This time of year is when the inevitable happens. Bad baseball teams' owners down face the facts that their players were not good enough so they fire their managers, all while convincing themselves that a different old man in the dugout will somehow get them that elusive world series victory.

So far, the Cubs, Yankees(reportedely), Nationals, and Marlins have fired their managers. In the Cubs and Nationals case, it is clear that no matter who the manager would have been, there was no way to have a successful season with the players thet are on these franchises.

The Yankees situation was a little different, considering the owner is George Steinbrenner. Georgie strives for protection and since his Yanks were just ejected from the playoffs, he felt compelled to do something and pin this season's failure on somebody, so Torre had to suffer. Never mind that the Yankees couldnt muster up any offense against Kenny Rogers with their all star lineup.

The strangest and most stupid of all decisions was the firing of Girardi. He really did nothing wrong in his short tenure as manager. Jeffery Loria once again helped pull back a franchise that ended the season with high hopes for next year. 

But in the end of the day, the cycle of bad teams firing their managers just does not make sense to me. Basball is the sport where coaching makes the least impact, and winning is almost entirely up to the players and their will to perform day in and day out. Players hit and pitchers pitch, and a manager doesnt really affect that. In basketball and football, at least the coaches have to draw up playbooks and decide how to approach each opponent, a task much bigger than any baseball coach must undergo.

Owners just have to face the facts and accept that they did not field a good enough team to contend and instead of going and chasing managers they should pursue free agents and do their best to change the personell on the field, not the dugout.