Wakamatsu has got to go!

[Brandon]

I think that Don Wakamatsu's time in Seattle is quickly coming to an end. He has lost the respect of the clubhouse, he has run one of the most beloved and greatest baseball players of all time out of town, and he probably wont avoid a 100 loss season. I don't see any upside to keeping him on as skipper. He lacks fire and leadership qualities.

Don't get me wrong, I think Wak is a nice guy. Unfortunately for Seattle, nice guys finish last.

[JosephC]

First of all, welcome to MarinersForum Brandon, thanks for joining!
I have respect for Don Wakamatsu as he has been handed one of the hardest jobs in baseball this year. He's stuck with a losing team, some very bad attitudes and high expectations. At the same time, I agree that once a manager loses his respect in the clubhouse, things are going to just get worse. My only question back is that has he really lost respect of the clubhouse? Or has he just lost respect of Figgins? Figgins has had a really bad attitude as of late. So bad in fact, many Mariners fans are suggesting the Mariners should trade him with some salary in the off-season. Will that happen? I say no way.

At the same time though I think this season is more the fault of Z than W. Z knew we lacked a bat and he decided to still test his luck. Well this year his luck is complete reverse of last years. If he's not careful, another year of bad luck and he will be trying to find another job.

[Brandon]

Thanks, glad I got an invite. I do believe that Wakamatsu has lost the respect of the clubhouse. He was dealt a tough hand this year with poor talent and high expectations. He was also given one of, if not the best starting rotation in baseball and failed to do anything with it. He has shuffled the starting lineup more times than a deck of cards in Vegas and has very publicly revealed that he can't handle these guys personalities. The Jr. situation was ugly and although no one will go on record, it has been leaked here and there that Wakamatsu all but forced Jr out the door which didn't exactly sit well with the clubhouse leaders.

I'll give a couple examples.

The Shuffled Lineups.

-- Consistency is obviously one of the biggest issues that the Mariners struggle with. Ken Griffey Jr. came out and said publicly that the reason he wasn't hitting was he wasn't getting enough AB's to get any kind of rhythm. This isn't just a problem for Jr. In left field you have Saunders, Bradley, Langerhans all rotating and who knows who is going to start from night to night. You have Jack and Josh Wilson rotating at SS every few nights. Kotchman, Carp, Langerhans, Branyan, Sweeney and Smoak have all played 1B almost on a nightly rotation throughout the first half of the season. How can these guys play consistent baseball when they aren't seeing consistent playing time?

Bullpen

-- The bullpen has rightfully earned their nickname of blowpen. These guys couldn't save a game of fast pitch. Brandon League has cost the Mariners 8 games by way of wild pitch or home-run. He throws a wild pitch on average of 1 per 10 innings pitched. Compare that with Felix who throws one WP about every 18 innings. Nearly twice as many, yet Wakamatsu will lift a pitcher having a decent outing with the game on the line for League.

Attitude

-- It is the job of the manager to manage major league egos. It just comes with the territory. Every manager has to do it. Some are better than others and some inherent better situations, but it is still in the job description. Wakamatsu tries to befriend these guys rather than put the best on the field on a nightly basis. i.e. Rob Johnson who is hitting .193 with 2 HR and 13 RBI's when you have a guy hitting .327 in the minor league. Rob is buddies with the pitchers and Wak allows that to come before winning. That is frustrating.

[Igoe4Mariners]

It can't be a Mariners forum without a "insert name here has to go!"

[georgmi]

Meh. The reason Junior wasn't hitting is because he is forty years old, has no bat speed anymore, and no longer has the legs to beat out the weak dribblers he was constantly pulling to the second baseman.

Your wild pitch stat should be down there with Rob Johnson, not with the bullpen. A real catcher would have blocked most of the balls that Johnson has allowed to go for a WP.

[JosephC]

The thing that bugs me the most about Wakamatsu is the way he uses that bullpen, as you mentioned. It's as if he does rock, paper, scissors with Mike Sweeney to decide who goes out to relieve. So I'm with you on that for sure. The other thing that really bugs me is Wakamatsu after the game always saying the positive things. When a team is this bad, fans are not stupid. We don't want to hear the few things they did right. We want to hear what is going to be done to change this awful team.

[Philipe]

CATCHING...BACKSTOP...has been our biggest problem for all the blown games....we have a 30/30 catchers group out there..the worst in the entire game...once we lost Johjima...we lost an All-Star caliber backstop....we have lost great ball games...great pitchers..because MANAGEMENT WILL NOT....buy a premier backstop...why didn't anyone suggest to give PUDGE a $1million dollar chance...look at what he's done to help the Nationals...

Once again...Northwest management is smoking dope big time season after season...time to invest in a high caliber and proven back stop..if Varitek becomes available again..let's bring him back...since he was part of our farm system...