We are often pretty critical of Richard Griffin, but this morning, if you can keep your head when all about you are losing their's, you are Richard Griffin. He says much what we've been saying for months now.
JP....told the CBS website he is looking to improve the Jays and would, of course, be obligated to listen to any offer that would make the Jays better.
Strange thing for a GM to say, isn't it. Would you want your GM to say we don't want to make this team better?
I love how he puts it here:
Does that mean he is looking to trade Halladay? No. Would he listen to offers? Yes.
You don't hang up on your peers.
It's no big deal.
Makes sense to me. If I'm a GM, I want to keep good personal relations with the other GMs, so I listen to what they want to tell me. It is part of the job.
The truth is that the fate of Halladay as a Blue Jay is not in Ricciardi's hands.
Right again, someone of Doc's stature, with a team, couldn't be traded just by the GM, team ownership would have to be involved.
Halladay's contract expires at the end of 2010, with $15.75 million (all figures U.S.) remaining.
Ricciardi's contract expires at the end of 2010, with about $2 million remaining.
Both sides long ago agreed that any negotiations for a Halladay extension would not begin until the end of the current season.
Right again.
Ok, he gets to say something I disagree with:
Besides, the GM's track record at trading established players for prospects stinks. Really it does. Here are the facts, on the 17 deals by Ricciardi when he has had to trade an established position player or pitcher in large part because of salary considerations:
In those 17 deals, he has sent out 20 players and received 20 players in return. Eight of the 20 men he sent away from the Jays are still in the majors – Cesar Izturis, Felipe Lopez, Orlando Hudson, Miguel Batista, Scott Schoenweis, Eric Hinske, Troy Glaus and David Eckstein. Here's the clinching stat. Over eight years, just three of the 20 players he received in return are still in the organization – Scott Rolen, Jeremy Accardo and Brian Wolfe. Given that, why would Rogers allow an in-season trade with Halladay?
Yeah 8 of those 20 guys are still in the majors but how many of those 8 are players that you would want on your team? We all wanted to be rid of Eckstien, Batista, Schoenweis and Hinske. I don't think there is anyone here that would want to undo the Rolen/Glaus trade. How many of you would rather have Izturis over Marco Scutaro? I guess the one guy I'd like to have is Hudson but we got Glaus for him and for Glaus we got Rolen, I'd rather have Rolen than Hudson, at the moment. And Lopez was just off a season where he hit .227 when we traded him, no one was crying when he left.
Anyway, good job Griffin, nice to have you as the voice of reason.