Looking to address their struggling farm system, the Orioles reassigned minor-league director Don Buford yesterday and announced they will retain scouting director Tony DeMacio.

One week into their tenure atop the team's baseball operations department, Jim Beattie and Mike Flanagan also announced they will keep special assistant Ed Kenney in an assistant general manager's capacity but fired special assistant Danny Garcia.

This year, the top three affiliates in the Orioles' farm system - Triple-A Rochester, Double-A Bowie and Single-A Frederick - finished a combined 109 games under .500. At season's end, Rochester ended its 42-year working agreement with the Orioles, and Baseball America, a well-respected publication in the industry, graded the team's minor-league system with an F.

Beattie said the Orioles would hire a new farm director as soon as possible. Buford, the former Orioles outfielder who held the minor-league job for the past three years under outgoing vice president of baseball operations Syd Thrift, took the news in stride. His new role has not been defined.

Asked if he thought he did a good job, Buford said, "Under the circumstances, yes. There were certainly difficult circumstances. Some decisions were made [regarding the minor-league system] without my knowledge or input."

Garcia produced scouting reports that helped spur the Orioles to acquire Jay Gibbons, Gary Matthews and Jorge Julio, among others. Garcia remains under contract through the end of next season, but he said he will pursue opportunities with other teams.

"[The Orioles] decided to go in a different direction," Garcia said, "and I wished them well."

Beyond the personnel changes, Beattie and Flanagan talked about implementing new philosophies throughout the organization, stressing such things as on-base percentage. Flanagan said there's even been talk about producing a manual that they could hand out to each minor-league player, coach and manager.

"We know how the club finished last year with the on-base percentage, the low walks, high strikeouts," Flanagan said. "And we also could see what the [World Series champion Anaheim] Angels did in the postseason and how that formula can work. They bought into the program of driving pitch counts up. I think it's something we'll be trying to place more attention on in the minor leagues."