Blue Jays' GM Fired; Failure to Trade Roy Halladay Had to be a Reason

J.P. Ricciardi is out as the general manager of the Toronto Blue Jays.He had worked in Toronto for 8 years, but was unable to get the Jays to prevail over the Yankees or the Red Sox. As the linked article points out, most of Ricciardi's major moves did not work, including his heavy-handed attempts to trade ace Roy Halladay before the trading deadline this past July. Halladay blundered mightily, figuring that there would be plenty of buyers and, as a result, he could get the Philadelphia Phillies into a "we gotta have 'em or bust" mentality that would have compelled Phillies' GM Ruben Amaro to trade the elite set of players that Ricciardi demanded in his first counter to the Phillies and wouldn't budge from. Most negotiators know that you don't start with where you want to settle. As a result, Ricciardi became stubbornly entrenched, and two (bad) things happened. First, the other potential suitors for Halladay never materialized (and it seemed that t...