Knowing When to Quit

My thoughts on a possible Roy Halladay trade are very jumbled right now; I'm not sure that I can properly put into words what I am thinking. Which means at least one, if not two, posts are to come on this. However, one thing is bugging me right now: Why is JP Ricciardi in charge of moving Roy Halladay?

I'm not exactly the first on this bandwagon; Keith Law was the first to ask this question. When he first started asking it, I was willing to shake it off, thinking that Ricciardi would be GM until the end of 2010, and it was in his best interests to get a great deal for Halladay. But as time has gone on, JP has basically shot himself in the foot.

The final straw happened today. Ricciardi let the media know that Halladay had indicated that he would test the free agent market after 2010. Not a big deal on it's own. But when added with Ricciardi's quote about Halladay providing a list of teams he would accept a trade to, the inference was obvious: Roy Halladay wanted to leave the Toronto Blue Jays.

Naturally, the press picked up on this. Also naturally, Ricciardi felt that he needed to set the record straight. This isn't the first time that Ricciardi has spouted off, and I'm afraid it won't be the last. Ricciardi seems to be lacking the internal filter that most people have, the one that allows them to consider their audience before speaking. And that lack of a filter could very well have hurt the Jays' return on any potential Halladay trade.

So why is Ricciardi still handling a trade that will shape the Jays for years to come?

Update: Jeff Blair and Tao of Stieb have opposing views.