Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2009.We're coming up on that crossroads season for the Blue Jays. For years they've had a team that, in the prism of the AL East, was merely OK. And each year they were also the team that was expected to break that Red Sox/Yankees stronghold on the division. But those two teams were also the built-in excuse for the Jays when they didn't break through. They have been pretty consistent with their win total over the last 10 seasons (in the 80s every season except for two), but it was never good enough to approach the upper echelon. "Well, the Red Sox and Yankees are in the pantheon of baseball ... who's going to beat them?"
Umm, it was the Rays. And now that the Rays have busted through, the pressure is on the Jays to finally kick this franchise into another gear and make their move. There's no reason to think they can't do it, as the club went 51-37 after replacing John Gibbons with Cito Gaston as manager ... a pace that would have placed them just a hair short of the Sox for the wild card. That's a significant stride, but not enough to be a playoff team quite yet. And with the imminent departure of A.J. Burnett, there will be some work to do to get there.
Cheap Yard Work helps you pick out likely free agents in your league that have been raking over the past week.
