3 Managers Fired in a Week

It's officially baseball season when the trade rumors are swirling and the managers begin to get fired!

This week there has been 3 managers fired in the past week from under-achieving teams.

June 20 - The Toronto Blue Jays fired manager John Gibbons. Gibbons, who became manager midway through the 2004 season, had a record of 305-305 with the Blue Jays. His best season was in 2006, when the Blue Jays went 87-75 to finish second in the AL East. The Blue Jays replaced him with Cito Gaston who previously managed the team for 9 seasons. Gibbons had BOOB written all over him after altercations with Shea Hillenbrand and Ted Lilly in recent years. If only he could have gotten hit hitters to actually hit and provide for the rotation.

June 19 - The Seattle Mariners fired manager John McLaren and The Mariners are 25-47, 17½ games behind the first-place Los Angeles Angels in the AL West. McLaren will be replaced in the interim by bench coach Jim Riggleman. McLaren went 68-88 in less than a full season on the job. After McLaren's blowup a week or so ago and the basement standing in the AL West, it was only a matter of time. Other major shakeups in the organization should be occuring sooner rather than later, a la Richie Sexon and Erik Bedard.

June 17 - The New York Mets decided to fire manager Willie Randolph at approximately 3:15 AM Tuesday morning after a victory over the Angels in Anaheim. Willie was 302 - 253 in 3 and 1/2 seasons with the Mets including a September collapse last season that lead to missing the playoffs. Willie lead the Mets to within one game of the World Series in 2006 against St. Louis. It was kind of an odd situation to fire a manager 1 game into a west coast road trip, and even after a victory! Willie has enough friends in the league that he will latch on again perhaps with Joe Torre and the Dodgers or with Joe Girardi in New York again, if he so desires.