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For Auburn Doubledays players, putting on the Toronto uniform is the ultimate goal. For some guys, that dream takes several years. For others, it doesn't happen at all. And for a select few, it seems to happen in a blink of an eye.

Currently on the Toronto Blue Jays' 40-man roster, there are a handful of players that went from Auburn to Toronto in less than two full years - which is lightning speed in professional baseball.

Less than two years ago, Brett Cecil was the ace of the Doubledays pitching staff. In 13 starts over the summer, he fanned 56 batters in 49 2-3 innings and allowed just one run in his last five starts.

In what perhaps came as a surprise to many fans, Cecil remained in Auburn throughout the summer and played a key role in the Doubledays' New York-Penn League championship win over Brooklyn in September 2007. Five months later, he began advancing through the system at a rapid pace, finally earning his first major league win on May 10, 2009.

“Cecil and (fellow 2007 first-round pick JP) Arencibia were two guys that were high profile players,” said Doubledays manager Dennis Holmberg, who has coached countless current and former major league players in the Blue Jays system. “I have to thank the (Blue Jays) organization for leaving them here because in past years, Russ Adams would leave and Aaron Hill would leave and some other players or pitchers might get promoted and it takes the wind right out of your sails. You start moving quickly or you start moving slowly, but that year, for whatever reason, they left them here. Look at Ricky Romero - he only pitched two innings here. Then he was gone the next day to Dunedin - that's all about opportunity.”

Even though he is now back with the Triple-A Pacific Coast League Las Vegas 51s with Arencibia, Cecil's 2-1 major league record is simply the latest Doubledays success story.

“I'm proud of all of them (that have made it to the major leagues),” Holmberg said. “You're proud that you had an impact in their lives because they started here. Brett went through some rough patches here, he was on a slow boat to China, pitching 35 pitches every four, five days. They all have to learn what to do and when to do it.”

Hill, Scott Richmond and David Purcey are just three of the many players that are indicative of the Blue Jays' thriving minor league system.

“We're very excited about our player development,” said Charlie Wilson, Toronto's manager of minor league operations. “The combination of that and our scouting - we're really happy. We've got players like Jesse Litsch, Shaun Marcum, Casey Janssen, Robert Ray, Ricky Romero, Scott Richmond that are on the DL right now, but they're players that we're happy about nonetheless. Guys like Aaron Hill, and actually all three outfielders (on the Blue Jays) came up through the system - it's a good thing.”

Minor league baseball is a funny thing. On Cecil's first day in Auburn two seasons ago, he credited 2006 Doubledays pitcher Seth Overbey as his mentor. At the time, Overbey was in Double-A and Cecil was starting his first job, fresh from the University of Maryland. Recently, Overbey was released by the Blue Jays, while Cecil has major league experience under his belt - something he wasn't sure if he would ever say two seasons ago.

“I thought about (the pressure) the first time I got out here,” Cecil said in 2007. “I was nervous in my first appearance, butterflies and shaking all over, but once the first one's out of there, it's gone. You've got to remember those kind of things when you get to the big leagues, how that feeling felt when you get to places bigger than this, when and if I ever get there. So, I don't feel any additional pressure other than the usual, going out there and pitching. I think every pitcher has to feel some amount of pressure, though, and feel a little bit nervous because you can't feel like you're on top of the world.”

That's the feeling that current Doubledays would like to have.

“To me, that is kinda, golly, to get (to the major leagues) that quickly is just amazing,” Doubledays shortstop Jonathan Fernandez said. “If I'm able to do that, which is a goal of mine, then Lord, let it happen. I hope to get there as quick as possible and to know that is just great to know.”

“I'm still a pretty raw player,” said Doubledays pitcher Egan Smith. “That's good to know that they can move players that quickly, I've always wanted to go to an organization that moves a player up and gets them moving on to get their careers. It was a great thing when I heard they drafted me.”

It helps that the Blue Jays' organization drafts well, especially since they don't exactly go on free agency shopping sprees like a couple of their bigger rivals do.

“We're happy with our system,” Wilson said. “We don't have the budget that the Red Sox and Yankees do, but we still have the talent that it takes to compete in the American League East.”

While injured pitchers such as Litsch, Marcum, Janssen, Ray, Romero and Richmond also advanced through the Blue Jays' system quickly, at the plate, Hill may be the Blue Jays most recent prosperous investment. In Auburn for the 2003 season, the second baseman was playing for Toronto by 2005 and is an every day starter that has one of the team's best batting averages. However, not everyone can make the big league jump as fast as some do.

“Everybody's different,” Wilson said. “All humans take a different rate to develop. College players take a shorter time to develop than high school players out of the draft, while some college players just take two or three years.”

In the 2006 amateur draft, the Blue Jays notoriously selected a high school player in the first round - something the organization typically doesn't do - when they picked Travis Snider 14th overall out of Jackson High School in Mill Creek, Wash. Snider never played in Auburn, but has appeared in 32 major league games and is currently a member of the 51s.

“Travis is someone we've got a lot of faith in,” Wilson said. “We're excited about him even though he's got a bit of a hurt back right now, but we're confident that he can make it up through the system again.”

“Your number one guy shouldn't miss,” Holmberg said. “If you think a guy is really something - those guys shouldn't miss. Even David Bush, who was a second-round pick in 2002 behind Russ Adams, has gone on to pitch well with Milwaukee and that was a trade we made for (Lyle) Overbay, the first baseman. It helped both ball clubs a little bit. Shawn Green was a high school kid that came right to the Florida State League - I had him his first year. He was a high school kid, first-round pick and for whatever reason, the organization said he was going to low A, we're not going to send him to rookie ball, we're going to send him right to the Florida State League and you know what? He competed there, hit .270-something, made the all-star team, he moved quickly through the organization and I think he was Minor League Player of the Year maybe two, three years and went on to have a very nice big league career.”

While there are several common threads to all of the Blue Jays fast moving players, Holmberg is one of those strings that ties them all together.

“They all have to start some place,” he said. “Maybe I had a hand in their development, but maybe I had a hand in getting them to pay attention to what they needed to do so they could go from (one) level to the next level and that's why I'm here. Baseball people will tell you that they want their best manager at rookie ball because these players need to be indoctrinated and taught to do things the right way. There are no freebies.”