Is Gaston the long-term answer?  Hardly.  If they're going to harken back to the "Blue Jay Way" days, why not just show Ricciardi the door, as well.  He's always demonstrated a disdain for the organizational philosophy which guided the franchise to the heights of baseball glory in the first place.

This is still an organization is dissary and shall continue to be as long as the baseball decisions continue to be made a man who possess the soul of a fast-talking used car salesman. 

WOW! Has MLSE taken over down at Rogers Centre? This is goofy. Maybe Cito should put some pyramids under the player's bench and try to harness some mystical energy. Who is going to come back next? Fergie Olver?

This is not one of the better days in Jays' history.

I can't wait to see Roberto at 2B and Tony Fernandez at short again. It's been too long.

Oh wait, they're just bringing the coaches back? Darn.

I don't know how to feel about this move. It doesn't really make any sense. Is Gaston here long-term or is he just a nostalgic novelty act to remind the fanbase that this franchise was actually relevant at one point? Also, what good is trying to recreate the past when the GM is pretty much the exact opposite of that image?

I'm very confused, but maybe that's how they want me to feel. And yes, I agree, this has Paul Godfrey's fingerprints all over it.

I can't believe they've snubbed Galen Cisco like this.

First I agree that this looks like it came from above JP.

Second, Dwayne Murphy was until today the Jays minor league roving hitting coordinator.  I also believe Cito is some sort of roving ambassador for the Jays.

Finally this move undermines JP in another way.  Gaston knows Godfrey from way back and possibly knows other Rogers people.  Gaston will have a line of communication to those people independent of JP whereas Gibbons would have protected JP and let him know what was discussed with Godfrey, if anything..

 

Wow, i also thought this was some sort of weird April Fool's joke.

Cito is as class an act as there is.

Last time he came in he had been the hitting coach and he didn't want the manager's job and he was supposed to be an interim manager, as it is this time. Last time he stayed and - we know the rest. Will history repeat? No. But my friend Joe Pitsoff might disagree, while golfing in 1974 he was hit by lightening - in 1983, again while golfing - he was again hit by lightening. Sometimes history repeats. Just don't count on it. By the way, I went to "Smokin' Joe's funeral - it was a quiet affair. Even in his coffin he still had that funny twitch - can't really blame him can you?

Gibby - I love ya. Not your fault that Rios, Wells, Rolen, Overbay and Thomas all forgot how to hit anything but singles.

Holy smoke! After falling out of my chair, getting back up and thinking about it some, I say ... why not?

No matter what you think of the current roster, the team wasn't playing up to its capabilities and that is the managers primary responsibility. Stuff like bunting and pinch hitting decisions are relatively trivial. Desperation move? Maybe. Unfair to Gibbons? Maybe. But I think a change was necessary.

If nothing else, the Jays will be getting a ton of publicity out of this.

Anyway, knowing that what I just said isn’t very likely to happen, I do think he's going to replace Gibbons if they lose tomorrow. And I think Cito could very well be the replacement.

Ha, I predicted this yesterday. It's a move made by Godfrey to appease the common fan...the signs were there for it for a while now.

Let me state, for the record, that I feel sorry for Gibby.  Not so much for being fired today - I think that's more of a mercy kill, to be honest - but for being saddled with expectations that couldn't possibly have been fulfilled with this lot of mid-level talent and a general manager in miserably over his head, even after seven years on the job.  Good luck to Cito in attempting to get something more out of this catatonic group. 

Vernon Wells has to be nervous. Mookie Wilson can't be far behind.

Say, wasn't there some sort of to-do concerning Adam Dunn recently? Anybody remember what that was all about?

The Jays are taking this Flashback Fridays thing too far.

Simply brilliant.

Let me state, for the record, that I feel sorry for Gibby.  Not so much for being fired today - I think that's more of a mercy kill, to be honest - but for being saddled with expectations that couldn't possibly have been fulfilled with this lot of mid-level talent and a general manager in miserably over his head, even after seven years on the job.  Good luck to Cito in attempting to get something more out of this catatonic group. 

This I don't agree with.  I think it's surely among the manager's top three responsibilities to prevent any team from becoming a "catatonic group," which they certainly have been.  A lethargic team + fair-to-poor in-game strategy = skipper's gotta go.

No worries, Cito is just holding the job until Brian Burke can get out of Anaheim.

By the way, where is Pat Gillick when we need him?

Let me state, for the record, that I feel sorry for Gibby.  Not so much for being fired today - I think that's more of a mercy kill, to be honest - but for being saddled with expectations that couldn't possibly have been fulfilled with this lot of mid-level talent and a general manager in miserably over his head, even after seven years on the job.  Good luck to Cito in attempting to get something more out of this catatonic group. 

This I don't agree with.  I think it's surely among the manager's top three responsibilities to prevent any team from becoming a "catatonic group," which they certainly have been.  A lethargic team + fair-to-poor in-game strategy = skipper's gotta go.

I'm not taking issue with Gibbons being relieved of his duties.  It's hard to make the case that the team is well managed at the moment, and as the old saying goes, you can't replace 25 players, but you can replace one manager (and three of his deputies, apparently).  But his general manager has equipped him with a team that, even with all cylinders firing, simply isn't as good as it thinks it is - and appears to have lethargy programmed into its DNA.  What he's supposed to do with personalities like Alex Rios, I haven't the foggiest idea.  Having been sat Wednesday, ostensibly on account of his poor play, he swiftly follows up yesterday with one of his signature moments of brain dead defensive indifference.  It's a poor carpenter that blames his tools, yadda yadda, but the reincarnation of Casey Stengel would have a hard time winning with this group.    

Put more simply, I just happen to think that there's room on the bus out of town for the general manager, as well.   

And has been already pointed out, perhaps this means a smaller bullpen (good!) and a larger bench (good! - Adam Lind!). 

If you have high hopes for Adam Lind, Cito Gaston ain't your man. 

Apparently this is not unimaginable, this scene in which principals agree...

Cito is Field Manager for the rest of the season...he will be the new General Manager and familiar to Paul Godfrey. Perhaps Cito could use a Young Beeston. The scouting is already fine now.

Ricciardi agrees he will look for a new job. He is grateful for the extended opportunity he has had to learn on the job...which he surely has. They agree on compensation Everybody says he'll find employment quickly for sure. Gibby the same, all conclude.

Everybody says the new Field Manager is up to Cito. If he likes Butterfield, that's okay; if not, it's subject to speculation and that's okay too.

Well, back to the Euro Cup. What I like is the kids coming out hand in hand with the players. A sport which knows how to reproduce. Hello?

If you (or anyone else) genuinely believes that drivel, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell to you.

In the history of mankind, through all walks of life, men have led others and inspired them to achieve, and reach their potential and sometimes exceed what would otherwise be expected.  Managing a baseball team is no different than leading men into battle, or heading up a Business Acquisition Team.  Soft skills are important.  Intangibles matter.  After all, what became of the Brooklyn Bridge?

It's always tough to see a good guy like Gibbons go, he's a hard guy not to like. But the bottom line is that, as the cliche goes,  managers are hired to be fired. Whether it's his "fault" or not, this team wasn't playing like it should. (And this past series was an utter embarassment.) And when that's the case, there's no harm in making a manager switch. It can't make things worse, and it just might make things better -even significantly better. Nice to see them keep Arnsberg (pitching) and Butterfield (defense), who are both doing an excellent job. It's also nice to see the three guys coming in all having extensive hitting coach experience. That is badly needed.

As for Cito - can't believe this guy hasn't managed since he was fired here. It's really crazy. It's nice to have this kind of guy available to come in in pinch like this. It's also going to be nice to inject the clubhouse with some PROVEN WINNERS, something we've had a severe lack of recently.

As for JP - IMO, this tells us that he's clearly on his last legs here. There is no way in hell that these guys were JP's choice of hires. This was from above, and if the team can't turn it around with these guys, JP gets canned in the offseason for sure - and maybe sooner.  I'm no JP hater, but just like with Gibbons, if it doesn't work for this long, there's no harm in making a change.

I imagine that thought crossed his mind!  Personally, my view is that a veteran like Rios should be held accountable for his own failures, but that is not the world we live in. 

This is still an organization is dissary and shall continue to be as long as the baseball decisions continue to be made a man who possess the soul of a fast-talking used car salesman. 

Agreed. Also, somewhere less than 10% of the intelligence and people skills of the aforementioned used car salesman, I should think. JP is thoroughly unqualified and incompetent, and has shown absolutely no signs that he has learned anything from his 6+ seasons of abject failure. John Gibbons and his staff were in no way the problem with this team (of course, managers and coaches never are, as their impact is typically next to nil, but I digress). The problem is, and has been throughout JP's tenure, horribly flawed and frankly illogical roster construction. If JP is not gone by the start of next season, then Godfrey and his superiors are bigger idiots than JP himself is.

If you have high hopes for Adam Lind, Cito Gaston ain't your man. 

The same Cito who worked in 21 year old John Olerud, 21 year old Junior Felix , 25 year old Manuel Lee, 24 year old Glenallen Hill, 24 year old Mark Whiten, 23 year old Ed Sprague, 24 year old Jeff Kent, 23 year old Derek Bell, 24 yearold Randy Knorr, 22 year old Carlos Delgado,  22 year old Alex Gonzalez, 22 year old Tomas Perez, 23 year old Shawn Green, 24 year old Todd Stottlemyre, 25 year old Duane Ward, 24 year old Juan Guzman, 25 year old Mike Timlin, 23 year old Pat Hentgen, all into his full time roster?

As ayjackson said, a baseball team shouldn't be treated altogether differently from any other organization.  Look at it like a sales team - your reps are going to be held accountable for their own performance through job retention, commissions, bonuses, etc.  But their sales managers are also going to be held accountable as well and they should be as they can provide guidance / coaching.  Both as far as motivation and as well as instilling the habits necessary to effectively channel that motivation.

But in your example, the sales manager get paid more than the sales reps and has a lot more job security, which gives the sales manager a lot of pull, shall we say, with the sales reps.  The exact opposite is true in baseball, or at least it is in this particular case. 

Second, income is not a source of authority.  No one ever has, or ever will, get respect because you made more than them.  Even in the prime of the hard-ass type eras, people respected their coaches / managers because of the softer-skills, not the hammer.  For a great example, read Instant Replay or other books about Vince Lombardi and his players.  They loved him. 

I don't doubt there is some truth to this, but it underscores the point I was making about job security.  An underperforming player on the '67 Packers knew it was going to be him, and not Vince Lombardi, that was going to be run out of town on a rail.  Were it the other way around, Lombardi and his players would have had a very different relationship. 

Anyway, the only point of mine worth making is that Alex Rios is a big boy, and he ought to be able to motivate himself (assuming motivation is his problem - if it's a mechanical problem, the hitting coach has to share in the responsibility, and if he's hurt, all bets are off).  If it takes a special kind of management touch to get him going, then the Jays ought to more highly value that skill than they have to date.

 have to nitpick a bit here - Cito trusted very few of these players enough to give them full-time jobs, especially the hitters.  He jerked Green around for years even when it was quite obvious he was ready to play every day.  Hill, Whiten, and Bell were all in and out of the lineup and put in the doghouse before they went on to mostly productive careers elsewhere.  Timlin and Ward were worked until their arms nearly fell off and the club struggled for years to find a closer once Wardo went down.

How could he have "jerked Green around for years", when he was only 24 the year Cito was fired?

He gave him 379ab as a 22 year old, 422ab as a 23 year old, and 429ab as a 24 year old. Obviously just protecting the kid from lefties.

Whiten and Hill were both traded in their 2nd years with the Jays, after being introduced to the bigs by Cito, and were part timers for the remainders of their careers.

Cito also introduced a 22 year old Bell to the majors, played him as a backup at age 23, and then he was traded at 24.

How could he have "jerked Green around for years", when he was only 24 the year Cito was fired?

The interaction between manager and GM will be interesting.

Gibbons was clearly subordinate to the GM and many decisions of the manager could be traced back to the GM.  I doubt that will be the case with Cito, Cito will do what he thinks is right for the team, probably even if JP objects.

Not a good day... I hope Halladay is okay ... that was really scary... Gil MacDougald-Herb Score scary...hopefully not worse... after seeing the video footage I was surprised that he walked off the field ... any updates from medical staff on his medical status?... he should be in hospital overnight for observation at the minimum

"'Sorry' doesn't always fix things," Dunn said on Friday before the Reds played the Yankees. "To me, you're not criticizing me as a player. You're criticizing me as a person. That's different. You can say I stink all you want, OK, I'm fine with that. It's over. I'm not crying about it. It doesn't really mean that much."

What is with Dunn and that last throwaway sentence. It obviously was personal, and he didn't accept the apology. You can't have it both ways sensitive tough guy. BTW, who doesn't accept a sincere apology these days? He never came out and talked about his commitment to baseball.

The Dunn comments were obviously out of line - that's one of Ricciardi's qualities. He tends to say what's on his mind without thinking of the PR aspects. A more polished reply would have been to say "I can't comment on specific players under contract to other teams" and then a few minutes later say "you know, quite frequently we in management know things about players that fans don't; just speaking generally of course".  But that's not JP.

Myself, I only care about how good a job the GM does. This stuff doesn't matter to me. It's the kind of thing that gets emphasized if you already dislike the guy, so you get to add another negative to your list. Embarrassing the organization? Piffle I say.

Adam Dunn - he's a free agent after this year. I would welcome a deadline type deal for him if the price is right, but no way do I sign him as a free agent. I see where he's lost about 20 pounds this year, and I read where he's "rededicated himself" or some such nonsense. So when he gets his big contract he can revert to being his old self. Oh, he'll still be a good hitter, my problem is that he'll be overpriced for what he gives you.

"why not just show Ricciardi the door, as well"

Because it's much easier to cycle a temporary manager in and out , than a GM. (Well unless you're the Leafs.) Better to do a proper search at year end for a long term solution (I hope.)

"The interaction between manager and GM will be interesting.... Gibbons was clearly subordinate to the GM and many decisions of the manager could be traced back to the GM.  I doubt that will be the case with Cito, Cito will do what he thinks is right for the team, probably even if JP objects.

Great point. And we all know how stubborn Cito can be, sometimes in a good way, sometimes not. But clearly the team needs some new ideas so I am glad the manager's not another JP buddy.

He had plenty of time to choose a new hitting coach, after deciding that Mickey Brantley was not good enough.  He took his time, did a search, found his preferred candidate, signed Denbo to a two-year deal -- and then sacked him after less than three months.  Something is screwy here.

Looks like it's the first example of Cito putting his foot down. I hope it continues.

The Dunn comments were obviously out of line - that's one of Ricciardi's qualities. He tends to say what's on his mind without thinking of the PR aspects. A more polished reply would have been to say "I can't comment on specific players under contract to other teams" and then a few minutes later say "you know, quite frequently we in management know things about players that fans don't; just speaking generally of course".  But that's not JP.

Myself, I only care about how good a job the GM does. This stuff doesn't matter to me. It's the kind of thing that gets emphasized if you already dislike the guy, so you get to add another negative to your list. Embarrassing the organization? Piffle I say.

This is pretty much spot on analysis from my point of view.  Well done, Frank.  I would add though, that being an embarrassment to the organization can seal the fate of an otherwise average GM.

Fury 

In the Oresteia--the only trilogy in Greek drama which survives from antiquity--Aeschylus took as his subject the bloody chain of murder and revenge within the royal family of Argos. Moving from darkness to light, from rage to self-governance, from primitive ritual to civilized institution, its spirit of struggle and regeneration is universal.

Horrible to look at, the Furies had snakes for hair and blood dripping from their eyes. They changed into the Euminides, protectors of the suppliant, after Athena had made them merciful, sparing Orestes, whom they had stalked for a long time after the murder of his mother and her lover.

I just thought that Dunn never came out and said that he was commited to the game or that he loves it. I think just saying "you don't know me" isn't a very good defence.

Why should he have to defend himself at all? He did nothing to incite Ricciardi's disparaging remarks. Out of the blue he is insulted by the GM of a team he probably has no interest in playing for in the first place. He owes no one a refutation of Ricciardi's classless, tactless remarks.

Jocketty was shocked by the remarks.

"He told me he was going through a lot of stuff because he was going to have to fire his manager and coaches," Jocketty said.

I'm giving Ricciardi the benefit of the doubt over these remarks, people say stupid things when under duress and firing one of your best friends can't be easy.

I think its widely assumed that if the Jays do not get off to a good start this year there will be plenty of questions about not only John Gibbons, but Ricciardi himself.

I think it would be a good self preservation move by JP to warm Cito up a bit this year, just in case he needs a Plan B.

The detractors of this strategy may suggest that Ricciardi only wants so - called puppet managers he can control. But the rope given to JP is starting to get stretched, so he might want to role the dice and go with someone who will demand and get respect and performance from a team.

The Jays are a veteran club now. Really there are few kids expected to crack this squad this season. Plus, Ricciardi is five years into his first gig as a GM now. He should be comfortable and confident that he can work with a baseball man with an opinion and track record.

We can certainly debate the merits of the GM and his body of work, but calling a team which has won 170 games in the past two seasons an "abject failure" is too silly for words.

Um, no. No it is not. Finishing a season a handful of games above .500 is not success. For a team with qualified and competent leadership, any given season should serve a definite purpose: either to contend for a playoff run, or to build for the future. The closest the Jays came to a playoff berth in the last two seasons was in 2006, when they finished 8 games out of the WC. That is not seriously contending. Given the state of the roster and the performance of the team this season, I don't think you can really argue that they were building effectively for the future. So, yes, JP failed in both of those seasons, and in every other season he has been GM of this club, to either put a serious contender on the field, or else build effectively toward doing so in the forseeable future. His body of work pretty much speasks for itself, I think.