Zito v. Burnett: FIGHT

JP Riccardi is a horrible GM. He has no people skills and his moves as GM have been questionable at best.

"In addition, being burdened with Burnett's contract held us back from upping our offers this offseason to such proven-quality pitchers as Gil Meche," he added. :P

Interview can be found here (for now), under "JP Ricciardi....(Aired: 2007-07-05)" Comments are towards the very end.

http://www.fan590.com/features/hotaudio.jsp

He is so wishy-washy with his free agents. If he is trying to motivate Burnett....I have a feeling he will react negatively and want to leave as he did with Florida, rather than being more motivated. If he's not injured by the opt-out, there might be another soured Burnett-organization relationship...its the best bet to happen.

I don't know how injured Burnett really is but this team needs him badly if they want to compete next year, so I don't see why he would try to alienate him now.

What a doofus.

Burnett was an injury-prone pitcher with a career 110 ERA+ when they signed him.

With the Blue Jays, he's been an injury-prone pitcher with a 112 ERA+.

If he pisses Burnett off, perhaps Burnett would be more liable to use his opt-out - which could be the hoped-for result. Who knows.

Something like...

"We have all seen what AJ can do when healthy and our due diligence at the time of the signing suggested he looked like he would be able to hold up. I won't say that I regret signing AJ but with out budget, we need those to whom we shell out a lot of money to be on the field producing."

...would have done just fine.

What an unprofessional twit.

Someone brought up a good point. Same thing happened last year before the allstar break when he called out the middle of the order hitters cause they were "killing us."

I hope Rogers finally sees past whatever they like about JP and fire him sooner rather than later.

Also part of this is that Burnett may have "Kazmir-itis." He has to not focus so much on racking up the K's...the organization would be smart if they could get him to use a different approach and throw less hard to try and ease him into pitching through the pain, instead of just calling him out.

Would it be fair to say AJ has a $54.9 million arm and a $.10 head?

Question is: How much is JP's brain worth?

Moving a pitcher from the NL to the AL is going to make him look like he is a worse pitcher than you thought, as the pool of pitchers in the AL is much better. I don't know whether AJ was "injury-prone" or not, but he is a very good pitcher and JP is quite an ass. I disliked him years ago and my dislike continues to grow.

The performance of Burnett hasn't really been the problem. His ERA+ as a Blue Jay is at least as good as his career ERA+. His k/9 has actually risen in the AL.

JP Ricciardi is like a fantasy baseball GM. What a moron.

The performance of Burnett hasn't really been the problem. His ERA+ as a Blue Jay is at least as good as his career ERA+. His k/9 has actually risen in the AL.

Quite. Burnett's big problem is, for a variety of reasons, he can't stay off the DL. The primary risk with his contract was not that he would cease to be effective, but that he wouldn't be fit enough to fulfil it.

Instead of just whining, Ricciardi needs to start taking responsibility for his mistakes.

For what it's worth, Burnett led the majors in pitcher abuse points at the time of his injury. Pretty hard to argue against cause and effect in this particular case.

If I were the Jays' GM, I might mention to my manager that we've got some money tied up in Burnett's future, so he should probably stay away from streaks like this:

May 11: 118 pitches
May 16: 103
May 22: 103
May 27: 125
June 1: 117
June 7: 130

Is this how you handle a fragile pitcher?

Good thing he dodged a bullet with Gil Meche, or they'd really be hurting.

GMs should never complain publicly about injuries except in cases of actual malingering. And a GM should never, ever complain about negotiations with another team's free agent. The GM's job is to deal with these issues, not complain about them.

Great point Darren, as I had mentioned it in the thread about the Jays the other day. Burnett was fantastic for about two months prior to getting hurt (struck out 70 in 52 innings with a 3.10 ERA) and there was no reason whatsoever for the Jays to keep trying to stretch him out to 120 pitches.

Good thing he dodged a bullet with Gil Meche, or they'd really be hurting.

Well, to paraphrase a certain Dan S, Gil Meche was an injury-prone pitcher with a sub-100 ERA+ ...

Count not thy chickens after just 116 IP.

I'm hopeful that JP's comments reflect a certain heat from Mr Rogers. In any case, he's worn out his welcome with me and is beginning to look more like Kevin Malone than Billy Beane.

Fire Ricciardi, hire Dan Evans.

Oh yeah, this might be a good time to remind J.P. fans that he should have just signed Escobar for $6 million a year four years ago.

According to last week's Sports Illustrated, Escobar credits Tim Salmon's yoga routines for his success in Anaheim.

I don't see how raising an X-Wing from a swamp helps you pitch,

Best Regards

John

are you kidding me? imagine the movement you could put on your pitches with jedi powers. Opposing managers would be checking the ball after every pitch, but booyah! It's clean, #####. La Russa's head would explode!

Burnett was an injury-prone pitcher with a career 110 ERA+ when they signed him

Exactly. Burnett had been a #1 starter once in his life, with the '02 Marlins, which is kind of like being the tallest Munchkin. Otherwise, for one reason or another, he's been just another guy in several rotations, with unrealized potential for better. It is hardly amazing to find that he's now a "fourth starter."

I actually thought the whole thing was pretty inocuous, I'm surprised it's become this big a deal.

Except that, quality-wise, he's still not a "fourth starter." From memory, a guy with a 106 ERA+ is better than the average #3 starter and is roughly as good as the average #2. Granted, that's not what the Jays were hoping to acquire, but it's still better than most pitchers out there quality-wise.

*checks bb-ref*

Here are the top five starters (by games started, with innings pitched breaking any tie-breakers) for each AL team ranked within each team by their respective ERA+s.

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BOS:
Beckett 130
Matsuzaka 127
Schilling 106
Wakefield 102
Tavarez 102

NYY:
Wang 119
Pettitte 113
Mussina 92
Clippard 67
Igawa 60

TOR:
Marcum 159
Halladay 107
Burnett 106
McGowan 98
Ohka 79

BAL:
Guthrie 167
Bedard 119
Burres 103
Trachsel 88
Cabrera 83

TB:
Shields 120
Kazmir 106
Fossum 63
Jackson 62
Seo 55

CLE:
Sabathia 121
Carmona 115
Byrd 92
Lee 89
Sowers 63

DET:
Verlander 140
Bonderman 122
Durbin 103
Robertson 90
Maroth 87

MIN:
Santana 158
Silva 99
Bonser 91
Baker 87
Ortiz 82

CHW:
Garland 143
Buehrle 138
Vazquez 122
Danks 98
Contreras 87

KC:
Meche 144
Bannister 126
de la Rosa 89
Perez 84
Elarton 51

ANA:
Lackey 140
Escobar 133
Weaver 116
Santana 79
Colon 73

SEA:
Washburn 113
Hernandez 102
Batista 92
Baek 73
Weaver 62

OAK:
Haren 195
Gaudin 149
DiNardo 141
Blanton 139
Kennedy 100

TEX:
Loe 80
McCarthy 74
Millwood 70
Tejeda 68
Padilla 68

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Or, if you prefer, here is the same list, with the #1s grouped together, the #2s grouped together, and so on.

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#1s:
Haren 195
Guthrie 167
Marcum 159
Santana 158
Meche 144
Garland 143
Verlander 140
Lackey 140
Beckett 130
Sabathia 121
Shields 120
Wang 119
Washburn 113
Loe 80

#2s:
Gaudin 149
Buehrle 138
Escobar 133
Matsuzaka 127
Bannister 126
Bonderman 122
Bedard 119
Carmona 115
Pettitte 113
Halladay 107
Kazmir 106
Hernandez 102
Silva 99
McCarthy 74

#3s:
DiNardo 141
Vazquez 122
Weaver 116
Schilling 106
Burnett 106
Burres 103
Durbin 103
Mussina 92
Byrd 92
Batista 92
Bonser 91
de la Rosa 89
Millwood 70
Fossum 63

#4s:
Blanton 139
Wakefield 102
McGowan 98
Danks 98
Robertson 90
Lee 89
Trachsel 88
Baker 87
Perez 84
Santana 79
Baek 73
Tejeda 68
Clippard 67
Jackson 62

#5s:
Tavarez 102
Kennedy 100
Maroth 87
Contreras 87
Cabrera 83
Ortiz 82
Ohka 79
Colon 73
Padilla 68
Sowers 63
Weaver 62
Igawa 60
Seo 55
Elarton 51

-----

Or, if you want to jump to the chase...

2007
median #1: 140
median #2: 117
median #3: 97.5
median #4: 87.5
median #5: 76

Those numbers for the #1s and #2s looked a lot higher than I recall their being for 2006, so I went back to my notes for 2006. Skipping the part where I list everyone in order, here's what I get for the medians...

2006:
median #1: 122.5
median #2: 106
median #3: 100.5
median #4: 92.5
median #5: 78.5

I think J.P. is like Peter in "Office Space", trying to get fired.

Judging from his comments after not signing Meche, and after aggressively going after Burnett, and his handling of the media throughout it all, I've come to the well considered position that J.P. Ricciardi is the Inspector Clouseau of general managers.

No, I mean really. I think it's just Peter Sellers under there, with a lot of makeup.

Robert - your only looking at the rate of production. What happens if you blend his rate of production with the blend of production from a typical replacement level pitcher? Weighted by IP. I'd bet you're pretty close to a 3.5 or a 4, which I believe the point.

Burnett still has a lot of upside though. He has great K rates and GB rates...though his homers and walks aren't great this year. His OPS+ of 106 includes the starts before and after his prevoius DL stint where he was hit mildly hard. So he was actually pitching much better before he was overworked and developed arm soreness. So you could argue he's around a 4.00 ERA pitcher (in the AL East) which is exactly what he had before he was overworked and became sore. That's better than a 3rd starter but not quite as good as a 2nd.

AP: Blue Jays' A.J. Burnett understands GM's frustration

Before the Blue Jays game against Cleveland Friday, Burnett said he understood Ricciardi's frustration, and felt no ill will.

"If I was put in his shoes, I'm sure I'd be a little upset too," Burnett said. "There's been a lot of people who have had my back through this and the person that's had it most, besides my family, is J.P.

"He has the right to be upset. He brought me here, he's got a lot of expectations and me getting hurt, I'm sure it doesn't help out."
...
Asked about his comments before Friday's game, Ricciardi said he did not doubt the severity of Burnett's injury.

"We're not second guessing anybody," he said. "What we're saying is, sometimes you don't play the whole year 100 per cent."

"Sometimes when guys get hurt a lot, their natural reaction is 'OK, I don't feel right, I'm going to shut down.' There's a difference between being hurt and feeling some discomfort. Some guys have to learn to do that, some guys never do it."
...
"We're very happy he's here," he said. "We like him very much. When he pitches, he's great. We've just got to find a way to keep him out there more consistently. The frustrating thing is we didn't sign him to pitch 20 games. We're hoping we can get 32 starts out of him because he does have the stuff to be a front line pitcher."