From this early-on perspective they look like similar deals:

questionable readiness for the job ...
"bowled over" the pickees in the interview process ...
coaching staff has already picked out ...

The end result in Baltimore was a leader with a bench of coaches that
acknowledged Lee Mazzilli's leadership, but did their own thing anyway.
Since he didn't pick out a single guy to help him manage, he had no backup
on any crucial decisions. Mazz may have had a great personality (as does
Zorn), and the jury may still be out on whether he would have been a good
manager because he never got any of "his guys", but the record books don't
care about that. He was 78-84 in 2004 (3rd out of 4 teams in AL East) and
51-56 in 2005 (4th out of 4) before Angelos gave him the boot mid-season in
favor of Perlozzo, who also didn't get to choose his staff (except for Leo
Mazzone).

Right now there isn't a "coach of stature" that can take over mid-season if
the team starts to swoon. I doubt Snyder would want to do the Terry
Robiskie thing again, so I expect him to sign an OC with some head coaching
experience -- perhaps Morhinweg or even Mooch (though that would be
counterproductive for Zorn) who can take over when the implosion begins.

Zorn has his shot and could do well, but unless his winning personality can
win over "his coaches," when this thing starts to go south, he's gonna fall
faster than King Kong off a skyscraper.

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