In each profession, there are standards of excellence that the workmen adhere to. An electrician takes pride in mounting systems in convenient locations, in labeling his wires, and so forth. A realtor takes pride in his persistence, his showmanship, his photography and technical savvy, and his knowledge of the market.
An elite soldier has his own standard for excellence in soldiering. There is his persistence, his calmness under fire, his proficiency of execution of his missions, his teamwork and so forth.
But, in one respect, all trades, and soldiering are easier than baseball. Here it is: It is easy to claim that your unit is the best in the world at something, when you don't compete head to head with the best in the world. An Airborne Ranger doesn't fight with other special forces units, he fights with pirates and drug dealers and terrorists. He is not fighting against soldiers of his same caliber.
In this way, everyone who is roughly in the same leage as the elite soldier is the best in the world.
But in sports, there can be only one.
And if you're not Connor McCloud of the clan McCloud, you are going to lose your head sooner or later.
His Winningness, the wrestler of wrestlers, Cael Sanderson, (excepting the other GOATs of course) blogs often on this subject. He refuses to hold any of the wrestlers he coaches accountable for winning or losing. "They can't control that". He eschews the national rankings "they're for the fans" and he will never admit that he cares about winning.
What he does care about is process, fighting spirit, clutchness, cruelty, and in smart play. The sorts of things that Kyle Seager calls "grinding" and McClendon calls "killer instinct". Sanderson had his talents, but he was a surpassing grinder. He scored most of his points during small lapses in judgment or concentration from his opponent. They tackle toward the edge of the mat, he sprawls, they stand up expecting a leisurely circle toward the center of the mat, and he counter tackles, scoring a couple of points. Sanderson would then worm underneath them and worm them upside down for some more points. At some point, there was a collapse. Either the opponent could completely give up and lose in a landslide, or he would lower his expectations, from winning, to not losing very badly.
The thing is, that most baseball players are grinders. A surpassing grinder is a Kyle Seager or Felix Hernandez, men who choose excellence in the face of team futility. Kyle Seager would foul balls off an opponent all day if he could, even if he was down fifteen points. He's just mean like that. Hernandez is the same way.
I don't think that you can coach a Kyle Seager to make him a better grinder. He just is what he is.
In the same way, you can't coach toughness on a Justin Smoak. He is what he is.
If the Mariners upper managers have failed at anything, its not having a quick enough hook to recognize a weak fighting spirit and to replace him with someone else. But, this does not seem like a huge team failure, because the organization has spent its money on grinders. There are a shortage of people with an excellent fighting spirit. Its not like you go to Tom MacNamara and tell him to draft tougher guys. He is already doing that.
The problem is with keeping Dustin Ackley too long because you can't get a good trade for him, or playing Willie Bloomquist at shortstop because you owe him $2 million bucks, or keeping Rodney in the closer's role because he is a veteran. The Mariners don't cut bait very easily, and this places them at a tactical disadvantage to the Orcs and the Angels, because those teams can mulch half a roster in three weeks.
In baseball, the best GM with the best players, and the best farm system have problems with winning. Look at the Red Sox. Bad random stuff happens so often, you just pray that your team gets a slight reprieve.
When a manager or general manager loses too much, unless there is something clearly identifiable as the root cause of their failure, then they shouldn't easily be replaced, or the team just starts to look incoherent like the Marlins.
Anyway, good shtick as always Doc. This post took a couple of days to digest.