These Are The Days Of Our Jays

Yesterday the Globe & Mail's Robert MacLeod reported on JP Riccardi's appearance on the FAN 590 on Thursday. In addition to the widely reported revelation that the Jays were not upfront on BJ Ryan's injuries during Spring Training, Riccardi's comments on a couple of other issues are worth having a look at. They are:

• Jason Frasor - JaFra (pronounced Jay-Fray) has had a helluva hard time in the closers role since BJ put his elbow on ice and Riccardi suggested that a trip to Syracuse might be in order to get things right with him. "Unfortunately he's done this in the past and we had to send him down to kind of get him going again," Ricciardi said. "We need guys to step up right now. A few guys have not carried the torch the way we hoped to have done the job." This conclusion got the attention of manager John Gibbons who, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the pitcher has coughed up 7 runs in his last 3 appearances, claims that JaFra has been great bar a couple of bad outings. We wouldn't be picking a fight with JP over this guy unless there was something bigger going on.
• Bullpen Management - Once he broached the subject of the bullpen, JP couldn't help but publicly second guess Gibby's decision to leave Frasor in the game on Thursday night to face left handed batter Grady Sizemore in the eight inning. The skipper could have brought in lefty Scott Downs but opted to put his faith in his "closer". The result was a Sizemore double that drove in the winning run. Riccardi vowed to call Gibbons to talk about it. Gibby's public rationalization was that the bullpen was overrused and that he would have brought Downs in had it been the ninth inning. How sweet.

This little soap opera between Riccardi and Gibbons was all speculation until Thursday. Given the fact that the Jays were swept again since then, we expect that things will get downright catty in the next few days. Don't be afraid to use your nails boys!