Rich Griffin? Backlasher?

It's nice to see the organization has enough faith in JP to let him continue with his plan and give him a chance at implementing it, unlike Paul DePodesta with the Dodgers.

A good day indeed. I'm no fan of Paul Godfrey's politics, but that's the third excellent decision he's made concerning Ricciardi and the Jays in four years.

The people J.P. "rubs the wrong way" should look in the mirror. Perhaps they're uncomfortable around strong, passionate, honest opinions. He can be abrasive and sarcastic with fools or sworn enemies but is respectful, loyal and appreciative of anyone who treats him fairly. The people who like him best admire those qualities.

It's no surprise that players love him; how many GMs throw batting practice or kid them like peers? Among my unscientific ways to "evaluate" a coach, manager or GM is a simple question: would I enjoy playing for him? Not only is the answer an unequivocal "yes," I don't want anyone who can't play for J.P. -- and his tremendous staff -- on my team.

Since this extension has already been discussed in a previous thread, I'll give you a cliff notes version of my thoughts.

I don't like this extension right now. With 2 years left in his deal, I think it would have been better to wait to see how next season pans out. What happens if the Jays struggle to finish above .500 next season even with the increased payroll?

I know I'm certainly not as high on JP as most of the Da Box members/readers are. Frankly he has done a mediocre job so far as the Jays have finished under .500 3 of the 4 years he has been the GM. And yes I understand he had to cut payroll which is why I think it's better to wait until after next season to see where the Jays stand after the bank has been opened.

But to JP's credit, I like the fact he talks to the fans every week during the regular season. I know he took beating after beating from the callers 2 seasons ago and he still continued to take calls. I don't know him personally, but he strikes me as an all-around good guy.

I'll be honest with you.

I'm still waiting for "that trade".

JP to me hasn't shown he can wheel and deal consistantly for what he needs.

Blah blah I understand it takes two to trade, but it is getting to the point where we haven't had anything really significant in a while.

Back after a very long hiatus from Batter's Box...

What JP did with the 2003 season still sticks with me as the best evidence he's a competent GM. The 2004 season was pretty much out of his control, and in 2005 if Halladay had been there the whole time it could have easily equalled 2003 in terms of wins.

Consider me very satisfied that he'll be around for another 5 years.

Not sure where to post this, but I thought people might find it interesting.

Primer has compiled 3 year park factors for all major and minor league parks:

http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/oracle/discussion/34611/

JP hasn't been as good as I hoped he would be for the Jays.

That said, I think he's still been above average and much better than what we had before. I was hoping we'd have in JP one of the top 5 GMs in baseball. And while in some senses the juries still out, I think it is likely JP isn't a top 5 GM. But he is, likely, a top 10 GM and maybe he'll grow into the top 5 in time.

Did anybody see this about Ricciardi's contract? I find it damn interesting.

That's a bit of a deceptive headline, and out of character for the Globe. An out clause triggered by Godfrey's departure is a perfectly respectable and honourable thing for JP to ask for; by leaving it vague, a reader who doesn't know better would think that it's like Burnett's out clause which is unconditional.

im a jays fan to the bone but ive got to say, and i know this is not gonna go down well with most folks here, that j.p. ricciardi has not served us well.
im the 1st to say that when pat g. left the major league roster was a bloated disaster.
and j.p. was given his orders to slash payroll while trying to stay competitive and to maintain our fine farm system,one of gillicks real successes with the jays.
well, one 2 out of three is bad, in this case.
j.p. slashed the payroll and did a decent but by no means great job of it.as far as the competitiveness of the jays, j.p. made the one masterstroke of his career,canning carlos tosca,who did a good job for the jays, and bringing in gibby,who is truly an outstanding big league manager.the guy can handle pitchers,knows his teams limits and capabilities and wrings every single bit out of his club.i attribute the jays relatively successful last 2 years to the quality of our manager.he has done a brilliant job with the limited talent j.p. has provided.
i link the jays competitiveness directly to gibbons and he brought j.p. along on his coattails instead of the other way around...buck martinez took a decently talented team with a good farm system and ran it into the gtound.tosca was better...but gibby took a team with a couple of decent pitchers and 1 great pitcher,1 really good player and a bunch of role players and weak options and made this team very tough to beat in the strongest division in the majors.
our farm system has gone from one of the reals gems of major league baseball to well below average in j.p.'s short time at the helm.and with the a.j. and b.j. signings we lose a couple more badly needed draft picks.but j.p. either was not persuasive enough with aj and bj to get them to wait until arbitratration day to announce their massive deals or he just didnt care enough to protect his draft picks.
lets recap j.p.'s 2 big deals this year;
if i get the particulars wrong,im quite sure i will get straightened out in short order.
b.j. ryan 5 yrs. 47 million us
bj is defintely a top knotch reliever.but 5 years was too long to commit to and ive got to believe we outbid anyone else by several million dollars.i believe the jays would have easily been the top bidder at 3 yrs at 27 million us.
aj burnett 5 yrs 55 mil. us
the potential is there no doubt about that.but what really smells this deal up is j.p.'s out clause after three years.so we have no possibilty of coming out ahead in this signing.if it were a straight 5 years 55 mil and aj rips off some nice years then the risk of the first few years of the high dollar contract begin to payoff those last couple years by having a great pitcher in his prime at a reasonable salary.
but j.p. left us wide open here..lets say a.j. starts 30 games each the next 2 years and is a 500 pitcher but in year three {his walk year} he breaks out and goes lets say 20-8 with good peripherals.if that happens..
a.j. declares himself a free agent and we get a draft pick from wherever he signs.and this is after we take the huge initial risk in the contract.
j.p. is killing our ability to compete down the road.
theres a ton of other stuff that j.p. has gotten away with here that just wouldnt fly elsewhere.
what about those brilliant big money contract extensions for miguel batista and eric hinske?
and we could've kept carlos delgado for 4 years 48 million but that was too rich for j.p.'s blood.he said that the money we saved on delgado was going to go back into last years.only it didnt happen that way.and we lost not just an all star caliber player,we lost a hall of fame caliber player.
sorry folks but j.p. has got to go..but unfortunately he wont be going for a pretty long time.
oh well, weve always got gibbons and if j.p. can just get him a couple lethal bats who knows?
GO JAYS!

Oh my gosh.

when pat g. left the major league roster was a bloated disaster.

They were one year removed from back to back world championships when Gillick left, so it wasn't quite that bad.

i attribute the jays relatively successful last 2 years to the quality of our manager.

I like Gibbons too, but the team had a losing record (67-94) in 2004 and a losing record (80-82) in 2005. What do you mean by "relatively successful?"

our farm system has gone from one of the reals gems of major league baseball

You must like Miguel Negron a lot more than I do.

i believe the jays would have easily been the top bidder [for Ryan] at 3 yrs at 27 million us.

Not a chance. Not in this universe, anyway.

[re Burnett] the risk of the first few years of the high dollar contract

I generally think pitchers are more at risk five years from now than next year or the year after. The real risk here is that Burnett will be a broken down sore-armed mess by 2009-10, when he's getting paid $12 million per year.

and we could've kept carlos delgado for 4 years 48 million

Ya think? He signed for more than that. (Not that the team actually had that kind of money to spend when the decision needed to be made, anyway.)

he said that the money we saved on delgado was going to go back into last years...

No, he didn't say that.