OT: Ricciardi In Line For GM Jobs

number15 · Post #1 » by **number15** » Mon Aug 8, 2011 6:02 pm

realgm reports that former Jays GM and current advisor for the Mets, JP Ricciardi is a serious candidate to take over as GM of several teams this winter.

Teams known to in interested are the Cubs, Mariners, Orioles, Astros and possibly the Dodgers.

He has 1 more year on his contract with the Mets.... but that dosent seem like an problem

sonn · Post #2 » by **sonn** » Mon Aug 8, 2011 7:28 pm

I'd love to see him in Baltimore.

Michael Bradley · Post #3 » by **Michael Bradley** » Mon Aug 8, 2011 8:02 pm

sonn wrote:I'd love to see him in Baltimore.

I'd prefer to see him in New York, Tampa, or Boston, but Baltimore would work too.

youngLion · Post #4 » by **youngLion** » Mon Aug 8, 2011 9:05 pm

He very well could build a team good enough to win a non-AL East division.

number15 · Post #5 » by **number15** » Mon Aug 8, 2011 10:45 pm

youngLion wrote:He very well could build a team good enough to win a non-AL East division.

agreed

his rebuilding was going as planed and was very impressive. he mad VERY solid draft picks and impressive trades...... (ofcourse he had a few mistakes, but who dosent)

He was actualy like how AA is now... considered very successfull and popular

*** the Boston Red Sox gave him a call when they couldnt resign Theo Epstien... but JP turned them down, like a real pro. (he is also a Boston native, so...)

but

His downfall was when the JAYS thought they could contend. He starting giving out very bad contracts to everyone he could possibly see. He was always open with the mediaand very popular, but people/media turned on him when the team didnt produce for that same reason.

The AL-EAST was just too much for him.... he can build a winner somewhere else

Post #6 » by **Schad** » Mon Aug 8, 2011 10:56 pm

youngLion wrote:He very well could build a team good enough to win a non-AL East division.

Yeah, I could see him being a solid GM in a division like the NL Central. He didn't have the philosophy or appetite for risk to build a team capable of knocking down 95 wins a year in the AL East, but that isn't a major impediment elsewhere.

soulchild_07 · Post #7 » by **soulchild_07** » Tue Aug 9, 2011 12:14 am

He probably deserves another shot running a big league club, he built some of the best pitching staffs and defences in the league from 06-08 and in another division, those teams probably all make the playoffs.

Post #8 » by **Geddy** » Tue Aug 9, 2011 12:26 am

sonn wrote:I'd love to see him in Baltimore.

hopefully he too sees something special in JoJo Reyes. :nod:

JoeyBats · Post #9 » by **JoeyBats** » Tue Aug 9, 2011 12:31 am

Wish him the best, he'll be a good GM in the NL central or west.

Randle McMurphy · Post #10 » by **Randle McMurphy** » Tue Aug 9, 2011 1:48 am

You could do a lot worse than JP Ricciardi as a major league GM.

Hoopstarr · Post #11 » by **Hoopstarr** » Tue Aug 9, 2011 3:40 pm

A JP who has learned from his mistakes would be a solid GM just about anywhere. He was a throwback to a time before baseball GMs became more of an academic role and while I'm glad that happened, I still liked his style. That doesn't play in this era of constant scrutiny so hopefully he has learned to filter himself.

Michael Bradley · Post #12 » by **Michael Bradley** » Tue Aug 9, 2011 4:13 pm

Schadenfreude wrote:
youngLion wrote:He very well could build a team good enough to win a non-AL East division.

Yeah, I could see him being a solid GM in a division like the NL Central. He didn't have the philosophy or appetite for risk to build a team capable of knocking down 95 wins a year in the AL East, but that isn't a major impediment elsewhere.

While that is certainly possible, why should a team settle for Ricciardi when the league is being dominated by young upstart GM's who take risks and think outside the box? We have eight years worth of data that show Ricciardi is not that type of mind. I'm seriously baffled, assuming this report is true, that teams have interest in the guy as anything other than an assistant GM (a role he's probably better suited for being out of the media spotlight).

When JP was still here, people were talking about how impossible it was to win in the AL East, how the expectations for a GM in this division were completely unrealistic, how a team required a top five farm system to be in a position to succeed, how a team needed to be top 5 in the league to win, etc, etc, etc, in order to justify the job Ricciardi did here.

Fast forward two years, and the team has 1) a team that can compete in the AL East as early as 2012, 2) a top 5 farm system, and 3) cheap potential stars (or current stars) in many positions. All it took to get that was simply taking an unnamed young guy from Montreal who was already in the team's front office and give him a bigger role.

I'd be looking at guys like LaCava before Ricciardi, if I were in charge of another team. Why go for known mediocrity when there is potential greatness hidden behind that mediocrity someplace else? I guess it is true for all sports though. GM's and managers, regardless of skill or rep, get recycled. I never agreed with that philosophy.

Hoopstarr · Post #13 » by **Hoopstarr** » Tue Aug 9, 2011 5:45 pm

Heh, "all it took" was our new GM turning out to be arguably the best GM in baseball, which if you remember, was what I said our next GM would have to be to even have a chance in our division. By some huge stroke of luck, it actually turned out that way. You make it sound like any young whipper-snapper would've done after JP. You continue to overestimate the quality of GMs in baseball as if the Friedmans are a dime a dozen.

LBJSeizedMyID · Post #14 » by **LBJSeizedMyID** » Tue Aug 9, 2011 5:58 pm

J.P. has proven to be a worthy GM. He's more suited to a small market team however with a tight budget - in his tenure here his success with marquee free agents weren't so hot.

There There · Post #15 » by **There There** » Tue Aug 9, 2011 6:00 pm

Not to mention that the teams Ricciardi built here would have competed most years in just about any division other than the AL East, once you eliminate the unbalanced schedule factor.

Which was the original point some were making, Ricciardi will do fine outside the AL East.

Michael Bradley · Post #16 » by **Michael Bradley** » Tue Aug 9, 2011 6:33 pm

Hoopstarr wrote:Heh, "all it took" was our new GM turning out to be arguably the best GM in baseball, which if you remember, was what I said our next GM would have to be to even have a chance in our division. By some huge stroke of luck, it actually turned out that way. You make it sound like any young whipper-snapper would've done after JP. You continue to overestimate the quality of GMs in baseball as if the Friedmans are a dime a dozen.

Yes, you were the main apologist I was referring to when I said "people were talking about how impossible it was to win in the AL East". No one else went to such lengths to defend Ricciardi and his run. I vividly remember you saying how impossible competing with Boston/New York was (despite Tampa already proving you wrong), how Ricciardi was doing as good a job as one could reasonably expect and how doing better than him would require some sort of perfect human being. It was absurd then, and just as absurd now. I never said finding an AA or Friedman or Epstein, etc, was easy. I just continually said that competing in the AL East in the current economic system was not impossible with a capable GM in place. Gee, how wrong I was, huh? It was not an impossible mission. If it was, then it was an impossible mission that took two years to make a reality. "Huge stroke of luck"? Heh. They promoted a guy already on their freakin' payroll! No GM experience. Barely in his 30's. There is a huge difference between luck and taking a calculated risk. Beeston did the latter when he hired AA. As much flack as I gave Beeston for 2009, he is one of the most respected front office men in baseball, and it looks like he knew exactly the type of GM he was hiring.

AA took over a team that BA ranked the 28th best farm system in baseball after the 2009 season. The team won 76 games and its star player was about to be traded. Two years later the team is practically just as good now as it was during Ricciardi's best years (with a manager who is coaching out of his ass) except it has a top 5 farm system, is loaded with young, controllable, high upside talent, and is considered by many to be a legit playoff threat as early as next season. Ricciardi left this team in a mess.

How you can sit here and praise AA for being great when you spent years praising a man who is the exact opposite in philosophy/style/results/etc is remarkable. JP sold low, bought high. AA sells high and buys low. JP's contracts were filled with NTC's, opt outs, vesting options, player options, etc, that usually never benefitted the club. AA's contracts actually benefit the club with team options. JP never went overslot in the draft (not his fault) and went strictly with low upside college players. AA always goes overslot in the draft and is diverse with his selections (he's been mainly HS but I doubt he puts much stock in it....he goes for talent first). They couldn't be more different.

If JP was very good, then AA is above God level. The more realistic (sane) way of putting it is JP was average at best, and AA is great. Seeing how a great GM operates still hasn't changed your opinion of JP. Unbelievable.

JN · Post #17 » by JN » Wed Aug 10, 2011 3:37 pm

youngLion wrote:He very well could build a team good enough to win a non-AL East division.

Wrong. During most of JP's reign with the Jays, the level of play in the AL East was no better then the rest of the American League. Yes there was New York and Boston -- but on the other end of the spectrum there was the equally bad Devil Rays and Orioles. Pre 2008 may have hindered the Jays ability to win a division, but it didn't really inhibit their ability to win 90 games in a season. Hence the Jays were not really good enough to win any divisions. JP was the master of the Boston and New York cop out, but it didn't really hurt the Jays record until 2008.

The Jays would not have been good enough to win in the other divisions (with maybe one exception when the Central was bad)

JN · Post #18 » by JN » Wed Aug 10, 2011 3:38 pm

Schadenfreude wrote:
youngLion wrote:He very well could build a team good enough to win a non-AL East division.

Yeah, I could see him being a solid GM in a division like the NL Central. He didn't have the philosophy or appetite for risk to build a team capable of knocking down 95 wins a year in the AL East, but that isn't a major impediment elsewhere.

He never built a 90 win team either, and until 2008 this was no harder in the AL East.