On Saturday, the Blue Jays fired pitching coach Gil Patterson and first base coach Joe Breeden. Breedan was not a surprise as he was the guy brought in by Carlos Tosca to be his personal sounding board on the bench. Patterson on the other hand, I was a little surprised about.

Patterson had been with the Jays for a little over two years now and from what I understood had a pretty good reputation throughout baseball. But, in his years at the position, the team has not done much for developing pitchers. Roy Halladay went all the way to A ball to refine his delivery and become the pitcher he is today. It's not like he developed under Patterson at the Major League level. Then there was the Kelvim Escobar saga in which the Jays could never find a place for the guy until mid-way through last year. A pitching coach normally has a pretty active role in a decision like that. I didn't like the move of Batista to the bullpen and apparently it was orchestrated by Patterson. He always looked like he was working hard but the results were just never there.

To replace Patterson, the Jays have called up AAA pitching coach Brad Arnsberg. I don't know too much about him other than he's a Ricciardi guy as they played ball together in the minor leagues. He's overseen a lot of the young pitchers who will be on the roster next year so he seems like a logical choice to take over the position. We'll see.

Replacing Breeden as the bench coach, is Ernie Whitt. This is an interesting move. The Jays under Ricciardi are not much into nostalgia moves (JP is not the type of guy to hire Buck Martinez as a PR move) so you know there is something to his hiring. He led a surprising Canadian team in the Olympics and I think he might be being groomed to take over the job of manager if things do not work out for John Gibbons (more on him in bit). Ricciardi always seems to have a guy on the staff willing and able to take the squad over if it doesn't work out for the incumbent. That's what Carlos Tosca was to Buck Martinez. That is what Gibbons was to Tosca. And that is what I think Whitt is to Gibbons. I have to say I didn't see this one coming but I like the move.

Finally, John Gibbons has been retained as the full time manager of the Jays. The interim tag has been taken off and he's been given a 1 year deal. The press has alluded to him taking over the position for a while now (though I didn't necessarily believe them) so this shouldn't come as a shock to many people. From what I hear/read, the players have really taken too him and JP has sited his bullpen management several times as a reason he was staying. Which is interesting as management really is alluding to the fact that Tosca lost the clubhouse in Toronto. I haven't seen enough of him to form a really good opinion so I'll hold judgement until around May of next year.

One more thing I was thinking about. Anyone else think it's strange these moves come during the last weekend of the year? Especially the firing of Patterson? Usually these types of moves aren't made until a little deeper into the off-season. I'm not really sure why but it seems like JP is trying to slide these moves under the radar while there is lots of other things to be talked about in the world of baseball. Imagine the fanfare from the mainstream press if these moves were made in January? Especially with no hockey season to keep people occupied?

All in all, I'm not too excited but at the same time I'm not upset. It will all depend on what kind of start the Jays get off too next April.