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Great post, Gordon.
But, I believe not meddling and allowing players to self-correct would be a step in the RIGHT direction.
Based on my 3,000 miles away, stats only observations, (supplemented with lots of reading of all the guys here with eyes-on observations), I continue to believe the organization IS instructing its prospects to do all number of things ... to hit with the "one, specified, optimal approach" the club likes.
But, I see two paradigms.
One is the mechanical - the stuff you and Doc and others dissect with great insight (in my completely unschooled opinion).
The second is APPROACH - the tactical plan in mind when stepping to the plate.
I think the club has had some success (Saunders) and some failures (Ackley) with mechanical coaching.
But, I think the club ultimately preaches approach changes that are across the board detrimental, because they are consistently working AGAINST the players individual psychological profile and instinct.
... analogy time ...
I think they are attempting to "cerebrally" turn EVERY player into a switch hitter. I think the number of players capable of successfully altering their approach is extremely small, so this is going to almost always fail. But prospects, desperate to play all the time work dilligently to adhere to the company line up to the point that it is a complete disaster and they just cave and revert to what brought them to the Majors in the first place.
If a player doesn't START with the company prescribed correct ratio between aggression and patience, (which I think Seager most readily displayed coming up), they meddle.
Pegeuro - you need to be more a lot more selective
Ackley/Smoak - you need to be more a lot more aggressive
Montero -- close ... but you're swinging at too many out of zone pitches. Dial it back a notch
Instead of thinking - "The optimal Swing% for Ackley and Smoak is 40%" and the optimal swing% for Peguero is 65%, they're trying to push EVERYONE to a Swing% of exactly 48.75.
I think the 20-car pileup begins because they get players to alter their approach ... their production plunges ... THEN they focus on mechanical fixes to a problem induced by the club to begin with. ("Our advice is sound - therefore YOUR execution is the problem here").
I could be a million miles off base ... not having any access to anything but quotes to the media from coaches ... but that's my sense of things.