Someone Should Tell Mr. Anthopoulos That This Isn't Playstation

But hey, you know what? I'm perfectly fine with an exciting offseason. And it's nice to know that it's not illegal for the Jays to trade baseball players. I'm impressed with the way the brand-spankin'-new GM was able to go about the Halladay trade and execute what experts see as a fair deal, impressed he was able to stake his reputation on a couple of risky "challenge" trades, acquiring high-upside players in Wallace and Morrow, and impressed at his ability to multitask and get some contracts done while this was all happening. The free agent signings of John Buck and Ramon Castro (I think that was his name - BlueJays.com never even announced that he was signed. Some other news sources say that they signed him. But don't take my word - this is not exactly a reliable news source. Heck, we don't claim to offer news and we're not exactly a "source" of anything. Crap, that was a long bracket) alone outdid what Ricciardi had done in his last offseason as GM (Kevin Millar and... uh... Raul Chavez. And 7 games of Michael Barrett. The Jays also got Joey Gathright and Lance Broadway, whose name alone ALSO outdoes whatever Ricciardi is worth or whatever).

Don't get me wrong, I actually kind of appreciated what Ricciardi did while he was here. He put together a very good, cheap bullpen by snagging no-name minor leaguers and letting the coaching staff transform them into average or above average relievers (Downs, Carlson, Tallet to name a few, and even Wolfe had his moments) and was unfairly blamed for the Wells contract (Godfrey, was it?). The Thomas and Ryan signings, however, I never liked. Now that Anthopoulos has taken over and quickly and quietly made some major moves with the promise of more just around the corner, we now see what Ricciardi could never accomplish.

Ricciardi's inability to trade Halladay really was nothing when compared with some of the other non-trades in his past. There have been rumours that he could have been able to get David Wright for Ted Lilly or Ryan Howard for Ted Lilly and it has all but been confirmed that his insatiable appetite for attention, his big-mouthed blabbering to the media killed the Rios-Lincecum deal. To think that Lincecum could be on the team essentially for free, since Rios was subsequently dumped on the White Sox, is beyond words. And consider this - Halladay would not have looked for greener pastures if they had put together a contending team. Although then we'd probably still have Ricciardi, which, well, would suck.

Ricciardi managed to entertain me for one offseason. And even then, the signings were less than impressive. Before the 2006 season, the drama that went on with the AJ and BJ signings and the Overbay trade were enough to make me get over the fact that I follow the Leafs. I never liked the BJ Ryan signing -$47 million for a reliever? Beyond ridiculous. They essentially ended up paying more than half a year's payroll for 70 good innings in a year they didn't make the playoffs. Glad it's not my own money, but still - shit! That almost makes the Wells abomination tolerable, as he's still got a few years to magically stop sucking.

Back to the current offseason. Anthopoulos. Trades. Yeah. Let's see some more of that magic ship guys like Overbay and some but not all of Accardo/Frasor/Downs/Tallet out of town and get some young players with potential back in here. 2009 was a huge waste of a year as soon as that 9-game losing streak started in mid-May. It's pretty cool knowing that 2010 is being piloted by a guy who realizes that his job entails getting good baseball players, and, you know, actually trying to do it. Here's hoping that he doesn't suddenly screw it up and change my opinion of him.


--Cooper