Quote:
Originally Posted by JayP
It's not JP's fault that nearly every hitter on the team and all of our core hitters are performing well below career averages at ages where there should be a mild decline at best (Joe Inglett has the 2nd best OPS on the team). The pitching staff has been great, but they were expected to be and it's not as if every player is overachieving. Burnett is underachieving big-time. Accardo was brutal before his injury. Marcum is overachieving, but Litsch and McGowan are about where you'd expect them to be (McGowan might even be underachieving).
All the GM can do is put the team together and hope for the best. As best I can tell, it's hard to blame JP for every good hitter on the team turning into crap as soon as they throw on the Jays uniform. I think that's a coaching issue which is why the changes were made now. If the team still stinks the rest of the way then I think JP goes.
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I know we aren't going to agree on it but it is the GM's fault if he puts together a team of guys in decline and ready to have that slump.
He didn't exactly put together a murderer's row of hitters and as I have pointed out the drop in production from many if not most of the guys are not a surprise to many outsiders.
To me whether the comments are justified or not the way that Riccardi comes across again is as a jackass. Why not just state the facts that the team was underachieving and every coach has to take the blame?
With his history of moronic comments and job seat on the hot seat I don't get what Ricciardi gets from acting like a jerk. Especially when the firing was most likely justified. Just another example of the guy making himself easy to dislike and easy to fire.