Prospectus Q&A with Don Wakamatsu
Another awesome interview with our lovely manager. My favorite part:
DL: Given the strides you made last year, and the acquisitions that Jack has already made this off-season, the Mariners are going to be a sexy pick for a lot of prognosticators going into spring training. What message will you be communicating to your players when you get to Peoria?
DW: My first message is going to be that two years ago, they picked that team to go to the World Series and they lost 100 games. Picking somebody, or having your vision on something that you haven't even come close to getting to yet, is a waste of time. Our focus is going to be, and it's going to start in spring training, to try to accomplish absolutely the most that we possibly can and come together as a team, and also to get guys prepared to come to battle. The rest is going to be series to series. We had a lot of success doing that this year, and it's probably going to be more critical as labels get put on our club. We'll be prepared to talk about that on day one of spring training.
about 2 years ago
ThundaPC
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This is amazing mostly because BP has done something I give a shit about
De Gutibus non disputandum est
by Bearskin Rugburn on Dec 21, 2009 11:32 AM PST reply actions
Why does everybody on here seem to dislike BP, to some degree?
Does the fact it require a subscription to read most of the content play into it at all?
In addition to what Graham said, they rarely provide anything worthwhile anymore
In terms of cutting-edge research, they’ve fallen way behind, having realized they can make the most money by whoring themselves out as a glorified fantasy service.
by Jeff Sullivan on Dec 21, 2009 3:19 PM PST up reply actions
They lost all of their really good researchers and basically left us with Joe Sheehan, Will Carrol and Kevin Goldstein for a year
Although now with Colin Wyers and Pizza Cutter on the payroll, they might be getting back on the horse.
by vivaelpujols on Dec 23, 2009 1:08 PM PST up reply actions
It's kind of sad.
Baseball Between the Numbers was a major turning point for me.
by Manzanillos Cup on Dec 21, 2009 4:25 PM PST up reply actions
They did a lot of great work back in the day, and the fact that the traditionalists still make jokes about VORP speaks to their influence
plus PECOTA is still very good for pitchers so far as I can tell. But lots of sites do what they do for free, and some do it better.
De Gutibus non disputandum est
by Bearskin Rugburn on Dec 22, 2009 10:13 AM PST up reply actions
Hmmmm
Obviously, with Ken Griffey Jr. a majority of the DH is taken up.
This was before the Bradley trade but still an interesting comment. But he’s also made a few comments to the effect of Jr’s playing time will have a lot to do with what kind of shape he’s in and how well he’s moving. I sense a subtle message being directed at the Griff Gut. I don’t think any of us want to see Griff getting the number of AB’s he had last year unless he’s actually hitting well enough to justify it which doesn’t seem terribly likely.
"It will be determined by Junior and how well his body functions," Wakamatsu said. "If he’s hitting and he’s moving well and the knee’s not a factor, I expect some good things and playing time will come accordingly."
“With the surgery, and coming to camp in shape, I look for him to be a contributor.”
Asked if Ken Griffey Jr. will be the M’s full-time designated hitter, he replied, “I think that depends on Ken Griffey Jr. He had a minor surgery over the winter. I think if he comes into camp in shape and he’s moving well, I’ll give him every opportunity for that.”
Griffey!
This is what's called the "not pissing off Griffey unnecessarily by telling the press they know he's bad" strategy
There’s no way Griffey comes into camp in shape and moving well, he hasn’t been either for years. Of course Wak isn’t going to say a bad word about Griffdawg, that doesn’t mean he’s going to give him significant at bats when it actually comes down to it come April.
The Kenji stuff was interesting.
It almost seemed like the problem was a mixture of frustration by Kenji getting shaken off, and (my guess) frustration by the pitchers for, likely, being asked to do the same pitch they shook off. Not to rehash this argument again, but that was the first time I’d seen anything about the pitcher/catcher cultural relationship differences. Cool.
...and now I'm here
Yeah, that was the most interesting part for me too
Everything else was pretty much straight out of the book for out-of-season managers, as interpreted through the Wakamatsu Belief System, but the insights into Kenji were new (to me at least). That certainly was something that had been mumbled in various quarters (along with refutations and assertions of very different scenarios) but this is the first time I’ve seen it laid out by someone who actually knew what was going on across the pitching staff as a whole (vs random after-game comments by one pitcher or another). Short of a translated account by Kenji himself, or a longer exposition by one of the pitching coaches, I’d have to take that as the definitive statement on the Kenji Experiment.
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