The Double A Jays

Quick, name the only duo in major league baseball with 35 homers and 100 RBI's.

Waiting, stalling, anyone?

I'm gonna guess these two didn't even cross your mind.

For the answer we have to go north of the border to Toronto for second baseman Aaron Hill and designated hitter/left fielder Adam Lind.

Has even the biggest baseball fan noticed what these two have done?

Hill has mashed 36 HR's and driven in 105 runs, while Lind has homered 35 times to go along with 115 RBI's.

Holliday and Pujols, Braun and Fielder, Werth and Howard, Berkman and Lee, Teixeria and A-Rod, Bay and Ortiz, Pena and Longoria. None of these duos have yet accomplished what Hill and Lind have so far in 2009.

The Blue Jays are overshadowed by the Yankees, Red Sox and even the Rays after their magical run to the 2008 AL Pennant.

The story of their season was GM J.P. Riccardi's unwillingness to pull the trigger on a deal to ship his ace Roy Halladay out of town for a bevy of prospects.

They haven't been to the playoffs since divisional realignment in the wake of the 1994 strike.

They haven't seen the postseason since back-to-back world series titles or played meaningful baseball since Joe Carter bounded around the bases after a game 6 World Series walk-off in 1993.

It's been 15 long winters in Canada and after three straight winning seasons the Jays wont get over 80 wins in 2009. They play in the toughest division in baseball. The one that almost always gets two teams into the playoffs but that features the game's biggest spenders.

The future may not exactly be rosy for the Blue Jays but it is bright in at least two regards with these young stars slugging their way to the top of the statistical leaderboard.

Reynolds' first to epic 40-200 plateau

Sorry for the long absence - all of my blogging attention has been thrust at "going deep with the giants" as the g-men fade in and out of the nl wild card chase - but I ended my last post here on the topic of home-run-hitting-strikeout-masters with this thought: "Can you imagine? Three 40 HR-200 K guys? Oh what a world it would be."

Well, Carlos Pena hit 39 homers struck out 163 times and then broke two fingers last week in the Bronx. He is out for the year.

Ryan Howard is sitting on 38 bombs has fanned 168 times. With just 18 games to go, Howard still has plenty of work to do.

But Mark Reynolds, the master of miss, the king of swing, reached the previously unfathomable height this afternoon at Petco Park in San Diego.

After clubbing the game winning two-run homer in the top of the ninth last night, the Diamondbacks third baseman followed with the kind of matinee performance today we have come to expect from the guy who literally defines the "feast or famine" cliche.

With an 0-for-5, four strikeout day Reynolds whiffed for the 200th time in the ninth to become the first player in major league history in the 40-200 club.

After all, there have only been two, 200 strikeout seasons ever and both belong to him and in as many seasons.

With only five more K's, he can pass his 2008 record of 204 by Friday and for such a young player the sky really is the limit. 225 is possible this year and even 250 before his career his over.

Honorable mention goes to Adam Dunn whose 37 homers and 162 K's means there are four sluggers in 2009 that qualify for the 35-160 club.

Keep swinging for the fences fellas!