Houston — Toronto is averaging eight runs per game. As a result Toronto is now only one game off the pace in the wide-open American League East.

As you might guess, the Jays sport the best run differential in baseball at +72, which fits in line with the softball analogy. Either Toronto bludgeons you with its bats, or it’s in trouble thanks to its shaky array of starting pitchers.

The best place to start with the Jays is Josh Donaldson, whom they traded for in the offseason. It’s unfair to judge the trade from an Oakland perspective since the main player it received back for Donaldson, Franklin Barreto, is in the minors, but grabbing an MVP candidate for Brett Lawrie, Kendall Graveman and Sean Nolin is a coup. Donaldson (.315/.369/.575) leads baseball in total bases and runs. For whatever it’s worth his WAR, per Baseball-Reference, is already 4.1 through 64 games. By comparison, his breakout 2013 with the Athletics, where he finished fourth in the MVP vote his WAR was 7.7.

Donaldson’s quick acclimation to Toronto, along with the improved play of Russell Martin following a slow April, is quite a contrast to 2013 when the Jays “won” the offseason with their acquisitions of Jose Reyes and R.A. Dickey in trades. Toronto never got it going that season, finishing in last place with a 74-88 record.

I’ll make a bold prediction: the Jays offense-driven run is unsustainable. Eventually a pitching staff where only one starter (Aaron Sanchez) is posting a positive ERA+ is going to catch up with you. That said Toronto’s up to 356 runs scored and nobody else has cracked 300. Their aforementioned +72 run differential is nearly better than the combined totals of the first place Royals (+45) and Astros (+27).

Going forward it’s hard to say how long Toronto will get positive contributions from unheralded players like Chris Colabello or a fill-in like Danny Valencia, but it’s all rolling now. Considering the franchise’s playoff drought dates back to 1993 and Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion are only under contract via team options for 2016, is Toronto going to cash all its chips to make a run at Johnny Cueto or Cole Hamels or Scott Kazmir? It’s a long way down the road but it’s hard to go into a playoff series with the hope that Dickey or Mark Buehrle or Drew Hutchinson can limit the opposition to a mere 4-5 runs and hope that you hit a couple home runs to offset it.

If I’m allowed a quick tangent, I’ve always enjoyed the Jays for some reason, perhaps because the Dave Stieb/George Bell teams were good and contended with the Tigers in 1987 in the old American League East. I also find it interesting that SkyDome was the apex — look it had a hotel in center field and a Hard Rock cafe! — of the circular, AstroTurf, multi-purpose stadiums that dominated baseball throughout the 1970s and 80s. Now, thanks to Camden Yards, the Rogers Centre is a relic of a bygone era.

Max Scherzer is really good, Vol. 182: If you read this post everyday you know by now I’m a Tigers fan. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, truly. Hence it was bittersweet to see my phone light up Sunday afternoon during a friend’s birthday celebration with a notification that Max Scherzer was in the midst of a perfect game vs. the Brewers. Of course, I showed it to someone and within seconds the next alert informed us that Carlos Gomez singled.

As I talked about in our “Ace” pitcher draft, Scherzer in the National League is borderline unfair thanks to the soft Nos. 8-9 batters, which help him conserve pitches — always a problem for him in Detroit. Just about any number you throw out there about Scherzer is sterling, but his 113 strikeouts compared to 14 walks in 93+ innings is unreal.

Will Scherzer live up to his seven-year, $210 million contract? Impossible to say, but throwing in the Senior Circuit will give him a chance.

Welcome to the Show: Baseball’s prospect show continued on Sunday, with the Twins calling up Byron Buxton and Cleveland bringing Francisco Lindor to the Majors. Here’s Lindor’s first hit.

Buxton, considered the game’s top prospect by many, scored the winning run on Sunday. Lindor will try to fill the hole at short in Cleveland. This is a pretty good deal for the Twins. Buxton’s eventual promotion figured to be the team’s 2015 highlight, but Minnesota shocked everyone in baseball and is six-games over. Fighting for a playoff spot with Buxton in the lineup is especially sweet.

Whatever, man: Miguel Cabrera trails Eric Hosmer in the American League All-Star voting. He also hit this home run off Corey Kluber on Sunday. (And this one on Friday night.)

He doesn’t sound too upset about losing the fan vote.

[Working hard]