Vancouver Canadians well represented on Blue Jays' 2015 roster

The Blue Jays have support in Canada from coast-to-coast, as evidence by the swarm of fans that take over Safeco Field in Seattle every summer when Toronto is in town, but baseball enthusiasts in Vancouver have more reason than ever to cheer on the Jays this season.

The Canadians, Vancouver's minor-league baseball team, have been affiliated with Canada's only major league team since 2011. During that span, an astounding amount of future big leaguers have come through beautiful British Columbia.

Daniel Norris (2012), Toronto's starting pitcher for Thursday night's game against the Yankees, is one of six former Canadians on the Blue Jays' roster. He's joined by fellow starting pitcher Aaron Sanchez (2011), outfielders Dalton Pompey (2012) and Kevin Pillar (2011), and 20-year-old bullpen arms Roberto Osuna (2012) and Miguel Castro (2014). Injured pitcher Marcus Stroman (2012), who will miss the entire season with a torn ACL, also played in Vancouver.

"It's a great city and it just showed you the support Canada has for the Blue Jays, even at the lower levels of the minors," Stroman told Yahoo Canada Sports last season when asked about his time there. "They pack just over five thousand people in [Vancouver's home Nat Bailey Stadium] and it feels like there's twenty thousand people in there. It's super loud and the atmosphere is awesome."

"The partnership that we have with [the Canadians] has been unbelievable," added Sanchez.

They've unbelievably successful on the field too, with Vancouver winning the short-season Northwest League championship three straight years between 2011-2013, and finishing as the runner-up in 2014.

It hasn't taken long for the young Jays to make their presence felt. Castro has pitched a shutout inning in Toronto's first two games against the Yankees while Osuna made his debut in a pressure-packed bases loaded situation on Wednesday and got them out of a jam, striking out Alex Rodriguez and getting Stephen Drew to fly-out. Pompey and Pillar are starting in the outfield and Sanchez is scheduled to make his first start Saturday in Baltimore.

To have seven players in just four years make the jump from the bottom of the minor-league system all the way to the top is close to unprecedented. Anecdotally the average short-season team produces one major leaguer a year.

But this is certainly a special group and now they're out to prove they can help the Blue Jays get to the playoffs and win in October. The city of Vancouver knows the former Canadians are more than ready to do it. And soon, a new crop of players will arrive in British Columbia with their sights set on becoming the next one to get to Toronto.

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Israel Fehr is a writer for Yahoo Canada Sports. Email him at israelfehr@yahoo.ca or follow him on Twitter. Follow @israelfehr