AA was a Ricciardi guy, wasn't he? I mean, he was hired by JPR. Also, I think giving credit to anyone for Bautista and EE is a stretch and I include AA in this. Why? Well, Bautista was acquired in 2008 and it's not like he was acquired and given a full time position. If he had been given a full time position and flourished, then I'd see the point, but there was a lot of luck involved. EE was so bad as a 3B that he was released in 2010 (?) and then not resigned by Oakland (I think) and AA brought him back, not gonna give AA credit either, they were lucky. Pretty funny that Lind is mentioned as well. He was pretty bad for the last 2 years so. Weren't Cecil and Janssen starters?
Again, don't get me wrong, I'm not an anti Ricciardi guy, but could we not make the same case for Ricciardi's good teams? I mean, didn't he also inherit Halladay, Wells, Rios among others?
Anyway...