J.P. is getting too much credit
This comment came from eyebleaf. I’m not trying to call him out, he’s got a great site over at sportsandthecity.com that you should bookmark/rss. This comment was in response to yesterday’s Romero demotion article (more like rant).
We’re in first place. Don’t shit on J.P., give the man some props.
My response to this:
I think many give JP too much respect. He’s had since 2002. The only AL teams not to make the playoffs in that time have been the Royals, Orioles, Mariners and Jays. Over in the NL the only teams not to make the playoffs have been the Expos/Nationals, Reds and Pirates. Seven teams haven’t got the job done while twenty-three have. Due to his handle on the media, JP is the only GM left standing from 2002-present on the non playoff teams. Also, of the teams on the list the Jays have probably had the highest payroll over that span (as the O’s & M’s cut back at various times). I’m not ready to enshrine JP in cooperstown just yet.
It’s taken some time for things to get rolling but I will give credit where it is due. The Jays should have a strong core going forward positionally (Hill, Rios, Lind, Snider, Cooper, Arencibia) and Romero & Cecil are looking like legitimate front-half rotation pitchers. The cynic in me wished for the current success to have arrived sooner, with the $100 million payrolls and all. But that’s nit-picking and revisionist history, monday morning quarterbacking, leaving BJ Ryan in the bullpen, etc.
Right now the Jays have to be considered a favorite for a playoff spot. And that’s really all that matters. This will be my last J.P. revisionist rant of the season. I have to face reality and admit to myself that its bullshit and makes me sound like a whinny bitch. Let’s enjoy the ride to perhaps our first post-season appearance since 1993.
Next Time: Project Cecil (how to maximize his IP ceiling)
If you’re going to bring up the 23 vs. 7 of making the playoffs, you must bring up strength of division to have a credible argument. Only two teams in the AL East had been to the playoffs before TB.
I think it’s interesting that you bring up the media manuevering as to what has kept him at his job. At first this statement seemed kind of nuts. You think about the free agents he has brought in for big money Burnett and Ryan really haven’t been able to stay healthy long enough or give the team the results they desire. Then the length and terms of the contracts that Vernon Wells and Rios got was over the top. Wells by any standards and in fairness Rios only be today’s economic standards.
Hill and Halladay are the only two players that really worked out so far. Snider and Lind are too young to rush any judgment. So to say that the media is the main reason for him staying could be true. The way he has put together the core of this team comes up short in a lot of ways to me.
I have not cared for JP, he looks good now because the team is coming together, but if you recall before the season this was supposed to be a restructuring year. It was the first time in a long time that the spring time expectations were absolutely zero. The team has been hitting and the pitchers have been doing some wonders with ball in hand. It is great that we don’t have a huge line up of somebody’s, I say this to the extent of when lind first started playing, and aaron hill. When you got the young guys they put more heart into then some of the vets who won’t make that extra dive.
Credit goes to Cito and to the Players. JP gets creidt for bringing CIto back, but beyond that the guy is a mediocre office jock.
This is J.P.’s team. I’m just trying to balance out some of the hatred that has lingered for years.
Hill is a J.P. product. Lind is a J.P. product. All the young pitchers are J.P. products. Downs, Tallet, Carlson, J.P. got ’em all here. J.P. traded for Scutaro, J.P. brought in Barajas.
I’m not giving him a free pass for all the years that he’s been at the helm and the Jays have been unsuccessful, but baseball is a funny game. Only one GM wins every year, that doesn’t make all 29 of the rest utter failures.
We play in the toughest division in baseball, and we’ve still been a productive team. It’s just a matter of getting over that hump, and here’s hoping this is the year we can do it. A hot start, one which we’ve had, can go a long way.