=== I/O ALGORITHM===
(1) Zduriencik changes hitting coaches.
(2) The Mariners go out and score 8 runs in one game, as opposed to scoring 12 runs in nine.
(3) The cyber-consensus is that the move is unfair. (Dr. D applauds the anti-kneejerkia implied in this. Very mature, gents. :c-points:)
(4) SSI scores another chance to play village idiot. ;- )
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=== CRUNCH1 ===
Absolutely it is -- well, it can be -- very effective to change coaches even though the old coach "has done nothing wrong."
Suppose you're a tennis player in a funk. Not a physical funk, a mental one. You're losing 3-6, 3-6 to guys you used to beat like nothing. You can't figure out what the problem is, and neither can your coach (who happens to be your wife, or your best friend, or Vic Braden; it doesn't matter.)
Of course a change of coaches can give you new perspective, a fresh start, a new way of playing. This re-set button is just a question of bringing in new light bulbs -- the old coach had 150 of 1,000 on; the new one has 150; but some are different.
Or it might just be a question of the new coach putting you in a more optimistic frame of mind.
.........
Or, imagine you're a PGA pro who has been missing the cuts for two years. You've got a lifetime coach, and he's technically really good. But your play is stale and you can't snap out of a funk.
You don't think that going to a different coach might fresh you up? It might, and it often does.
It is not a question of the previous coach not working hard, not a question of whether he has "made mistakes." It's not about what's fair to the coach; it's a question of which coach can synergize with you and help you get your groove on.
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Notice that Wakamatsu's own quote on Cockrell's replacement captures the above ideas:
"You've got to start somewhere and, unfortunately, Alan was the guy that has to pay the toll for that. I think everybody on the staff is looking themselves in the mirror and seeing what we can do along with that to try and rectify this situation.
"Alan did just about everything he thought he could do. Unfortunately, like I said, when we don't produce, somebody's got to take the blame for it. But it's all of us."
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Bill James is baseball's eminent historian. He has observed that of all the Cinderella surges ever made by MLB ballclubs, the vaaasssst majority occurred immediately after a change of the manager. Were all these teams just scapegoating the old managers?
Just for example, the 2009 Colorado Rockies were 18-28 under Clint Hurdle and going exactly nowhere. (Compare that record to the M's current record). They fired Hurdle and hired Jim Tracy. It was not one week later that the Rockies began an 11-game winning streak ... lost one game ... and then ripped off another 6-gamer.
Wouldn't our pro-Cockrell logic have applied to Clint Hurdle just as easily? It was easier to fire Hurdle than fire 25 blase', unhappy players, right? ...
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Part 2