RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Sports and Wrestling A.J.B.J.J.P. signings no sure thing for the Toronto Blue Jays

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There are all kinds of similarities between A.J. Burnett, B.J. Ryan and J.P. Ricciardi that are more apparent than the fact all three begin their names with initials.

All three are now signed with the Blue Jays forever, or until 2010, whichever comes first.

All three are now overpaid by their long-standing performances in the game.

All three -- and this is troubling -- have career losing records in the major leagues.

This is the future for your Toronto Blue Jays.


It may work. It may not work. Who can know? This isn't Catfish Hunter and Rollie Fingers coming to Toronto. This is no sure thing. This is A.J. Burnett and B.J. Ryan.

This is a starting pitcher with tantalizing ability and a record -- on a far better team -- that just about matches Josh Towers. Or as one Florida Marlins watcher called Burnett yesterday, "a $50-million arm with a 10-cent heart."

With Florida in a pennant race last September, Burnett didn't win a game, publicly bad-mouthed his team, and was kicked off the Marlins a week early by manager Jack McKeon.

Funny, nobody mentioned that yesterday when making the announcement in Texas. Nobody mentioned that player-friendly columnist Dan LeBatard wrote in the Miami Herald: "Good riddance, A.J. Burnett. Go reach your untapped potential elsewhere."

That reputation will dog Burnett until he proves otherwise. With the Marlins, he talked a big game but came up small. With the Marlins, he recognized flaws in those around him but was never accountable for his own shortcomings.

He has five guaranteed seasons to change the way baseball looks at him. Some people will tell you there aren't five pitchers in baseball with better stuff. And with all that, he has never won more than 12 games in a season, and has pitched more than 200 innings only twice in his career.

This is the Blue Jays' second costly roll of the dice in a matter of days, another big-ticket reach of overpayment, because the only way they can attract free agents anymore is by blowing away the rest of the market.

Which is how they attracted B.J. Ryan, star closer for all of one major-league season.

Burnett, at least, has a history. Not a great history, but a history nonetheless. He has done the job. Ryan, before last season, had made 18 career save attempts, blew 12 of them.

The history of relief pitchers not named Mariano Rivera or Goose Gossage is they arrive and then they disappear. Just like that. Bobby Jenks is on waivers one year and saving games in the World Series in another. Burnett should know this.

Almost every second year in Florida, the Marlins had a different closer. Almost all of them found a way to get the job done.

Maybe Ryan will get it done. Maybe he won't. The truth on the majority of closers is, you just don't know.

You don't know which Burnett will start games in Toronto, you don't know which Ryan will close.

And you don't know why J.P. Ricciardi keeps getting extensions, his three-year plan, becoming a five-year plan, becoming a seven-year plan. He has won 311 games as the Jays general manager and lost 336.

INCOMPLETE

That puts some people on notice. That gets him five more years.

The book on Ricciardi remains ever incomplete. This is the first time he has had money and he's throwing it around like he's Omar Minaya. In fairness, he got the money to spend in the wrong year. The market is thin. The cost for a 12-game winner is exorbitant.

In some ways, Ricciardi's time in Toronto mirrors Burnett's career. A win here. A loss there. Forever talk of a better day. He signed both Vernon Wells and Eric Hinske to long-term contracts. Now he'd like to trade away one and hear offers for the other.

He traded away Felipe Lopez and Cesar Izturis, good enough to start for National League teams at shortstop, and got nothing back for either. He signed Corey Koskie as a free agent and traded for Shea Hillenbrand.

That's the Ricciardi shuffle. One step forward, one step back

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