If the responsibility to motivate and manage a team is supposed to come from the veteran players, why bother having a manager at all? The way you've described the situation, there is no need for coaching, it should be the guys picking themselves up from the bootstraps. While I think that is necessary, it is the managers responsibility to prepare these guys, just like a general must have his troops ready to take the field.

Sorry, I don't buy the fact that the manager is totally absolved from his team coming it to the playoffs DOA. Torre was a great manager, one of the greatest, but it is about that time that someone more active and less passive steps into the job.