THE CANADIAN PRESS
TORONTO — Toronto Blue Jays president Paul Godfrey set a playoff berth in 2008 as the team’s goal in an e-mail message sent to fans Friday.
The note, meant to reassure an increasingly restless fan base following an 83-79 season that failed to meet expectations, was sent shortly after the team released its home schedule for 2008.
"I strongly believe that even with our lower payroll — compared to the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox — that we can compete with the best in the American League East, providing that good health shines upon us next year," Godfrey wrote.
"Our goal, of course, is to play post-season baseball in October 2008," he added later in the message.
The Blue Jays fell back to third in the AL East in 2007, 13 games back of division-champion Boston and 11 behind wild-card winner New York, after finishing second in 2006.
Fans didn’t take that well, as they expected better after a spending increase pushed the Blue Jays payroll up to about US$90 million this season. That’s still well back of the Yankees, who spent about $190 million and the Red Sox, about $145 million.
General manager J.P. Ricciardi said he plans to bring most of the team for next season, with only minor tweaks.
"It has been somewhat of a disappointing season, considering all the injuries that we’ve had this year," wrote Godfrey. "It is almost impossible to judge the potential of this team without having them on the field for the majority of the 162 games.
"Every team is impacted by player injuries, but we could never have anticipated how snake-bitten the 2007 edition of our ball club would be."
Injuries certainly did hurt their position players and while the Blue Jays pitched much better than expected, the offence was a weak point, finishing near the bottom of most categories.
Vernon Wells, Troy Glaus, Lyle Overbay, Reed Johnson and Gregg Zaun all missed significant time with or played through an injury and had sub-par years. Ricciardi said he’s inclined to give them all a mulligan and Godfrey agreed.
"Our hitting this season remains a mystery — caused somewhat by injuries to some of the players and others experiencing `off years,"’ he wrote. "All of us in senior management know the potential of our star sluggers and believe that most of them will return to form and have a much better season in 2008."
Godfrey thanked owner Ted Rogers for the additional payroll money and added that after a spate of September surgeries for the club’s players, "we expect all hands to be on deck in mid-February as spring training begins."
The Blue Jays are tentatively scheduled to play the Red Sox in their 2008 home opener April 4. It will be their third home opener with Boston (1991, 2005).
Unlike this season, when they didn’t have any weekend series with Boston and New York, they’ll have four next year — three with the Red Sox and one with the Yankees.
The NL Central champion Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds and Atlanta Braves will visit Toronto for interleague play.
The Blue Jays are once again offering free round-trip airfare to spring training and use of a luxury box for one game to fans who pay for their season-tickets in full by Dec. 3, provided they meet a pricing threshold.
The Blue Jays drew 2,360,644 fans in 2007, a modest increase of 2.53 per cent or just under 60,000 from the 2006 total of 2,302,212.
