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Richard Griffin actually admitted in his column today that "there are legitimate reasons on both sides of the J.P. Ricciardi fence with regard to his continuing as general manager of the Jays."

This is sort of like Palestine admitting that there are legitimate reasons for Israel occupying land in the Middle East. Maybe this could be inspiring as a means of mediation between millions of disputes worldwide.

If Richard Griffin can find legitimate reasons to keep J.P. Ricciardi as general manager in Toronto, perhaps Russia could find it within themselves not to recognize Georgian rebel regions as independent states.

Anyway, The Griff goes on to offer his opinions on what is good about Ricciardi, before bringing out his regular song and dance on why Ricciardi is the Anti-Christ. Seeing as though we're usually stuck somewhere in the middle of this debate, let's take a look at Griff's regular song and dance and see if we can't fill out his card a little more.

He was hired as a "compete-on-a-budget" guy. Now that they're spending middle-of-the-pack money, around $100 million (all figures U.S.), he no longer is that man. There are plenty of experienced candidates who could be brought in to lead the team to the next level.

Yeah, it would be difficult to argue that the team's circumstances haven't changed since Ricciardi came aboard. I'm not sure if that is reason enough to fire him, because of a budget increase, but what he's done with the budget increase thus far could be called into question. Frank Thomas . . . questionable long-term deals . . . David Eckstein . . . Burnett/Ryan.

Ricciardi has alienated free-agent players and their agents, either coming or going, every year since early in his tenure, starting with Chris Carpenter, then Kelvim Escobar through Carlos Delgado to Adam Dunn. It will always have a negative spinoff effect with other agents and other free agents as the Jays try to build a winner.

Even if this is true . . . uh, so what? There are far larger factors at play when signing free agents. If the right deal is offered to a player, I highly doubt he's going to suddenly recall Ricciardi's laughable comments about Adam Dunn as a reason not to sign with the Blue Jays.

If the plan is to blow the whole thing up and start again you cannot ask the man who built the original structure to be in charge of demolition. The Jays two years down the road will start with about $100 million in guaranteed commitments to 10 players, which does not bode well for payroll flexibility.

It would be the worst call in the history of terrible calls to blow this team up. Even if you believe that the Jays are fucked at every position, they're still going to have to wait until 2010 to "blow it up." It would be far too difficult to rid this squad of so many of its players who are signed to multi-year deals. In order to rid themselves of those 10 players, the Jays would undoubtedly end up paying most of their salaries anyway.

Ricciardi has lost the goodwill and support of the Jays' fan base that once idolized him and had him pegged as the prototypical GM for the future of the game. Worse, he has made the basic mistake that all good field managers tell their players: "Never get too high when you win or too low when you lose."

Once again, so what? Sports fans, at least in Toronto, are a fickle bunch. Anyone listening to Jays Talk knows that when the Jays perform well, the calls are about playoff baseball, and when they lose, the calls are about eliminating management and trading all of the players away. You could do much worse than losing the goodwill of a Toronto sports fan.

And while he touched on it a little with his first point, Griffin didn't attack the most glaring of Ricciardi's errors: high end free agent signings. Yes, he's maintained his ability to pick up cheap talent. Look at the bullpen. But what about his major free agent deals?

The Frank Thomas signing was a failure. A.J. Burnett has shown glimpses of greatness, and while he remains one of my favourite pitchers, would you call his time in Toronto a success? Everyone claimed that B.J. Ryan was Tommy John surgery waiting to happen, and what do you know? We only had to wait one year for it to happen and despite his success, watching Ryan since coming back from surgery has been as nerve racking as watching a tight-rope walker.

I think the mantra here has been said for the last couple months in these parts. There are definite flaws to Ricciardi's regime, but those criticizing it, seem to attack the wrong areas. While those defending him, are blind to some major mishaps.

Reader Peg City put it best in the comments from earlier today: "Seriously, the defenders of J.P. are just as moronic as the detractors."