This Management by Baseball* article reflects an idea I ran across when looking into the KM program at Novartis. If you are going to make a change, then you need to get the idea of the change in front of the people in your organization, through both internal and external communications.
Part IV (and last)- 3 Knowns of Innovation: Fighting for Control of Foul Territory (10 Oct 2003)
It looks like people in the Redlegs' organization are looking for a system to get them out of their difficulties and are campaigning in the Enquirer to overcome internal resistance. Pitching to influencers is a typical, and frequently successful, part of a political campaign for or against an innovation. It's particularly fertile right now because the Reds fired both their manager and general manager in July and are likely to replace both interim solutions in place now. Whatever theory wins the day is likely to get a good set of roots down, so the stakes are high, both for the innovators and the defenders of more traditional methods.
* Jeff Angus' Management by Baseball is an interesting read, even if you aren't a die-hard baseball fan (me). Talking about various management practices and ideas under the guise of baseball does wonders for my visualization of the concepts.