Results tagged ‘ J.P. Ricciardi ’
much to do about nothing?
So far so good. Lets try to come with something good for the kid platoon in left, off the top of my head I have SNL, for Snider and Lind?
(5)The annual Associated Press listing of the 30 MLB teams and their payrolls as of opening day was released this week. The Jays rank 16th overall, at $80,993,657 (all figures U.S.). The Yankees, to no one’s surprise, lead the way at $201,449,289.
It’s not where the Jays wanted to be. Their original intent was to bump payroll upwards from last year’s total of $98 million, but circumstances changed dramatically.
The original strategy – perhaps unrealistic, but a good plan heading into the off-season – was to bring back A.J. Burnett and then sign free-agent shortstop Rafael Furcal. But, anticipating the darkening financial storm clouds on the horizon, interim CEO Paul Beeston convinced GM J.P. Ricciardi, around the end of the World Series, that discretion in recession was the better part of value.
“The projected payroll was going to be $105 million,” Ricciardi admitted. “I think when (Paul and I) went to see A.J. (at his home in October), if he said he wanted to be a Blue Jay those two days, we could have had him done.
“But then after that, as the market continued to crash, Paul was actually ahead of the curve. He said, `I think we’re better off just standing still because economically, I’m not sure where this thing is going.’ By the World Series, we pretty much realized we weren’t going to have much money, unless we moved $10 million to sign $10 million.”
If the Jays had been allowed to spend the original planned amount, yesterday’s AP numbers would have ranked them eighth overall. And with eight teams qualifying for playoffs, it would have put them in the pressure-cooker in terms of expectations. How would they have spent the extra cash?
“We could have had Furcal,” Ricciardi insisted. “I can’t tell you 100 per cent we would have him, but we really thought that if we took the extra step, we could get him. I think we probably would have pushed a little harder on getting A.J. At that point if we had locked him up, we probably would have went after maybe Furcal.”
The Jays at the winter meetings were even thanked by Furcal’s agent for being in the final four for his services. But because the Jays already knew by then that they were scaling back payroll, any Furcal signing would have had to be accompanied by a trade of similar salary, which likely would have been first baseman Lyle Overbay. But things unfolded too quickly with the shortstop and it didn’t happen.
Instead, Furcal signed with the Dodgers for three years, $30 million. Check the numbers. If Burnett had re-upped with the Jays at about $16 million for the first season of a new contract, everything else being equal, the Jays’ payroll would have stood at $107 million. They could then easily have shed two million.
Think about what might have been, given some good luck and more good health. Imagine the Jays with a rotation today of Roy Halladay, Burnett, Shaun Marcum, Dustin McGowan and Jesse Litsch, with Furcal leading off and playing short.
Instead, Plan B has the organization being realistic with their fans and looking past ’09, hoping for the development of at least two young starting pitchers, including lefty Ricky Romero, who won his major-league debut yesterday over the Detroit Tigers.
“I think it would be great,” Ricciardi said.” We have a kid (Mark) Rzepczynski we really like. He pitched (Wedne
sday) in Double-A. Who knows? Litsch jumped from Double-A. (Young pitcher development) is the area (of concern) we didn’t think we’d be in, but it’s more so because of Marcum and McGowan.
“If we didn’t lose Marcum and McGowan we would have felt like we could still compete for this thing. More we’re at the stage now where we’re going to see how the young kids develop and keep running them out there.”
Today in Cleveland, it’s Scott Richmond’s turn to be thrown into the fire. Meanwhile, frustrated Jays’ fans can blame the current predicament on the economy while the Jays hope for a “stimulus package” to help bail them out.
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So if that was the case then we would of had to play Bautista at first, I think because Jackson in AA isn’t ready to take the next step, and though I think AJ is great I don’t know what to think. I will admit that I believe there is a HUGE need for a proper leadoff hitter which I don’t think I see in Marco Scutaro. HOWEVER, Ricciardi is prone to lying and is a lame duck GM, thus this is much to do about nothing.
That’s all for now from yours faithfully……Shine on, Cheers and Smell you later!
Honor and Glory, the numbers don’t lie!
I promised you pictures and I promised you stories and then I disappear for a month; however your faithful narrator and blogger has come off the fence. I want to call out J.P. Ricciardi.
Enough is enough! The Blue Jays are 7 years into J.P.’s 5 year plan and this guy has not only proven to be poor at evaluating talent, over paying contracts, being publically critical of free agents to the point of embarrassment, but he has been shown up so enough is enough, he has to go.
Lord Cito by the grace of God-ffrey has been resurrected and his initial demand was to have Adam Lind as an everyday player, which J.P. refused to do prior to Lord Cito’s arrival, and that has proven to be a decision that has given the team hope and an outfield with depth and youth, and power which again to hammer the point home showed up J.P.
Sure Mench had some good years and is obviously going through something (perhaps steroid withdrawal), and Wilkerson too had his share of successes with the long ball, in the past, and yeah Stewart is a career .297 hitter but, all these guys were passed up by every other general manager in the league and for good reason they’ve lost it–and believe me that it pains your humble narrator to bestow such accusations because I try to find the silver lining and hope for the best, however the numbers don’t lie.
If J.P. truly wanted to make this the year he could have acquired Barry Bonds or even Man-Ram to make a run, but it is apparent that J.P.’s biggest disgrace is that other GM’s don’t want to work with him–so ask yourself what is the point of having a GM that can’t get it done on so many levels?
Since this is my blog I have to say it is pretty pitiful that J.P. didn’t let Scott Richmond play the Olympics and that there should be a public flogging of the bum who denied a kid an opportunity to play for his country and cough up some poor cliché about the Majors vs. the Olympics–pathetic!
If I was in your shoes I would try to do something to help the Blue Jays in another way other than complaining about the division you play in. I would contact all the other teams that sadly have empty ball parks or have miniscule payrolls, or have not been near the playoffs for long time and lobby for their organizational support to confront Bud Selig for fundamental changes to baseball, whether it be a hard cap or more teams in the playoffs because you have an opportunity to be in a position to have noteworthy people listen or at the very least take your call, read your email/fax and give you a second of their time and can also do what an average joe can’t do, call Bud up to talk.
Sorry J.P. you can’t at the end of every season cry the same crocodile tears and lament that you put a winning roster together and injuries plagued it to another mediocre season and that we play in AL East with the big spenders, boo hoo. The fact is that you obviously didn’t put a winning season together, since the number don’t lie and neither does what is written on the World Series trophy, moreover every team is affected by injuries so to use that moot point as an excuse is pitiful since other teams seem to into the playoffs with smaller payrolls and have a chance for honor and glory.
That’s all from yours faithfully……Shine on, Cheers, and Smell you later!
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