Throw us a bone, JP (another fire JP rant)

Fantastic news! The Major League Baseball winter meetings are in full swing in Nashville, and the Toronto Blue Jays plan to stand pat.

Perfect! Because everyone knows the best way to get out of third place, and pass the moneybags Yankees and Red Sox in the standings is to stand pat while they wage a bidding war for the American League’s best pitcher.

To recap, the Jays, despite massive payroll increases, remain a third-place team. On top of that now, their “ace” Roy Halladay can’t convince me he’s ever pitched a 30-game season; their number two man AJ Burnett is said to be on the block, though he’s been the glue holding this team together every time Doc goes down, and has his own injury history; first bagger Lyle Overbay missed significant time because of injuries last season; the serviceable Aaron Hill at second; the otherworldly Johnny Mac at short, who may be the best defensive shortstop this team’s ever had; the injured Troy Glaus at third, who’s battling a mysterious, Peter Forsberg-like series of foot injuries and a bad back; Reed Johnson and Alex Rios in the outfield, both of whom missed time because of fluke injuries; and the great Vernon Wells, who tried to play through last season despite needing surgery.

Folks, that’s not a snake-bitten team. That’s an injury-prone team. And the Jays can say all the right things about their young pitchers, and their young position players, all of whom filled in very well. And they say all the right things about “wait till we get healthy,” but healthy doesn’t happen by accident. The Jays either have the worst group of athletic therapists in the known universe, or they’re an injury-plagued team that isn’t ever going to be healthy.

Since this “injury bug” has been floating around for a few seasons now, I’m more inclined to believe the former is the case.

So if Ricciardi and Gibbons have to stay, let’s at least get a top-notch medical staff to keep the players healthy.

Otherwise, JP, let’s see you move some of this dead weight. Glaus isn’t ever going to be healthy. Halladay is never going to throw 30 games again. Letting Wells play through 140 games when he needed surgery isn’t going to help, since he’ll rush back after the surgery and play before he’s ready, creating a cycle of injury that cannot be escaped. And through all of this, the oft-injured BJ Ryan didn’t even come up. Does anyone know which four players make the most in Toronto?

Of course, we know the training and medical staff aren’t going anywhere, we know Pinky and the Brain aren’t going anywhere (thanks Derek Boogaard), and none of those sore contracts can be moved. But the Brain thinks this team’s OK. It’s not.

So get off your ass, and at least give us paying fans the impression you’re going to do something. Would be it so hard to pick up a phone and offer Rios, Shawn Marcum and a prospect for Johan Santana, then tell a reporter you did it?