It says here, that if you ever win a real sports championship on a real field, you'll understand why the personalities of the team's best players matter so much.  You won't be able to convince other people of this :- ) but you'll understand it.

The Mariners themselves, particularly Jack Zduriencik, weigh "chemistry" very heavily in the winning equation.  I think they're right.

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Griffey is, on a subconscious level now!, the team's best player (along with Felix).  His personality is positive, upbeat, and focused on winning, and the Mariners' teamwide personality is also positive, upbeat, and focused on winning. 

You can see why Ichiro's positive attitude won't permeate to his teammates.  His personality doesn't resonate across the language barrier.  Ichiro subtly influences the atmosphere by modeling a perfect example of how a winner behaves.  But the personality of the locker room isn't going to change because of him.

Amigos look at the Mariners, and see (1) genuinely good chemistry and (2) a 12-19 record, and they figure, hey, chemistry doesn't produce winning.

Not automatically, no.  Life seldom reduces to one variable.

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=== Warm Fuzzies and Cold Pricklys ===

But picture two married couples:  the Fuzzies, with great chemistry and a healthy relationship, and the Pricklys, with fragile chemistry and a diseased relationship.

It's 2012, and both couples are doing well?   They have a nice house, two BMW's, and a 401(k) with the kids getting A's?  Both will be getting along, the Fuzzies better than the Pricklys.  This is not when chemistry matters.

It's 2013, and the market crashes, and both families have their houses foreclosed and a daughter pregnant.  The Fuzzies will be arguing, will be unhappy, will be stressed out.  But the Fuzzies will pull out of the dive, and in 2014 will be happy again.  The Pricklys will simply detonate.  In 2014 they won't be a family, period.

Healthy team attitude doesn't guarantee success, in the absence of other positive factors.  But it certainly allows you to deal with crises without folding, and it certainly promotes increased success.

At 12-19, the M's hitters are, right now, staring at videotape, trying hard to do better.  Hargrove's 12-19 teams simply threw in the towel, went up to the plate flailing for mistake pitches, seeking easy homers and easy strikeouts and getting the opposite.  They mailed in their seasons after things got tough.

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=== Coming Out of the Power Dive ===

Good chemistry isn't going to guarantee that Casey Kotchman is going to be able to get his OPS+ up to 100 against AL pitching.  But it certainly creates an environment in which he has his best possible chance at it.

The Mariners are 12-19.  And they've got a whale of a lot better chance of turning it around, than they would have under Mike Hargrove.

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The fact that Zduriencik and Wakamatsu manage the team's personality, is the reason that you have a team that will probably turn around its 2010 season.  :- ) 

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Cheers,

Dr D