Some left over thoughts on the Blue Jays as they folded their tents on a disappointing 2009 regular season in Baltimore over the weekend.
Even before unnamed sources sounded off on the supposed shortcomings of Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston the verdict was already in on general manager J.P. Ricciardi.
The only question remaining was the timing of his dismissal.
In all likelihood the Blue Jays were going to wait until the season was over before firing Ricciardi and it probably was going to take place on Monday morning.
There was no way the organization was going to allow the GM to have to sit down with the media in Toronto on Monday for his annual season-ending "what went right, what went wrong" news conference only to announce a short time later he was no longer with the team.
Even the Blue Jays couldn't be that cold-blooded.
But when all hell broke loose in Baltimore with players sounding off about their concerns against the manager it only pushed ahead to Saturday the club's announcement that they were firing Ricciardi.
The club had to be seen to be taking some action and Ricciard was the bone who was thrown to the wolves.
And you can expect more changes, including the removal of Brad Arnsberg as the pitching coach before the start of next season.
This afternoon's showdown at the Metrodome in Minneapolis should be fun and I'm thinking the Twins will prevail in the one-game showdown against the Tigers with the winner earning the right to meet the Yankees in one of the ALDS.
The Twins are hot, winning 16 of their last 20 games to force the tiebreaker.
And as good as Rick Porcello has been this season for the Tigers, I'm dubuious about the ability of the rookie pitcher to prevail under such stressful circumstances.
Also, Porcello is 0-2 with a 6.30 ERA against the Twins at the Metrodome this season.
It was obvious to anybody that followed the team closely that a change in leadership had to be made and that Ricciardi's future was determined weeks before interim president Paul Beeston officially pulled the plug on Saturday.
The Blue Jays
