TORONTO - Toronto Blue Jays hitting coach Kevin Seitzer usually stands right behind the cage during batting practice while the players take their cuts. Mario Mandzukic Jersey . From time to time, hell move over to the side and will weigh in with a quick tip or two. Its a comfortable approach that has paid dividends for the American League East division leaders, who boast an offence that is among the best in Major League Baseball. "I think hes hands on when he needs to and he sits back and he watches when he needs to too," said Blue Jays catcher Erik Kratz. "We have a lot of good hitters here and with good hitters comes success and some streakiness. "He does a good job of limiting the bad streaks and extending the good streaks." The teams offensive statistics over the first two months of the campaign have been eye-opening. Entering Wednesdays games, the Blue Jays led the major leagues in home runs (83) and were second in runs scored (296), RBIs (281), slugging percentage (.451), hits (534) and OPS (on-base plus slugging — .784). Toronto was also tied for second in on-base percentage (.333) and sat fifth in team batting average (.264). Seitzer keeps a close eye on all the numbers but values some statistical categories more than others. "Runs scored is the one Im most concerned about," he said. "If youre scoring runs, whether you do it by home runs, situational hitting, youve got to be able to get on base, draw walks, be able to move runners and get big hits when guys are in scoring position. "It kind of encompasses everything really." The 52-year-old native of Springfield, Ill., was hired by the Blue Jays last fall after spending parts of five seasons as a hitting coach with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Kansas City Royals. He succeeded Chad Mottola, who spent one year in the position. Seitzer, a two-time all-star as a player, had a .295 career average over 12 seasons with the Royals, Milwaukee Brewers, Oakland Athletics and Cleveland Indians. As a coach, he has preached the importance of preparation and making hard, consistent contact in the box. "Have an idea of what the pitcher has got and what hes going to try to do, and then what each guy needs to do in order to have the best chance to succeed," he said of his approach. "I like to keep things simple. I dont like it complicated, they dont want it complicated. "Theyve made really good adjustments so far." The power portion of the Toronto lineup has delivered so far with sluggers Edwin Encarnacion (.272 average, 19 homers, 50 RBIs) and Jose Bautista (.310, 14 homers, 41 RBIs) on pace for big seasons. Among the other notable performances, first baseman Adam Lind is batting .347 while Melky Cabrera has a .303 average. Juan Francisco is hitting .276 with nine homers and 24 RBIs in just 36 games. As for that important runs scored category, three Toronto players are in the top 15 in the major leagues: Bautista (44 - tied for fourth), Encarnacion (41 - tied for seventh) and Cabrera (37 - tied for 14th). Those numbers are a big reason why Toronto took a 35-24 record — the second-best mark in the American League — into Wednesdays game at Detroit. Its a big step up from this time last year, when the Blue Jays were last in the East at 24-34. "Its been phenomenal," Seitzer said of the teams effort. "If youre in first place after the first third, then the second third and the third one, then youre right where you need to be. So I couldnt ask for more right now." The 2013 Blue Jays posted decent offensive numbers despite their poor 74-88 record. The team was ninth in runs scored (712), fourth in homers (185), 11th in RBIs (669), eighth in slugging percentage (.411) and 15th in batting average (.252). While Seitzer deserves his share of the credit for the improvement, hes quick to praise the players for their professional approach and effort. He has been very impressed with what hes seen so far. "Probably the most (impressive thing) is the talent level and then secondly, their work ethic and preparation going in," he said. "When you have that combination and the ability to make adjustments along the way, youve got a chance to do some damage every night. Theyve been doing great." Joao Cancelo Jersey . He managed to save par, and went on to put together his best opening round of the year. Calcavecchia and Wes Short Jr. Gianluigi Buffon Jersey . Knapp defeated American Alison Riske 6-3, 7-5 to secure Italys victory in the best-of-five series. She held a 5-2 lead in the second set, only to let Riske tie it at five. http://www.juventusfcpro.com/Kids-Federico-Bernardeschi-Jersey/ . The 18-time champions, who havent won the title since 1990, moved two points behind Arsenal after the leaders were stunned 6-3 at Manchester City on Saturday. Defending champion Manchester United trails Arsenal by 10 points after winning 3-0 at Aston Villa to avoid a third successive league loss. Jeremy Lin is still on his way to the Los Angeles Lakers, even after the Houston Rockets failed to land coveted forward Chris Bosh in free agency. The Rockets still plan to execute the trade that will send the point guard to Los Angeles for cash, two people with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press on Saturday. The people requested anonymity because the trade has not been officially announced. Rockets GM Daryl Morey plunged into the free agent market with designs on adding a third star to play with James Harden and Dwight Howard. He made a brief overture to LeBron James and hosted Carmelo Anthony for a visit, but both of those efforts were rebuffed. While James mulled his future this week, Morey swung for the fences with a four-year max offer to Bosh, the versatile forward who was credited with being the defensive backbone during the Heats run to four straight NBA Finals. To create the salary cap room to make the offer, Morey reached an agreement to trade Lin, who will make about $15 million this season in the last year of a deal that counts only $8 million against the cap, to the Lakers, who have the cap room to absorb Lins contract without sending much back in return. When James chose to return to Cleveland on Friday, the path appeared to be clearing for the Texas-born Bosh to join up with the Rockets and vault them into contender status in the powerful Western Conference. But Heat President Pat Riley quickly recovered from James rejection and convinced Bosh to stay in Miami with a whopping five-year, $118 million offer. The bold move left the Rockets on the outside looking in again, but Morey had no second thoughts aboutt dumping Lin, who didnt mesh well playing in the same backcourt with the equally aggressive Harden. Blank Jersey. The deal allows Morey to stay in the hunt for other stars on the market, like Cleveland free agent Luol Deng. He also could use the extra room because valuable small forward Chandler Parsons has signed a three-year, $46 million offer sheet to join the Dallas Mavericks. Morey has until Sunday night to decide if he will match the offer to keep Parsons in Houston or allow him to join Dirk Nowitzki in Dallas. Meanwhile, the Lakers were able to get their hands on a talented point guard who gives them a different dimension at the position and could help ease the scoring burden on Bryant, who only played in six games last year because of injury. Lin earned his big contract with the Rockets thanks to a fantastic midseason run with the New York Knicks in 2012, when the "Linsanity" phenomenon was born. Hes the kind of dynamic, shoot-first point guard that has become more and more popular in the league over the last few seasons, which should help the Lakers, who have pass-first Kendall Marshall and the oft-injured Steve Nash on the roster as well. Lin averaged 12.5 points and 4.1 assists last season, but he lost his starting job alongside the defensively deficient Harden because coach Kevin McHale preferred Patrick Beverleys tenacity on that end of the floor. But with Bryant likely needing some time to ease back into things after missing almost all of last season and gifted offensive big man Pau Gasol likely on his way out, Lin will provide some much-needed offensive punch to a rebuilding Lakers roster. 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