As pitcher A.J. Burnett continues to reside on the disabled list, the Toronto Star’s Richard Griffin submits the decision to give the hurler with the not-quite-Hall of Fame credentials a boatload of Canadian cash could bring about an end to J.P. Riccardi’s stewardship of the Blue Jays.

The easiest way to understand the tremendous financial commitment that the Jays have with the 29-year-old Burnett is that from March 1, 2006, pretty much the start of training camp, through September 30, 2010, pretty much the end of his five year deal, there are 55 months. Burnett’s contract with the Jays, involves $55 million (all figures U.S.). You do the math.

At $1 million per month, this off-season’s most sought after free-agent starter has made two starts, logging a total of 10 innings. Here is what manager John Gibbons currently knows of his future availability.

“This week, at the end of the week, we’d like to get him on the mound in the bullpen,” Gibbons said. “He’s doing his workout program. I couldn’t tell you exactly what that is.”

If Burnett does, indeed, throw from a mound on Friday, equate that to the first day of spring training. It means it might take approximately 45 days before he’s ready to pitch in a major-league game. That scenario, barring further setbacks, would make the date of his return July 10, coincidentally the first day of the all-star break.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Doug Grow, noting that “from the Hennepin County Board to the Minnesota Legislature, women overwhelmingly said “no” to the plan that will result in the Minnesota Twins getting a new baseball park, thanks to a huge public subsidy”, received an earful from some of those female legislators.

Why do men and women see the deal so differently? Is it because as kids, we boys excluded the girls from our sunrise-to-sunset baseball games?

Rep. Mindy Greiling (above), DFL-Roseville, didn’t answer the questions directly. But she did say male domination set the legislative agenda — yet again.

“This whole session was boys and toys,” she said. “Kids and health, things that mature adults are concerned about, got shoved aside.”

As a flip-flopper on the stadium deal — after years of opposing public subsidy, I supported this plan — I’m a little sensitive to attacks on my maturity.

But that was just the beginning. Greiling questioned my morality, too.

“It’s not immoral to have a ballpark, if we have the other things that are more important,” she said. “But the stadium should only be a rose in the garden. The problem is, there’s no garden.”

More women in the Legislature would change the direction of government, Greiling said.

“There’s a Rutgers study that shows if women are 40 percent of an institution, they change the institution,” she said. “Less than 40 percent, the institution changes them.”

Hennepin County Commissioner Linda Koblick, a Republican, was even more disgusted about what she called “old, white, male power.”

“Women don’t turn politics into a game,” she said. “They take it seriously.”