All im saying mike is if cito knows he aint coming back and the Jays have agreed to allow him to go out this way is cheating the fans.

If the jays want him to go out with class, move him upstairs in an admin role or have cito day during the season.

Its great what cito helped bring Toronto but i dont see model franchise like the Yankees or Red sox running their ships in this manner.

The fans are what counts here and seeing this farce for what it is isnt overreacting its hoping the Jays organization will wake up and get back to winning baseball

MW: Yes, it is and no, I don’t.

since the end of the season i havnt really become vocal or negative with any recent jays news, but the news of Cito remaining a year and then walking away really confuses me and reconfirms what ive been saying all along

The blue Jays are run like a second rate franchise and a ruderless ship without a solid plan in mind or blueprint to follow. How can anyone take this team serious when you have ownership sticking with a lame duck manager for one season and then make more in house changes

I really feel for the new gm. No one can say that he wasnt forced to endure this move for one season and then maybe will be able to put his own stamp on the manager position.

Another thing to consider is how does this look for inpending free agents. I know money speaks the loudest volumes but when money is similar between two completing clubs, players will look at the direction and stability of the franchise

This move proves one thing to me is that this once proud franchise is being run like the local circus.

MW: I think you’re overreacting just a little bit.

Good grief, the limping down the stretch this year brought out low attendance crowds at several games. Beeston staying on is no doubt a positive but with no significant changes in personnel (especially if the payroll doesn’t increase) and the same old manager – why would anyone expect a different outcome?

It could even be worse if you can’t replace Halladay’s wins should he be gone by Opening Day.

I’m not sure this situation can even be called a holding pattern or that it can be considered bottom. We need a new manager now, who can join the team and begin to put together an uphill climb.

And since the Yankees won tonight I’ll apply Yogi’s “deja vu all over again” comment to Anthopoulos. It may be unpopular and not fair to kick the new boss already, but I feel like we’re opening the Christmas presents to see the toy we already got last year and grew tired of.

And finally, off-topic here maybe, but if you were the Phillies and decided you wanted to replace Brad Lidge next year – who might you find available among established pitchers?

MW: Jose Valverde is the biggest-ticket free agent closer out there. He’s not too bad.

MW: I’m not sure if that’s true.

MW: Why does it seem as though Purcey is out of the plans? As of now, he goes to Spring Training with a shot at a spot in the rotation, without question. But the guy has to learn how to throw strikes.

This is very bad news for the Jays.

An overbearing accountant turned quasi “baseball guy” imposing his will on a neophyte GM who is himself a quasi “baseball guy” led to dismal seasons in 95/96.

The only hope is Gillick comes back and helps AA stand up to Beeston.

Where are you going Pat Gillick? Jays Nation (all 12 of us) turns its weary eyes to you….boo hoo hoo………..boo hoo hoo!

I was not suggesting you were lying to Wheeler. In fact, I meant the opposite.

The fact you sincerely believed there was no discontent in the Jay’s locker room as late as September makes me question the suggestions on long simmering tensions between the players and Cito.

The fact you later blogged that you thought JP may have been fired because he was believed to be the source of the story and that you thought he was lying when you heard him on Hogan’s show denying that he knew about the player’s discontent, suggests to me that he tried peddling this story to you too.

I’ve read what Blair said and I agree with some of it. But whther the players hate Cito or whether it was a JP ploy is important to evaluating the shuffle and to getting a read on AA.

The 90s version of Cito who made unconventional managerial decisions but who was loved by most of his core players was a good thing because those players played their hearts out for him.

The latter day version of Cito, who makes absolutely idiotic managerial decisions, simply can not be tolerated if his core players hate him.

Thats all I am saying.

MW: OK. Truth is, J.P. didn’t try to peddle the “everybody hates Cito” story to me, but didn’t deny it when I spoke to him about after I had spoken to about a half-dozen players and a few coaches. It definitely wasn’t a J.P. ploy.

I don’t dispute that at all, but why is that? Is he a better hitting coach than Tenace or a bad first base coach?

MW: All the players seem to like and respect him, and I believe he’ll be a lot more communicative than Tenace was.

And the answer I usually give the Gretzky bashers I see daily is that he has 56 records to his name and dominated from the time he was a kid in Brantford, at a time when there were no NHL refs or McSorley bodyguard or any other Oilers to help him…Nobody hopes the Yanks fail more than me, but Jeter to me, is brilliant and the bigger the stage, the bigger he performs..Although the numbers Mauer put up with are indisputable, it’s not Jeter’s fault he was picked and your wrath might be misguided. Maybe direct it at the pro-N.Y. voters, not #2 in pinstripes……There’s actually people happy Wayne failed in Phoenix and is out a bunch of cash…can’t see it myself after what he’s done for hockey in Canada and U.S. And Jeter has always been clean and as brainy a player as I’ve ever seen…There’s no shortage of jerks around in baseball to wish failure upon. I’ll clarify that Jeter didn’t dominate like Gretzky did. I just picked 99 as a comparison because he seems to be a target for peoples’ slings and arrows as well.

MW: There is no comparison between Jeter and Gretzky, who was the best in the history of his sport. I didn’t mean to insinuate that I’m upset with Jeter for winning the award. I’m not, I’m upset at the people who made a mockery of the award by voting for him.