Ricciardi: "We're Done"

First, and with the spending of the Yanks and the talent of the Red Sox and Rays it's a good decision to quit and wait for a more opportune time to spend while rebuilding. No free agent within their budget will put them in a conversation close to the Yankees, Red Sox, and Rays. Ricciardi isn't stupid, he knows this.

I didn't really expect them to do anything because they wouldn't be able to move those big contracts IF they wanted to.

However, nice to have confirmation of 1 less team to worry about for our DH targets.

What do people expect?

The team Owner recently died, the world economy is going into the tank, the U.S. dollar is rising and the Yankees just signed Sabathia, Burnett and Texiera.

Since the Blue Jays finished near the bottom of the AL in Offense, in this economy and after what the Yankees have done, the heirs probably don't want to be spending money they don't have to.

Heck, they might even pull a Florida Marlins move and dump Vernon Wells and Alex Rios and get as much young talent as possible. That way, in two or three years, that young talent will have matured, the economy will have gotten better and all these huge contracts the Yankees have given out will be coming back to haunt them.

Did they even do anything?

Did they do anything? I thought I heard, no that was another team, but wait a minute didn't they say they were going after....no that was somebody else, well I guess they are done.

Ricciardi is always lying unless it's more convenient to your efforts to demonize him if he's telling the truth this one time.

And the Blue Jays big offseason signing is.... Matt Clement!!! Turns out thats the only move they'll be making and in actuality will be fighting to maintain 4th place in that division. They should completely rebuild. This means they must trade Roy Halladay, Vernon Wells, Lyle Overbay, BJ Ryan and any other guy who would be a waste of money. Trade these guys in hopes of acquiring young talent, rebuild the team, and go from there.

Matt Clement LOL !! The Blue Jays and Os will be battling for last again, and in 2010,2011,2012,2013,and long after that too the way things are right now..

"I need to be dumb for a second. How are Rios and Wells on defense?

I would like if the Rays took 1 of their contracts, especially Rios but we just need a DH.

And I mean....if you want young talent, what better team to ask than the Rays?
"

Wells and Rios are really good defensively.

Why would it matter? Crawford's got options for '09 and '10, Upton's under control for 4 more years, and Joyce is under control for 6. All of these guys pwn defensively and are approaching prime range.

Overbay to the Rays could make some sense, although it might be better for the Jays to wait till the trade deadline to trade him.

above comment was directed to Torgen.

If I'm in the AL East, I'm ripping my team apart and selling off every high-priced players for prospects.

to start, i dont believe JP at all. he rarely ever tells the truth.
IF he is actually done, then the Jays should fire him right away.
theres a difference in being done trying to spend big bucks on free agents and being done doing anything for the rest of the offseason. IMO the Jays were never really serious considerations for any of the high profile free agents, or even the middle of the pack profile free agents.. because they simply can not afford them.
howerver, this team right now would be considered one of the worst in all of baseball and to be done at everything and do nothing the rest of the winter just is not acceptable. as GM he should be doing his job every damn day trying to improve this team. if not for 2009 then atleast the future.
i expect more moves, especially for the pitching staff. the Jays NEED to atleast add a starting pitcher to go behind Halladay/Litsch.

correct me if im wrong. but would Halladay not have a full no trade clause because hes been in the league for 10 seasons and 5 with the same team? doesnt a player with those criteria get automatic no trade protection?

trvis snider's numbers next year 32 hr 105 rbi with a .291
rookie of the year
he is going to be a stud

I don't think Halladay has 5-and-10 protection. He's only accumulated 9 seasons of playing time to date as far as i can determine. I suspect the return for Halladay could be as good and probably better than that offered by the Braves for Peavy if the BJs decide to move him.

IMO a trade for Halladay could get a package better than any SP has ever gotten before. hes coming off a GREAT season of 20-11, 2.78 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, 206 K, 9 CG.
if the Jays had a better offense his W/L record would be alot better and more like 25+ wins.

aslong as my math is correct im counting Halladay at 11 seasons in the majors.
do you count every season in which he played with Toronto? his first season was 1998, but he only made 2 starts and 14 IP.
if you count that season then there was 11- 1998(1), 1999(2), 2000(3), 2001(4), 2002(5), 2003(6), 2004(7), 2005(8), 2006(9), 2007(10), 2008(11).

Moving Rios and Halladay would bring an unbelievable return. Wells would be a miracle just to move.

The Jays are not going to win the AL East. Not this year, and not next. Rebuild now while the team and economy is in a state of flux.

Tell me how this sounds, what would need to be changed, besides both GM's way of doing things.

Oh, I just wanna mentioned first that Riccardi insulted Dunn and he will never be a Blue Jay.

Ok, here we go

Rays trade

SP Wade Davis
SP Andy Sonnanstine
SS Reid Brignac
C John Jaso

Jays trade

SP Roy Halladay
DH Adam Lind

A package regarding Roy Halladay will probably consist of the biggest haul ever given up for a starting pitcher (every team would be interested in his services) and the Blue Jays could rebuild quite quickly (Acquiring top notch prospects) if they tend to trade him. BJ Ryan would probably net the second biggest haul for the Jays because every major league team can use bullpen help. Vernon Wells has a tremendous upside i would expect to see teams like the Cubs, Mets, Reds bidding for his services. Lyle Overbay would require the least amount of prospects to be given up by an opposing team therefore he does have baragin written all over him and lesser teams might take a flier on him. The Jays have some nice players like McGowan, Snider, and Purcey who they can build their team around in the future if they decide to have a fire sale...

I agree with you guys, Halladay is much better than Peavy. Doc's lifetime numbers are better than numbers, and Doc plays in the very tough AL East, while Peavy plays half his games at one of the best pitcher's parks in baseball in Petco, and he also plays in the uber-competitive NL West.

Maybe Ricciardi wants to still try and do things but the heirs do NOT want to keep subsidizing the team.

I thought I heard Mr. Rogers as a very wealthy man who liked baseball and didn't mind funding the Jays and having the team payroll at $100 million dollars. Now that he is gone, maybe the heirs are not as big on bseball and see better uses for that cash?

if Halladay only has 9 years of service time then right now is the perfect time to trade him because he has no say as to where he goes.

i doubt the Jays would trade Lind. his value isnt very high right now based on his MLB numbers, but his minor league numbers are really good and he should be a bright spot in the future for the Jays.
the Jays also dont need a C. they have Arencibia, who is one of the best young catching prospects.

IMO if were talking about Halladay to TB it has to start with Price. not only because Halladay is one of the best SP in baseball, but because they would be sending him to a team within the division. i doubt a trade with TB would be happening.
if it was the Dodgers it would also have to start with Kershaw. i was thinking something like Halladay/Overbay for Kershaw, Ivan DeJesus, and James Loney. IMO the Jays could even get more value than that.

i'm sorry but the mets don't have enough prospects to give the Jays for Halladay. Any deal would have to START with Reyes. stop throwing out Low ball prospects and pitchers who have ZERO track record for one of the top 3 pitchers in baseball. that's ridiculous.

The fact that you have to mention someone's position as a prospect means that he's not nearly good enough to warrant Halladay.

Roy Halladay will NOT be traded to any AL East team.

the Jays SHOULD trade Halladay, and right now while his value is higher than it ever will be in the future.
does anyone really expect him to resign after 2010? doubtful. hes probually going to want $20+ MIL a season for atleast 5 years. can the Jays afford that? maybe, but is it wise for a pitcher who will be in his mid to late 30's???
the Jays made a mistake signing Wells to a contract with $20+ MIL a season, id hate to see them make the same mistake with Halladay.
is Halladay great and deserving of such a contract, maybe so, but not for a team like the Toronto Blue Jays. by 2011+ theyre going to have Marcum, McGowan, Cecil, Litsch, plus others.
if you can get another young stud pitcher (like Kershaw) plus additional prospects its going to make the Jays much better for 2011 and beyond.

Roy Halladay is one of the few players that actually deserves the term Franchise Player. Not the watered down NFL type of franchise player. In Halladay's case, it's more like: Mr. Franchise Player.

No matter what trade offered for him, the Jays will ultimately lose. You don't let a player like him leave... Ever!

Brad Arnsberg gets so much credit for the success of the Jays pitching staff, but Roy Halladay deserves a decent sized share of that credit too.

The Jays trotting out young pitchers is nothing new. Every year they try a few till they stick, and the ones that stick around long enough, tend to learn a lot about work ethic and how to pitch from watching Halladay.

Look at the pitchers that have come to Toronto in recent years. They nearly all consistently improve despite pitching in the AL East. And the kids that come up are rarely hyped, but often succeed.

Burnett definitely benefitted from Halladay's presence. Jesse Litsch is a beast, who saw that one coming? Marcum, same deal. Ted Lilly and Dave Bush have since moved on and remain workhorses. McGowan is too brittle to count. Also, the bullpen is nails. Knowing you'll get a nice break every 5th day must help.

I've already gone on too long, but basically, Roy Halladay makes everyone around him better and will probably be a killer pitching coach someday. 10 year/$175M extension to guarantee a Jays hat in the HOF is what he deserves.

"I thought I heard Mr. Rogers as a very wealthy man who liked baseball and didn't mind funding the Jays and having the team payroll at $100 million dollars. Now that he is gone, maybe the heirs are not as big on bseball and see better uses for that cash?"

Posted by: ctownboy

You heard wrong.

Rogers was a savvy businessman who loved the NFL and was happy to get a stadium for $50 million. He liked the synergy of the Jays for his cable/cellphone business and stayed very hands off of the day to day.

His dad's death left the family business in a mess (they lost control of their founding radio station CFRB), so he spent a lot of time thinking about his business' succession over the past few years.

Look up his obits, there's a lot of stuff about him out there.

B-League has a 98mph splitter; pretty sure I'm going to say he's the closer of the future and not J'accardo who missed 90% of last year.