At first, J.P. attempted to downplay Dunn's value, calling him a ".230, .240 hitter who strikes out a ton and hits home runs" (Dunn's career average is .247). When the caller pointed out that might not be such a bad thing since, well, none of the Jays are hitting home runs, J.P. responded by going off on a tangent and taking some personal shots at the Reds Slugger:
“Do you know the guy doesn’t really like baseball that much? Do you know the guy doesn’t have a passion to play the game that much? How much do you know about the player?Today, Dunn spat back a great one-liner: "I don’t know the clown." He continued with a lengthy response (which you can read all of on C. Trent's blog) in which he contradicts himself a few times- at first brushing off the comment:
“There’s a reason why you’re attracted to some players and there’s a reason why you’re not attracted to some players. I don’t think you’d be very happy if we brought Adam Dunn here. We’ve done our homework on guys like Adam Dunn and there’s a reason why we don’t want Adam Dunn. I don’t want to get into specifics.” (for the full audio, click here).
I’ve seen it, I haven’t heard it. I really don’t care what one guy thinks, to be honest with you.And then getting angry enough to drop a few expletives while still sort of trying to brush it off:
It pisses me off. It does. I just told you it pisses me off when people who have no idea what the **** goes on around here and then say – I don’t give a **** what people say in this clubhouse, I don’t care, besides what’s said in here.I must say I agree with Dunn. Putting aside my horror at having a supposedly statistically-minded GM suggest that Dunn would not be a giant shot in the arm to a Toronto offence that has gotten a ridiculously terrible .622 OPS out of left field this season because all he does is strike out and hit home runs (incidentally, the Jays have been great at avoiding the strikeout this season, ranking 25th in the majors. All that weak contact has also lead to them on pace to smash the all-time double play record), why would a GM say that about a player even if it was true and everyone knew it?
After all the trouble Toronto has had attracting free agents (or needing to overpay them), you'd think Ricciardi would be a little more politic. Players get bent out of shape over "respect" enough anyway, and just don't say this kind of thing in public even if they hate each other's guts. It's not the first time he has run his mouth off about someone not on his team, either- after Gil Meche signed with the Royals after saying that he was interested in having a chance to win and pitch against the Yankees and Red Sox, J.P. called it an "eye opener", and questioned his competitiveness. That lead Buddy Bell to say the following:
"(Ricciardi) is an interesting guy for all that he's done in the game," Bell told the Kansas City Star. "He's a little guy with a big mouth and all he does is whine. And you can write that. That's the kind of crap in this game that drives me crazy. He knows nothing about our situation. You've got to be kidding me. Every time I hear this guy talk, all he's doing is whining."Last season Ricciardi took a lot of heat for lying to the media about the nature of B.J. Ryan's injury, calling it a back injury when it was actually an elbow injury that eventually required Tommy John. I had zero problem with that- if he thinks that it will take the heat off a player and help the team, I don't care what ridiculous stories he tells the fans (I hear Alex Rios has lost his power this season because he was abducted by aliens). Why he's now trying to quiet the legitimate complaints of fans with a little too much honesty is beyond me...