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"3) What is the role of our newly-acquired corps of veteran leaders (Ibanez, Morse, Bay, Shoppach, etc) to mitigate this dysfunction? Shouldn't Raul be sitting Montero down and explaining the "right way" to do things to get the team functional? If Raul can't do this sort of thing, then what good is veteran leadership?"
I've always been skeptical of the value of veteran leadership in baseball. While I don't want to say that there is NO value to it, I've always suspected that baseball places too much value on it. Just because a guy like Kelly Shoppach has been good enough to hang around the major leagues for the better part of a decade doesn't magically make him a good influence. [No slight on Shoppach intended here. I'm just using him as an example.]
To a certain extent, this is a natural tendency. Culturally, pretty much every human society reveres and values mentorship. Examples of this relationship between the young and the old is embedded in our culture, particularly in the stories we tell. For instance, how many early Tom Cruise movies paired him with a mentor of some kind? Answer: almost all of them.
More than any of the others on the team this year, it would seem like this is why Raul Ibanez was brought in. But, just because we want him to be a good mentor doesn't mean that he necessarily is one. We assume he's a good mentor/player coach because he comes across in interviews as being a pretty decent guy and because, to put up the career numbers that he has takes an awful lot of hard work and dedication - values that any team would want to have transferred to their young players. But, again, just because he possesses these qualities himself doesn't mean that he's especially gifted at imparting them to others.
Something else I just thought of: too often, when someone is successful at something, they tend to assume that their pathway to success is the answer for everyone else as well. The very best coaches and teachers, in my experience, are the ones that have this central attitude of openness and a kind of thirst for new knowledge. To me, that's a big part of good coaching. I don't assume that just because a guy is a veteran and a great guy and exudes professionalism, that he also possesses the intangibles of a great coach.