BASEBALL: JP's a Better Man than Me

I'm not a good man. I hold grudges. Decade-long grudges. And I have absolutely no problem admitting, nor admitting that it isn't my best trait.

Apparently, JP Ricciardi forgives and forgets. He signed Rod Barajas to a contract to backup Gregg Zaun as catcher for the Toronto Blue Jays. This is the same Barajas who reneged on a signed commitment last year to REPLACE Zaun as the regular every-day catcher for the Blue Jays. He ended up signing for less annually with the Phillies, something I derived some small satisfaction from last year. It got better. He had a horrible year. Now he's collecting chump change to carry a game or two a week workload while one of my favourite Blue Jays starts ahead of him.

Frankly, when Barajas changed agents last year and the new guy reneged on the deal, I would have seen the last of the former Texas starter. No bygones for me. But in this aspect, JP's a better a man than me. I still think he's a very flawed GM. I think he's a fast talker who's only ever displayed a talent for acquiring servicable middle infielders (although it's more by quantity than quality) and flim-flamming his bosses. He's now in the seventh year of a five-year plan (remember, it was originally a three-year plan built around getting rid of Carlos Delgado). He's drafted abysmally and traded for more injury-prone players than his predecessor Gord Ash ever did. He's ripped the heart out of John McDonald by signing David Eckstein. And that wasn't the first time he did that. He doesn't live in T.O. and there isn't anybody in baseball who doesn't think he'd bail on the Blue Jays for a Boston Red Sox job in a heartbeat.

But he's a better man than I.