Toronto dismissed manager Buck Martinez today. Martinez's job has been in jeopardy since J.P. Ricciardi took over as the General Manager. Ricciardi has never been fond of the way Martinez handled the ball club, and while he didn't expect them to compete for the division title this season, Ricciardi believes that they should be in a much better position than having the fourth worst record in baseball and the third worst in the AL.

When hired by former Toronto GM Gord Ash, Martinez had no managerial or coaching experience at any level of professional baseball. Following his 17-season playing career, he joined ESPN as an announcer. Martinez leaves his first managerial position with a career 100-115 record.

Ricciardi maintained that the decision was based on the last three months and not merely their record in the last week and a half, wherein the Blue Jays followed up a 6 game losing streak by sweeping the Tigers, now one of the two teams with a worse record than Toronto in the AL. I believe that prior to sweeping Detroit, the Jays had the worst record in the AL.

The Blue Jays named Carlos Tosca manager in place of Martinez. Tosca has not been saddled with an interim label. Toronto is not searching for another manager this season, so the job is his at least until the end of the year. Many suspected that when he accepted the position of third base coach for the Blue Jays, Tosca would be the man to replace Martinez as the next Toronto manager. Tosca had previously managed the Braves' AAA Richmond affiliate in the International League, but chose to take the Blue Jays coaching job with the possibility of a major league managerial position, rather than to hang around the Atlanta organization waiting for Bobby Cox to retire.

Tosca joins Grady Little as one of two active major league managers who never played professional baseball. After graduating from the University of Southern Florida, he took a position as a pitching coach at King High School in Tampa, Florida in 1976. In 1978, the Yankees hired Tosca as a coach for their short-season New York-Pennsylvania League team. The Yankees promoted him to manage their Rookie-level Gulf Coast League in 1980. Tosca stayed with that club for three seasons before moving up to manage A Greensboro in the South Atlantic League for the 1983 and 1984 seasons.

He returned to managing in the Gulf Coast League in 1985 before a demotion to the coaching staff the following season. I could find no record of his activities in 1987, but by 1988 he'd left the Yankee organization and accepted a position managing for the Kansas City affiliate in the GCL. After three seasons in that job, the Royals promoted him to manage their A+ Florida State League team.

In 1992, Florida hired him away from Kansas City, returning him to the GCL for a season before promoting him to manage at A Kane County in the Midwest League. Tosca continued his steady advancement through the Marlins' system, managing for Portland in the AA Eastern League from 1994 to 1996; Baseball America named him Minor League Manager of the Year following his last season at Portland. He spent his final year with the Florida organization as the manager of their AAA International League affiliate at Charlotte.

The Diamondbacks hired Tosca as their major league bench coach in 1998 and he stayed with the team through the 2000 season, leaving when Bob Brenly took over as the new manager. When he came to the Blue Jays as their third base coach this off-season, he brought with him a minor league managerial record of 932-827.

Everyone seems to agree that the Blue Jays were lacking leadership under Martinez. While it couldn't have been comfortable to have his predetermined replacement on his coaching staff, Martinez was given the position without first acquiring the skills necessary to carry out his responsibilities. His lack of prior experience showed in his lineup management and use of his pitching staff.

Hopefully, Tosca's long years in the minors will have prepared him for the position and given him the confidence to both lead and inspire leadership among the players. His familiarity with young players should be helpful considering the youth movement in Toronto. He also should have some idea of the capabilities of the players after watching them from his position as third base coach for the first two months of the season. Consequently, Tosca likely has some ideas of what he wants to do with the club, as opposed to an outsider who would have first needed to familiarize themselves with the organization.

Toronto made some accompanying changes to the coaching staff today with the managerial switch. Brian Butterfield will replace Tosca as the third base coach. He has been unemployed since the Yankees fired him in mid-May from his position as manager of their AAA Columbus affiliate in the International League. Butterfield has a long history as a minor league manager and major league coach. Ricciardi also fired first base coach Garth Iorg, replacing him with bullpen catcher John Gibbons.