Some fans are idiots

A couple of hours ago, I was listening to "Wednesdays With JP" on The Fan 590. The segment features Blue Jays General Manager JP Ricciardi with host Mike Wilner. For around 35 minutes, fans can call in and ask JP just about anything they want. I've listened to the show for a couple of weeks now and I've come to the conclusion that:

1) The Fan 590 purposely lets drunken, moronic fans with stupid questions on the air

OR

2) Some fans are idiots

I think I'll stick with the latter on that one.

Let me give you an example of one of these "idiot fans". Scott from North Bay called in and right away started acting like a smart ass. If you are going to act like a smart ass, you better know your s***. This is what he had to say to JP:

"I know that pitching wins championships, but if you don't have hitting you're not going to even make the post-season. For the life of me, I cant understand why you're so reluctant to trade pitching for a quality bat."

Fair enough. At this point, I'm thinking its a valid question. This guy knows what hes talking about. Then JP asks him if he were the GM, what would he do?

Scott tells him that he thinks Juan bleeping Pierre is the answer to the Jays problems. Out of all the players you could target, really... Juan Pierre? JP really picked a great time to turn the table on us fans. Here's the chance of a lifetime to be GM of the Jays for 1 minute and this idiot blows it. JP quickly makes him look like an idiot calling Pierre a singles hitter (which is true), a career .320 on base percentage player(which sounds about right) and he makes 9 million playing part time (only because Andruw Jones is an even bigger waste of money that the Dodgers have to play).

Scott backtracks a bit and says he didn't know that Juan Pierre was making that much money.

Some fans are idiots.

They think that it's all about results on the field.

Some fans are idiots.

They don't take into consideration the economics of the game. Juan Pierre isn't even that good of a player. All he brings to the Jays is speed. What the Jays need is a left handed power bat. Sorry, "the professional hitter" Matt Stairs just doesn't cut it. Adam Dunn could be a decent fit but I've never been a fan of someone who hits .240. Ken Griffey Jr. is another guy the Jays could use but I doubt he'd pick Toronto over Seattle. C'mon, Juan Pierre? What are you gonna do with David Eckstein's 4.5 million dollar bat?

Then JP asks him another question. "Who on our pitching staff would you trade?" Scott says he wouldn't mind trading Litsch.

Some fans are idiots.

Do you really think you are going to get a quality bat by just giving away your number 5 starter? I hate to pick on Scott because this is a problem with MOST fans. Would the Dodgers consider Litsch for Pierre? If I were Dodgers GM Ned Colletti, I would jump at it. After Scott said Litsch, JP ran down the reasons why Litsch is so much more valuable than Pierre. Litsch is going to make the minimum salary for the next 3 years (which I believe is 350 K), he's under the Blue Jays control for the next 5 years and most importantly he leads the Jays pitching staff with 5 wins!

Scott continues to say that most teams have bums pitching in the 5 hole and that you don't need a quality guy there.

Some fans have bad memories.

Just two years ago, ALL Blue Jay fans were complaining about Josh Towers. The main complaint was that we needed more rotation depth. Towers went something like 2-10 that year and everyone wanted JP to trade for a fifth starter. Now we have 5 guys that have the potential to be all-stars either this year or next and we're going to trade one of them?

To make matters worse, Scott goes on to say that he didn't even know that AJ (or Stray-J as he'll soon be called) Burnett had an opt out clause. Seriously? The day after he signed here I knew that. He asks JP why he gave him an opt out clause and JP quite frankly told him that if the Jays didn't, he would have signed elsewhere. Do you really think JP just told Burnett "hey, as an early Christmas present we'll throw in an opt out clause"?

All in all, JP seemed pretty disappointed throughout the whole interview with his team's lack of offense. He normally wouldn't have snapped at a fan and asked the fan what he would do. But I am very glad he did.

It shows that some fans are idiots.



Quick notes from the entire segment:

- Apparently, Alex Rios doesn't know what "green light" means. According to Mike Wilner, Rios thinks that whenever he is given the green light it means go on the first pitch. Kudos to you Mike for catching that. Rios really doesn't have the baseball IQ to become a superstar player. When you are looking for a 9th inning, bases loaded, 2 out, 3-2 curveball from one of the wildest closers in the game, that tells me you are an idiot. Obviously, he took a fastball down the pipe to end the game. Like I've said before, Rios is not a superstar player. And unless he improves his baseball IQ, he never will be.

- One fan said they wanted Jason Bay, mainly because he's Canadian. Jason Bay is something we already have in Vernon Wells, Alex Rios and Scott Rolen... a middle of the order, right handed bat. I'm not sure about the economics but I think he may be making more than Juan Pierre. That's certainly out of the question.

- Many people are blaming Gibby for this slump. After listening to JP, I don't think it is his fault. Gibby has some momentary lapses but for the most part he has done a feasible job. The hitters themselves are to blame. Who the hell gave Matt Stairs the nickname "professional hitter"? It wouldn't surprise me if it was Jamie Campbell, but professional hitters don't ground into inning-ending double plays in pressure situations. Everyone in that lineup is to blame for this, but you can't fire the hitters. So maybe Gibby will be the scapegoat.

- And to all you Blue Jay fans out there: PLEASE know your s*** if you are going to call in to talk to JP. I don't mind if you give Mike Wilner your bulls*** ideas because he has no power on what the Jays do. But Ricciardi can forever use "Scott from North Bay" as the prototypical Blue Jay fan and that scares the bejeezus out of me.

DD