Fan Gauge: Don Wakamatsu

Now downgraded to like. It’s more of an overall feeling for me – last season still carries a lot of weight.

From all accounts, he’s excellent in handling his players and has been just about perfect in dealing with Milton.

Then there’s the part where he has handicapped the roster with two invalids, mismanaged the bullpen, and shown a management style that generally goes against what makes actual sense. He seems to be bright, so I can only hope he’s eventually receptive to having the personnel decisions made for him in a way that won’t allow him to continue to punch holes in the bottom of the good ship Mariner.

Be better, Wak, because you’re losing your fanbase and worsening Jeff’s mental health by the pitching change.

Not just game management… but in the game against the Rangers when he argued Casey Kotchman getting called out for running inside the baseline Wak barely argued at all on what was a truly BS call. I was wishing for Lou Piniella more than ever at that moment. The next inning Ron Washington argues a call (that won them the game and he still found something to get mad about) and gets thrown out. I wish we had seen that from Wak. Show some fire.

Wak has no personality.

And now that he can see first hand that winning games improves chemistry more than Griff/Sweeney in the clubhouse, maybe he’ll reevaluate his roster.

I love that he is the first asian-american manager, i love that bald spot he covers up, I love how his leg never seems to cramp while standing in that exact same position in the dugout, day in and day out. I love that every time I read “wak,” i think of the muppets.

But, I hate the line-ups.

I wonder how they’d do compared to Wak.

It has to be said that Wak seems to be an excellent manager of men.

For example, with almost any other manager, especially guys like Piniella, Hargrove, given above, I think the Milton Bradley thing could have been a sort of season killer and poisoned the atmosphere.

Instead you have Milton Bradley, The Milton Bradley, taking the unprecedented move of admitting he has problems (not blaming others) and seeking help from the team (going to Wak and Z and then talking to his teammates). I mean wow, this is really incredible when you think of MB’s history.

By Wak being who he is, by his handling of the whole situation, the trust he has with his players as their manager, and going back a little to the game, by reacting savvily and taking Milton Bradley out in the middle of the game (it was an extremely unpopular move at the time to almost everybody else) before Milton could do something crazy to the ump, I think Wak may have nipped a major incident in the bud and just made it minor.

This is Wak’s great strength, how he handles people well. Eventually players in slumps will start performing well again.