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L-P: The Boston Red Sox spent over $300 million this offseason, and you know the New York Yankees will always spend their money. Do you miss competing in the same division as those franchises?

Godfrey: There is going to be a year where (the Blue Jays) are going to win based upon a number of circumstances. One of those circumstances being that the young kids are all going to have career years at the same time. I think this past year we beat the Yankees 10 of the 18 times we played them, so it goes to show you that these guys can compete. It is nice to see the young kids that we drafted are coming to the major leagues. Adam Lind is one, Travis Snider is another. Shaun Marcum was another kid we drafted. Ricky Romero was a first-round draft pick, Brett Cecil ... We have JP Arencibia on the way and a whole other crop of young kids following him. There is a lot to be thankful for and a lot to look forward to.

L-P: How would you sell baseball to the fans in Toronto and to the fans of the Blue Jays after we see the Red Sox get a Carl Crawford and an Adrian Gonzalez; knowing the Yankees will almost always go out and get a big-name player?

Godfrey: You have to recognize that Toronto is a Maple Leafs town. It's not a baseball town and it's not even a hockey town -- it's the Maple Leafs' town. You have to market (the Blue Jays) and have to basically build from within. Alex Anthopoulos is delighted to be the general manager of the team and I think he is going to prove that he is going to come as close to being the next Pat Gillick with this club. He's young and he's still learning, but he works his butt off. He knows more about the game than anybody that I know and he has never been a player. I think he is going to prove that he can restore Toronto's fame by being patient and preserving his draft picks.

L-P: You mentioned some of the names of players you drafted during your time with the Blue Jays and you also mentioned building from within. It sounds as though you are a believer in player development through the farm system.

Godfrey: If you take a look at the stars on the Blue Jays, most of them were among the top three picks of their year. Vernon Wells was a No. 1 pick; Roy Halladay was a No. 1 pick; Chris Carpenter was a No.1 draft pick; Alex Rios was a No.1 draft pick. That is so important to have good picks, and you have to be patient with those picks. The reason why the Tampa Bay Rays have been so good the past few years is because they were in last place for so many years that they were able to pick a No. 1 or No. 2 or No. 3 player in the draft. They kept all of these players together and look what happened. But because they are a small-market team, the Carl Crawfords are leaving and going to the big-market teams like Boston.

L-P: Do you feel baseball needs a salary cap?

Godfrey: In my opinion, baseball does need a salary cap. I'm not sure, even though I'm a big fan of Bud Selig, if a salary cap is in Selig's DNA. In order to have a level playing field -- just like hockey did -- baseball needs a salary cap. Otherwise, the Yankees and the Red Sox and the New York Mets -- some of the other big-market teams -- will always have more money. People can say 'look at how many World Series winners there have been'. That may be true, but anything can happen in a best four-out-of-seven series. But when you play 162 games in a season, how many years in a row have the Yankees been there? It's just the same teams in the playoffs year after year, and that has to change.