Thursday, June 19, 2008

Where do you start?


John Gibbons? Probably not. Sure the Jays are playing like complete garbage and deserve to be ten and a half games behind Boston at the bottom of the American League East. They are indeed better than this as Lloyd has already indicated. It's been suggested and I tend to agree that the lack of offensive production can't be solely blamed on the Manager. Could he be doing something differently? It's easy to say yes, but when you think about it, I'm not sure he could.

J.P. Riccardi? Maybe. Hard to believe it's been six and a half years since Riccardi took over for Gord Ash November 14th, 2001. One of his first deals was to send Billy Koch over to his former team for Eric Hinske and Justin Miller. This wouldn't be the last time we saw J.P. swing deals with the Athletics. I remember the enthusiasm when he took over, but it has since waned after 7 seasons without a post-season appearance. I'm not sure you can blame Riccardi entirely either, as he has made moves that appeared solid but haven't really worked out.

The Burnett signing, although horseshit now, seemed to have potential upside. Lyle Overbay is better than his performance would indicate. Bengie Molina was a Gold Glove catcher, didn't work out. As much as he's tried to improve the team with deals & signings, he's failure to retain Jay talent and acquire players have cost the team. He failed to hang onto Ted Lilly and sign Gil Meche, so went with discount options Toma Ohka, John Thompson and Victor Zambrano. We all know how that worked out. The Frank Thomas signing...think what you want, but it was never a good deal no matter what anyone says. His five year plan, his interfering/input into lineup decisions...I could go on, but people will draw their own conclusions. How much can you really trust a guy who when ask about why he hid the true extent of the B.J. Ryan injury in 2007 responded, "They're not lies if we know the truth."

Paul Godfrey? I sure the fuck would. Paul Godfrey is a clown. Many may not remember, but when he was publisher and CEO of the Toronto Sun from 1984-1991 he stood up in front of the city and stated that the construction of the Skydome would not nor would it ever cost Toronto tax payers and money. A billion dollars later... He played an instrumental part in getting Art Eggleton and Mel Lastman elected Mayors of the big smoke. Eventually he CEO and president of the Jays, God knows why. I often wonder if he even has a clue what he's doing. Frankly, I'm quite sure he doesn't. From selling tickets to visiting fans to lying to the commissioner of baseball about being a Toronto city councilor it's clear to me that his reign needs to end now if not, soon. Don't even get me started on this NFL bullshit.

Does something need to change? Again, maybe? One this is true. The Jays are 35-39 on the season after a horrible loss today and are losing ground. The MLB season is a long one, and there is time left to right the ship, but if it doesn't start soon, it's going to be a seventh season without a post-season appearance. No one said getting to the post-season was supposed to be easy, but it might be time to give someone else a chance to take a shot at it. It couldn't hurt.
Posted by The Reverend
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8 comments:

  1. I'm not sure about your assessment of JP's deals. Gil Meche and Ted Lilly chose to sign elsewhere, and if AJ's contract is horseshit, what would that make Meche & Lilly? AJ at 11 this year is nothing compared to Carlos Silva at 11 or Vincette Padilla at 12.

    Zambrano, Thomson & Ohka pitched a grand total of 60 innings and cost the team nothing. It's the same as this year in LF. He has a weakness, tries to fill it at a low cost with high reward. Last year he turned it over to the kids early and it worked out, no harm done.

    This year, the retread LR-HR guys are getting an extended play, when cutting his (minimal) losses and letting the kids (Lind) play seems like a similar and justifiable move.
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  2. And Bengie Molina worked out just fine. 19 HR and an OPS+ of 100. After that season, his cost out-weighted his benefit. He got the same deal as Eckstein, and it working in the exact same manner. Eckstein will be gone next year because he will demand (and the market will allow him to) more than he's worth to the Jays.
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  3. As I said, there are way to many overpaid, under-achieving pitchers throughout the league. His low cost, high reward weakness has produced absolutely nothing. If Benjie had really worked out, he wouldn't have been one and done. General managers of other clubs have been fired for a ton less than what JP has attempted. AJ Burnett's contract is horseshit, as was Frank Thomas's as are Padilla's and Silva's. Being Paul Godfrey's boy shouldn't mean a fucking thing unless he produces results. It's his team, no one elses.
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  4. Molina worked out, but not to the tune of a $8 million dollar club option.
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  5. Money well spent is better than money spent.
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  6. Exactly. He didn't spend $8 million dollars on Molina, which was his option. He got him for one season at $5, then the club declined to pay their catcher $7.5 millon bucks a year. That is money not spent, and not spent well
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  7. My point is, he's hasn't always been spending money well. Whethere it's his fault, or poor performance from players...doesn't matter, somewhere along the line the GM has to answer for that. Not spending the $7.5 doesn't necessarily make in money not spent well.

    All of that, and he's a clown.
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