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The last pitcher!

Sean White is one of manager Don Wakamatsu’s favorite arms in the Seattle Mariners bullpen.  Last season he used him 52 times through the end of August.  During that span, White was almost brought into every other ballgame, or once every 2.5 games.

That seems irresponsible of Wakamatsu considering that White spent the bulk of the 2007 season on the DL with an elbow injury, and indeed he had to be shut down for last September with the same problem (publicly diagnosed as biceps tendinitis, which doesn’t hold the same negative connotation as elbow-this or elbow-that, but it’s the same thing).

White is currently trying to prove he is healthy and if he is he is a virtual lock for one of the six (or seven) bullpen spots.

Wak has spoken highly of White on multiple occasions.  But what does he see in White?  It’s a mystery.

White is a solid reliever but not great by any measure. He’s just… boring.  He throws a bunch of fastballs for strikes, doesn’t get many missed bats or strikeouts, and relies on his defense.  That can make for a solid big league reliever, but not necessarily one that is getting crunch time setup innings, or one that often comes into the game with runners no base.

I suppose Wak likes White so much because he is overstating White’s groundball tendencies.  White is often lauded as a groundball pitcher a la Roy Corcoran or Sean Green, but in reality he only has a slight groundball tendency.  When comparing him to those other guys he falls well short.  White had a groundball percentage (GB%) of 48.3% in 2009.  In 2008 Green was at 63.3% and Corcoran was at a whopping 69.5%.

If Wak is going to continue to use White in crucial situations, I hope he can improve himself.  One suggestion I would have for him would be to mix his pitches better, rather than just letting hitters make contact with the fastball.  That heater of his is an extremely hittable pitch.  Opposing hitters only swung and missed at it 3.7% of the time last season (that’s very low, almost 2% lower than Ian Snell’s teeable fastball).  That’s fine for White’s purpose (getting quick outs by involving his defense), but it limits his upside.

I would really like to see more changeups to both righties and lefties.  He only threw it about 8% of the time in 2009, but it was by far his best swing and miss pitch and when hit it typically induced weak contact.  It’s a good pitch, with lots of movement; heavy with sharp armside run.

But chances are– especially given that White will be focusing on staying healthy– is that we’ll see the same old White.  Lots of fastballs, lots of balls in play.  That’s fine and good, but here’s to hoping Wak falls in love with a reliever who can control his effectiveness a little more than White can.