B.J. Ryan, illegal PEDs, Oliver Perez, A.J. Burnett, Andruw Jones and Michael Weiner
Check out the 2001 Blue Jays. They were a mediocre team weighed down by large investments in players like Carlos Delgado and Raul Mondesi and, to a lesser degree, Paul Quantrill. Toronto ownership fired longtime GM Gord Ash after that season, replacing him with J.P. Ricciardi, with the idea that Ricciardi would tear down that roster and build it back up.
Ricciardi did just that, but during the 2005-06 offseason, he jumped back into the deep end of the pool, committing huge dollars to A.J. Burnett (five years, $55 million) and B.J. Ryan (five years, $47 million). I remember that Burnett attended a news conference at the winter meetings in Dallas to herald his joining the Jays.
At the news conference, I asked Ricciardi why, after working so hard to create payroll flexibility, he tied up huge dollars once more.
He said something to the effect of, "These are my guys this time," as opposed to him inheriting Ash's guys.
That made some sense, but as it turned out, Ricciardi's guys didn't quite get it done. Burnett put together two injury-plagued seasons and one good one before bolting for the Yankees and, due to bad luck - the Yankees signed two higher-ranked free agents than Burnett, Mark Teixeira and CC Sabathia - getting the Blue Jays a modest third-round pick and sandwich pick in the '09 draft.
And the Blue Jays released Ryan yesterday, with nearly a year and a half left on the deal and $14 million owed him. Ryan delivered a terrific 2006 before undergoing Tommy John surgery in '07, and after pitching pretty well last year, he lost the closer's job this season.
If you want to say, "That reflects poorly on Ricciardi," rather than on the general dangers of long-term deals, OK. At the time, certainly, industry people questioned to the wisdom of giving so much money to Ryan, who had been a closer for just one year.
But I'm not sure there's a GM out there who has a really strong record when it comes to long-term investments. Particularly when we're talking about signing antother team's player in the free-agent market, as opposed to re-upping your own guys - as Ricciardi did, quite successfullly, with Roy Halladay.
It's something to keep in mind as we watch these Halladay trade discussions through the month. Ricciardi wants a huge package in return, and if a team is to give up that big a pakage, it will want to at least seriously consider retaining Halladay beyond his current deal, which runs through next year. But will Halladay's next contract be a wise one? Will he defy the current conventional wisdom and continue to be great into his late 30s?
Tango refers to illegal PEDs as "a workplace issue, a personal issue." He writes: "If players have a problem with it, they have to deal with it as a union. And if they can’t, that means the majority of the players doesn’t want to deal with it. We as fans can’t expect more from players than they themselves expect from each other."
I see where Tango is coming from. I'm tired of all of the judging and finger wagging. But I do think it's a little more complex. It's not like the players can tell the government, "This is a workplace issue." And the government has been more than a little involved in what has gone down the last decade.
In any case, it's an issue that we can and should keep discussing, especially when we have media folks expressing disappointment that the fans haven't been harder on Manny Ramirez. I think it's great that the fans weren't harder on Ramirez. It indicates that the fans don't take what Manny did personally. It's business. It's not personal.
Alex Cora defended Manny.
In other words, Burnett is backing up the contention he made last winter, when the Yankees signed him: That he had gained wisdom and understood better how to stay on the field.
Of course, as the Ryan deal exemplified, five years is a long time...


On July 4, 2007, the Yankees lost to
J.P. Ricciardi nearly broke the Internet today when he told Ken Rosenthal that he was more open to
During my weekend jaunt to Cape Cod, I had lunch 
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You might recall that Franklin Gutierrez, who made this great play yesterday for the Mariners at Fenway Park, was technically Mets property for a moment this winter. The Mets acquired him from Cleveland in order to
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