Open Letter to Don Wakamatsu

Dear Don,

Only you and Sean White know exactly what dirt he has on you that he's holding over your head. Nobody can come to your rescue on that one. Sorry. Whatever it is, though, unless maybe it's pictures of you in naught but a pink tutu feeding a puppy to a crocodile, we will forgive you. Eventually. What we can not forgive is the continued overuse of said Mr. White.

Did you know, for example, that after today, the team you are paid handsomely to manage is a miserable 2-19 when Sean White makes an appearance? That your team is 28-23 when he doesn't?

"Ah ha!" I hear you saying, "correlation does not imply causation! In fact, the number of runs credited to Sean have only been equal to or greater than the eventual margin of loss one time!"

Good one, Wak, good one. No, he's not personally responsible for the team being below .500, but did you know that of all the pitchers to appear out of your bullpen, White has the second-worst WPA/LI, ahead of only Ian Snell, who is literally not a Major League pitcher? Yet with Lowe gone, White has the third-highest gmLI, despite having the worst xFIP out of the bullpen, and that includes three (!) pitchers who were doing their job so poorly that they were removed from the roster.

His pLI, by the way, is just 0.69. By comparing gmLI with pLI, you can plainly see that he has often left the game in worse shape than when he inherited it. White owns the worst ratio on the team, in fact. Speaking of inheritance, his LOB% is in the low 60's. FYI, this is bad. Even before counting today's "performance," he ranked 209 out of 236 relief pitchers with at least 10 IP.

So given his nice shiny ERA of 7.27 (worst currently on the team, for what it's worth), the only picture I see being painted is one of a bad pitcher. Whether using new statistics or old, the only case that can be made in Sean White's favor is that he may be ever so slightly better than Ian Snell, who every team in the Major Leagues just passed on.

Somehow, he's the 8th-best pitcher on a 7-man staff, and you treat him like a trusted setup man.

So I reiterate, if it's catastrophic embarrassment you seek to avoid, bury him at the back end of mop-up duties, and just let the pictures come out. Really, it's better for all of us. Except Sean White. Fuck him.

Sincerely,

One of the eight fans who still cares.