The Ground Beneath His Feet ; More On Bavasi; My Thoughts On The DH; Schilling's HOF Prospects

• The last vestige of J.P. Ricciardi?

Some were dubious of the timing of John Gibbons's firing by Blue Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi considering it came directly after still another personal back and forth between Ricciardi and a

player. It's a bit suspicious, but Ricciardi, as I said in an earlier blog, is like a baseball cockroach in that he has survived everything that's come his way throughout his tenure as Jays GM. Given the way the Blue Jays are playing, the firing may be the last vestige of a desperate man.
Cito Gaston has deserved another chance to manage since he was fired by the Blue Jays in 1997, but barring a sudden turnaround, this isn't going to end in a romantic, dramatic way; it looks more like a way

for Ricciardi to take one last desperate shot to save himself by ingratiating himself (however briefly) with fans who fondly remember Gaston's successful tenure, complete with two championships.
Ricciardi's other moves this year just haven't worked. Scott Rolen has been called a "gamer" and a "hard-nosed leader" among other things, but that doesn't change the fact that in over 200 plate appearances, he has three homers. Alex Rios had a career year last year and has done essentially nothing this year; Vernon Wells is starting to look like he

may go down as having the worst contract this side of Barry Zito; and Ricciardi's impulsive and anger-induced release of Frank Thomas left the team without any power at all. With their starting pitching and deep bullpen, they should be better than 35-40.
Amid all the controversy he's attracted and the continued, unnecessary and high-profile disagreements he's had with players, writers and whomever else dared cross him, Ricciardi's time may be coming to a merciful close. He's been on the job since late 2001 with very little to show for it other than a lot of bluster and a lot of newspaper coverage with much of it being negative for off-field issues. Unless Gaston can provide a miracle and get the Blue Jays to leap into contention within the next month, I would expect Ricciardi to be fired before the trading deadline. Desperation leads to ill-thought-out maneuvers and the Blue Jays don't need to let their loose cannon GM try to save himself with deals that are going to set the franchise even further back than it already is. Ricciardi has been paranoid, combative and self-pitying over the years and if the Blue Jays ever want to return to legitimate contention, they have to pull the plug on J.P. Ricciardi once and for all.

• A note on Bill Bavasi:

While providing a lukewarm defense of Bill Bavasi the other day, I completely forgot about one of his most egregious deals in which he sent Rafael Soriano to the Braves for Horacio Ramirez. While many ripped the deal in which he acquired Jose Vidro as the prime example

of Bavasi's ineptitude, at least he didn't give up anything to get Vidro. Trading a hard-throwing reliever with closer potential for a bad, injury-prone left-handed starter is justification for a firing in and of itself. Soriano hasn't been great for the Braves----he's been injured and prone to giving up homers----but if Bavasi was going to trade him, he absolutely could have gotten better personnel than Ramirez. It was just a stupid thing to do.

• The DH----to have or have not?

To the best of my recollection, I've never given my opinion about the DH other than when I suggested a dismantling of the American and National Leagues in favor of having teams like the Mets, Yankees, Red Sox; and Dodgers, Angels, Giants; etc. in the same divisions separated by time zones. While I disdain new "innovations" like pitch counts and overuse of

specialists, I think that the DH should be uniform in major league baseball. I've heard people say that the DH actually increases the manager's strategic responsibility because he can't lean on the crutch of removing the pitcher because his turn at bat came around; he has to decide whether or not to leave the pitcher in based on his merits on the mound.
While I understand the thought that pitchers hitting increases the "inside baseball" techniques of bunting, taking the extra base and deciding whether or not to remove the pitcher; and that the prevalence of pitchers throwing at hitters is increased because they don't have to bat themselves, I think these are negligible aspects of the game. Pitchers who are

continually throwing at opposing hitters and getting their own hitters drilled in retaliation aren't going to be very popular in their own clubhouse and that may be as much of a deterrent as the prospect of getting hit themselves. I'd much rather see a veteran hitter the ilk of Edgar Martinez or Paul Molitor get a chance to use his remaining skills at the plate than see John Maine strike out or watch Chien-Ming Wang run the bases and get hurt. The only time it's even remotely interesting when a pitcher bats is when he hits a home run or the opposing pitcher is throwing at him; other than that, who wants to see it? It's time to have the National League use the DH and, as Hank Steinbrenner says, join the 21st century.

• Curt Schilling----Hall of Famer or not?

There's great debate on whether or not Curt Schilling is a Hall of Famer. At first glance and in comparison to similar pitchers, it looks like a no. This has nothing to do with his

personality and big, flapping mouth because the nice things (charity and such) he's done throughout his career equal or outweigh the ridiculous things (ill-informed Republican rants;

smashing QuesTec) he's said and done.
A great comparison that Orestes Destrade came up with regarding Schilling is Orel Hershiser. Their numbers in the regular season and post-season are amazingly close and Hershiser was well-liked during his career saying few things controversial other than an occasional cringe-inducing reference to Jesus. At the top of their respective games, I think Hershiser was a slightly better pitcher. Schilling's also been mentioned with Don Drysdale in comparison, but Drysdale's career ended at age 32 because of injuries; he would have won at least 60-80

more games if he'd been healthy and would've been a no-brainer as a HOFer; Drysdale was probably a better pitcher than Curt Schilling as well.
I reserve the right to be convinced otherwise, but given Schilling's polarizing personality and the dicey nature of his candidacy, I don't think he's going to get in. He's undoubtedly going to blame his reputation and conflicts with writers for keeping him out, but even without that, the fact is that based on his numbers, he just doesn't cut it as a HOFer.

Tony Bernazard---The Epitome Of Evil Among Baseball Executives

• Tony Bernazard, Tony Bernazard, Tony Bernazard and, lest we forget, Tony Bernazard:

I hadn't realized that Tony Bernazard was such a powerful and evil force among the Mets hierarchy that he's the behind the scenes puppetmaster who's orchestrated every move the

Mets have made over the past four years and that he and he alone is the mastermind behind Willie Randolph's demise.
I have no way of knowing what's true and what isn't in regards to Bernazard, but it does seem that he's becoming the fall guy for whatever went wrong between Randolph and the Mets; that being said, for all those that have been relentlessly ripping the Mets for the way

they fired Randolph, it's in the same ballpark when these anonymous quotes are popping up from people whispering in the ears of dubious messengers saying that Bernazard is a "bad" guy. When there are guys like Chris "The Biggest Idiot In The World" Russo going off on tangents saying that the Mets should "get Bernazard outta here" without knowing exactly what Bernazard did or didn't do, it's more of a search for a fall guy in the Randolph firing other than Randolph himself.
You can say whatever you want about Mets GM Omar Minaya and owners Fred and Jeff Wilpon, but one thing you cannot say is that they're stupid. Minaya may be taking advice from Bernazard, but if Bernazard had so much power in the organization and hated Randolph that much, then Randolph might have been gone after the 2006 NLCS. Now we hear that because of Bernazard's former top tier position with the players union, the Mets would never

bring in a player who'd crossed the picket line thirteen years ago, which leaves Kevin Millar (pretty much exactly the type of player the Mets could use) as a non-option. I would hope that Minaya isn't so easily manipulated that he's going to let such a forgotten thing as that to prevent him from bringing in a player the Mets need. It was so long ago and just about every team has forgiven and forgotten the players who crossed the line that it's absurd to think that a guy like Millar would be excluded out of hand based on the say-so of the assistant GM.
It's easy to play the game of telephone and repeat rumors about Bernazard's supposed

power in the organization, but Minaya isn't going to let his assistant tell him what to do when it's his job and reputation on the line. The easiest thing in the world for a reporter to do is to say, "I heard " from an anonymous source and not be required to back it up with facts because they have their own agendas like a latter day Deep Throat without benefit of verifiable truths.
This reminds me of when the New York Giants had hired a new veteran defensive coach named Rod Rust and Rust used a system called "read and react" which some reporters decided they didn't like. All of a sudden there were numerous phone calls to sports talk radio ripping the "read and react" system which the vast majority of them couldn't distinguish from any other system that defensive coaches use; but Rust became the villain in the Giants fall and was eventually replaced.
Rumors are rumors and word of mouth is word of mouth, but there doesn't seem to be any concrete facts with Bernazard either having the power to do what he's said to have done or that he and he alone is responsible for Willie Randolph's failures. Randolph was notoriously thin-skinned as a player, coach and manager and it may be that he was overly sensitive to a perceived interloper in his clubhouse and if that's the case, he should have taken a stronger stand against Bernazard hanging around and making him feel uncomfortable. Even if Bernazard did everything he's alleged to have done, it's partly Randolph's fault for not taking care of it so it wouldn't be an issue.

• J.P. Ricciardi----the gift that keeps on giving:

J.P Ricciardi apologized for his radio show roasting of Reds outfielder Adam Dunn----ESPN Story----but this appears to be a longstanding modus operandi of Ricciardi. He rips a player reacting in uncontrolled and unfiltered anger, contritely apologizes and goes back to business until he does it again. Buster Olney said on Baseball Tonight that Ricciardi

called Reds GM Walt Jocketty, apologized, and was trying to get in touch with Dunn to do the same.
Whether Dunn accepts that apology is up to him, but another interesting thing that Olney brought up is that there's a similar feeling around the Blue Jays as there was around the Mets in Willie Randolph's last days and that Blue Jays manager John Gibbons is close to being fired. Just so I understand, Ricciardi, whose term as Blue Jays GM has been mediocre at best, is going to be allowed to fire his third manager during his tenure? I have to openly wonder: How is Ricciardi still there? Does he have an unlimited amount of time to continually bring in another manager; then another manager; then another manager? Eduardo Perez (who is very good on the show by

the way) said that he thinks Cito Gaston will replace Gibbons if he's fired. Gaston has been unfairly deprived of another chance to manage after winning two World Series with the Blue Jays, but unless he's a miracle worker and gets the team to the playoffs, how likely is it that he's going to keep the job after the season if Ricciardi is finally let go?
The Blue Jays problems are not the fault of the manager. Gibbons is a fiery, solid X and O guy who should receive another chance to manage in a more stable situation. Does Ricciardi deserve another chance to change managers and deflect blame from himself? He's had almost seven years on the job and the team has never had more than 87 wins or been closer than nine games from a playoff spot at season's end. He's bluntly honest in his unguarded moments and extremely impressed with himself; perhaps Ricciardi would be better served to choose between his twin vocations of radio talk show host and GM and pick the one he's better at. It doesn't take a genius to figure out which of the two that is.