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That's right, just heard it on their radio morning show. Apparently he's going to be on sometime during the 6 o'clock hour. The teaser was that he's going to explain why it's so tough to lure players to Toronto. This aught to be some good hate fodder for a lot of you guys if nothing else. I'll try to cap.

Edit: Turns out this was just a rehash of an interview he did on the Fan yesterday, despite the fact that they teased it like a live interview. Riccardi lauds the organization and the city, but says that it's difficult to lure players north of the border, partially because their wives often don't want to deal with moving countries, customs and the like. He suggests that the league should do more to help the Blue Jays in this respect.

Basically the host on the CBC suggested that Riccardi was blaming the players' wives for the team's struggles under his reign and they trashed him for this. For the record this really isn't what he was saying, but hey if you guys want to use this as ammo to flame him have at it I guess.

**** JP.

More unjustified hating on JP, eh? I'm not surprised.

Randle McMurphy wrote:More unjustified hating on JP, eh? I'm not surprised.

You sure do love JP, don't you?

No, he doesn't. He just realizes that JP was far from the only only obstacle preventing us from making the playoffs these past 3 years, and that any old new GM is not going to be our saviour. Barring realignment or a more balanced schedule, AA is going to have to be spectacular in his job to get us into contention as a franchise.

Modern_epic wrote:No, he doesn't. He just realizes that JP was far from the only only obstacle preventing us from making the playoffs these past 3 years, and that any old new GM is not going to be our saviour. Barring realignment or a more balanced schedule, AA is going to have to be spectacular in his job to get us into contention as a franchise.

I completely agree, but to say the hate against JP is "unjustified" is not true. JP made some pretty boneheaded mistakes. While he isn't the only obstacle, he was a major one.

And that would have been fine as well, but instead of keeping his mouth shut he goes off and cries to everyone how Rogers didn't give him money and how it's hard to get players to come here. That's why he should be hated.

raps4life~ wrote:

Randle McMurphy wrote:More unjustified hating on JP, eh? I'm not surprised.

You sure do love JP, don't you?

I'm just an objective observer.

raps4life~ wrote:And that would have been fine as well, but instead of keeping his mouth shut he goes off and cries to everyone how Rogers didn't give him money and how it's hard to get players to come here. That's why he should be hated.

Yes...damn that JP for telling us the real truth this time! I don't want to hear his legitimate excuses.

Randle McMurphy wrote:

raps4life~ wrote:

Randle McMurphy wrote:More unjustified hating on JP, eh? I'm not surprised.

You sure do love JP, don't you?

I'm just an objective observer.

Yes and no. I think we do criticize him more than he deserves at times but I think that you're so-called objectivity is still missing on really how bad he was. He's the primary reason the team is in the awful position it is right now. Terrible team wiht a depleted farm system and yet they still have a fairly high payroll. And the worst contract in baseball still has 5-6 years left to run.

I don't mind praising Ricciardi in the instances where he deserves it. But some of the stuff I have read on this board recently (i.e. "he never lost a trade", "he built great teams that were unlucky", "he did as good a job as Epstein", etc), is way over the top, IMO. There is no way to put rose colored glasses and look back fondly at an era where we weren't even in a playoff race after July despite having the best pitcher in baseball for eight seasons.

JP might be an easier target because he seems like a grade A douche as a person, but most of the hate for his work from 2002 to 2009 is not unjustified. He was incredibly average at best.

JP is now saying what we all knew before....Jays have next to no chance in the current system. JP got a lot of money fooling fans year after year into thinking there might be hope.

JP really should just man up and say, look, I tried my best but, at the end, my best wasn't good enough. But no, he has to keep talking out of his ass. I realize this is an old interview but he's going through all these excuses.

Just man up and admit that you weren't good enough and you'll learn from your mistakes next time. Don't blame Canada, the border, player's wives, Rogers the company, the former owner. What's next? I guess he hasn't blamed the craptastic structure that is the Rogers Center, the Canadian dollar, Paul Beeston, Cito Gaston, Vernon's hammies, Canadian accents, Canadian bacon, hockey, Maple Leafs and Roy Halladay yet. I guess he's saving that up for during the season. God, I hate ESPN. Why did they have to hire him?

Haters, the lot of you. JP may not have been above-average, but he was nowhere near as bad as many of you make him out to be or even close to fully responsible for the lack of playoffs in the last 8 years. These arguments have been rehashed before, though (such as JP's success/speed at bringing players up to the majors leading to that weak rated minor league system, among others), so it would be useless and a waste of time to do it again.

JP's gone, and his apprentice is in his place now (which leads me to a question actually.....if everybody hates JP so much, why have so many people embraced the guy that learned under JP for 7 years?).

In any event, I'm actually excited to see JP on ESPN. The guy has a lot of knowledge about the game, he was always entertaining in Toronto (particularly during his weekly radio call-in shows), and I doubt he will BS anybody. It sounds like exactly the job he'd be good at.

Randle McMurphy wrote:
JP's gone, and his apprentice is in his place now (which leads me to a question actually.....if everybody hates JP so much, why have so many people embraced the guy that learned under JP for 7 years?).

In any event, I'm actually excited to see JP on ESPN. The guy has a lot of knowledge about the game, he was always entertaining in Toronto (particularly during his weekly radio call-in shows), and I doubt he will BS anybody. It sounds like exactly the job he'd be good at.

1. The new GM isn't a cocky sunavabitch.

2. JP's knowledge on ESPN will be "I'm picking the Red Sox or the Yankees to win it all."

Ugh, not this again, and again, and again.

J-Roc wrote:1. The new GM isn't a cocky sunavabitch.

Neither was JP before he became jaded around 2005. Maybe you don't remember that far back.

2. JP's knowledge on ESPN will be "I'm picking the Red Sox or the Yankees to win it all."

Sounds like a smart pick considering those two teams have been the best in baseball for the last decade.

Randle McMurphy wrote:

J-Roc wrote:1. The new GM isn't a cocky sunavabitch.

Neither was JP before he became jaded around 2005. Maybe you don't remember that far back.

[quote]

This is true. JP was saying all the right things and pretty well liked in Jay-land his first 2-3 years here. But it's interesting how he became more outspoken and started sticking his foot in his mouth more often when the pressure of failed expectations started to mount. Fans only have a limited amount of patience and people started to realize that JP was more talk than substance after those first 2-3 years.

If JP is the outspoken, Adam Dunn bashing guy that we started to hear the past 2 seasons I think that he'll be a very entertaining addition to ESPN IMO.

The_Hater wrote:But it's interesting how he became more outspoken and started sticking his foot in his mouth more often when the pressure of failed expectations started to mount.

Or when he actually realized the difficulty of the task he was up against. When he took the job in 2001, New York and Boston (especially Boston) weren't quite the same dominant, high payroll forces they are today.

If JP is the outspoken, Adam Dunn bashing guy that we started to hear the past 2 seasons I think that he'll be a very entertaining addition to ESPN IMO.

Yeah...I wonder what else he'll let slip about any players.