Let's take a look at the Burnett signing first. The signing gives the Jays their fourth pitcher who had a park-adjusted run average (PK_RA) below the league average in 2005. Among those four (Halladay, Chacin, Towers being the other three), Burnett's PK_RA was the highest at 4.44. It appears that he'll take the place of David Bush following the acquisition of Lyle Overbay.
Halladay, Chacin, Towers, Burnett, Lilly will be one of the better starting rotations in baseball this season. That's inarguable. Whether or not the Jays overpaid for their new #4 starter is up for debate, though. I tend to think they paid more for Burnett than he's worth to them on the field, but that's if you look at this deal purely by the numbers. It's not unreasonable to assume that had the Jays not overpaid for Burnett that the team would have moved Lilly up a slot in the rotation and then been forced to look to the farm for a #5. The Jays have picked the same year that the market for pitching is insane to make a splash in free agency and so that, too, has to be considered when you analyze the money side of things.
Overall, I like the signing and think that our Jays are better off with a proven guy like Burnett than an unknown quantity taking over Lilly's role and giving Ted more innings as a #4.
Turning to Ryan's deal, I have a hard time getting past the decision to give a five year deal to a reliever. To avoid getting overly negative, we'll focus purely on what Ryan provides on the field rather than what he costs off of it.
In Ryan, we get a guy who had a season rather similar to that of Justin Speier in '05, but who has been consistently that good for a few years now. B.J. Ryan might not have been a closer very long, but he has been a legit relief ace for a while. This is another very good acquisition when looked at purely on performance rather than value relative to cost, which is a little (read: a lot) more difficult to determine.
With these two moves, Ricciardi has solidified the starting rotation and the back end of the bullpen and that should make all Jay fans happy.