Posted by Andy Spear on Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 10:55 am

What the Blue Jays haven’t been good at over the last couple of years where G.M. JP Riccardi has deemed his club good enough to contend for a playoff spot is in making the playoffs.

What they have been good at over that same time span is in spinning sob story after sob story about how injuries have prevented the club from living up to its potential and making the playoffs.

They will go on and on about this player or that player having to spend time on the DL. What this does, besides ignoring the fact that other teams have players and key components of their team nursing their way back to health, is to fend off criticism from the fans that the team wasn’t really good enough in the first place.

This game plan was already well in place for the coming 2009 season with Dustin McGowan not available until late spring and Shaun Marcum out of the team’s plans until 2010.

Now the news out of Jay-land is that center fielder Vernon Wells suffered a strained left hamstring during a workout on Monday, and he is expected to be sidelined at least one month. Wells left the Bobby Mattick
Training Center to undergo an MRI exam to further evaluate the damage, but the Blue Jays are holding out hope that he’ll still be ready in time for Opening Day on April 6. The problem is that last year, Wells went on the disabled list for injuring the same leg on July 9 while stealing third base and didn’t return to
Toronto’s lineup until Aug. 10.

The Blue Jays were counting on Wells to stay healthy and be their cleanup hitter this season. Last year, the center fielder posted a .300 average, led the team with 20 homers and finished with 78 RBIs while appearing in only 108 games.

Over the off season, Wells hired a personal trainer, with the goal of getting into better physical condition in order to hopefully avoid some of the injury woes he’s dealt with in recent seasons but low and behold Wells aggravated his hamstring while running on Monday during the club’s third full-squad workout of Spring Training.

And with ticking time bombs like Jeremy Accardo (forearm discomfort), Casey Jansen (partially torn labrum), Lyle Overbay (hernia), Scott Rolen (fatigued shoulder), and Aaron Hill (concussion), the amount of games lost or diminished numbers these players experience are all ready to be blamed on yet another failed year for the Toronto Blue Jays.