Jeff Blair, the friendliest of Canadian baseball writers to the Jays front office, rips AJ Burnett in his column today (Insider-only, or check out the print edition). Starting with: "It's time for A.J. Burnett to grow up," and going on from there, it's as harsh a denunciation of a player as I've seen Blair make; even Shea Hillenbrand didn't get this sort of treatment.

Part of it may be Blair's personal pique at bring regularly blown off by Burnett for interviews or even conversations, and who knows whether Ricciardi quietly suggested a media beating for a pitcher for whom the kid-glove treatment doesn't appear to be working. But the fact remains that Burnett has disappointed badly in his first season with Toronto. There's no indication he's in any way a changed or better pitcher now than he was in Florida. Whatever magic dust Brad Arnsberg was using in Miami seems to have been confiscated at the border.

JP Ricciardi's legacy in Toronto will be the free-agent signing of AJ Burnett. Whether Burnett blossoms into a dominant Cy Young candidate for a playoff contender and makes Ricciardi look like a genius, or he remains an enigmatic presence that wilts under the spotlight and sucks up much of the pitching budget for an also-ran, the die is cast. This was no panic move -- JP tracked Burnett for years before he signed him and made the pitcher his top off-season priority. The Blue Jays, though, will not contend unless AJ Burnett becomes the pitcher JP Ricciardi thought -- and maybe still thinks -- he can. I don't see any way around that.

Here's the Google run around to read the Burnett article.  From reading the comments here first it wasn't nearly as much of a ripping as I expected.

For those that want to use the slick link tool it's really easy.  Type your post in the box like you normally do.  To add a link highlight the text where you want the link to be (like 'Google run around' above) and then look to the formatting toolbar above the text box.  Just to the right of the undo/redo icons is a chain - this represents the link button (chain link - get it?).  Press the button and a box will pop up.  From there you just need to paste the link into the URL line and hit ok.

If you don't have the toolbar it's probably minimized - just click on the arrow above the comment box.

This works just fine in Firefox - especially since Joe, who did the work behind this, is a Firefox disciple.

Being paid a lot of money to do less than what you were asked to do, even 4 million dollars, would not be fun.  These guys have so much pride and so much ego, they take it as an insult to their manhood if they get benched. Listen to what Shea said, what Javy Lopez said and what Bengie is saying.  I'm always surprised when people say "why are they complaining, they have so much money, they should be satisfied with just that."  If you are gonna be paid lots of money to do nothing and be of little use, you might as well change your name to Paris Hilton.  Any player worth anything wants to play everyday and they are never satisfied with less than that. 

And I know Bengie doesn't defend behind the plate with his body like Zaun. I like Zaun better. That passed ball was not good, even though Lilly took the blame for it himself (crossed signal), it was definitely on Bengie.  It's the 1-2 that I like.  It's so much better than last year.  People have short memories.

And VBF, I agree.  I know they can't afford it. That's all I keep hearing. So tired of hearing that.  But re-sign Vernon Wells.  Or at least trade him for something really, really good.  And not for just for "prospects and a player to be named later".

Okay, this is the last thing I'm saying on this matter.  Bengilina is overweight and if he is unsatisfied with his playing time, he should work on his defense. I still like him.  That being said, when I wrote that any player worth anything wants to play all the time, I meant players in general, not just Bengie. A manager should want guys with drive.  Zaun and ( I never thought I'd say this) Hinske went about it the right way.  Shea and now Bengie, not so much.  But, as it usually goes, when the team starts struggling and in the midst of an ugly, ugly road trip, the complaints and frustration are going to come out.  Shea started complaining about playing time  in that ugly road trip in Colorado. JP's infamous rant after that series in KC.

I think the art of  "male ego" management is probably one of the most under discussed and underrated  skill of managers.  In order to play this game at this level, one has to have a pretty high opinion of themselves and an unwavering, fundamental belief in one's own abilities. And it's managements job to navigate these egos, to know how to encourage without offending. When to stroke the ego and when (and how) to tell the guy to stop being a baby. I don't think the management of this team has mastered that art yet.  It's probably their egos.