On John Wetteland

by ~ September 16th, 2009 at 11:16 am

John Wetteland was the Washington Nationals bullpen coach in 2006, but he didn’t make it through the season and was fired in June.

Manager Frank Robinson was apparently annoyed at the lack of professionalism and practical joking from his bullpen corps.  Wetteland just didn’t get off to a good start with the no-nonsense Robinson.

Several club sources said Wetteland encouraged pranks among the relievers, and they started with firecrackers in spring training that were set off in the bullpen during Grapefruit League games and in the clubhouse. One source said the clubs in each of the first four cities the Nationals played in this season complained to Major League Baseball about damage to their bullpen sustained when Washington was in town.

“It wasn’t just their performance,” Robinson said at the time. “It was the idea of them not handling themselves during game time in a professional way.”

What could you be referring to, Frank?

John Wetteland is a goofy guy.  I supposed he’s turned it down a notch as the Mariners haven’t been defacing bullpens on the road as far as I know.  I’m just glad Don Wakamatsu isn’t annoyed by the antics and doesn’t appear to have a “respect issue” with Wetteland, because the bullpen has been a key part to the new “fun” Mariners.  This has been a frustrating year at times, but if there is anything that makes watching baseball more fun, it’s seeing the players actually have fun.

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  • MarinerMan6

    I’m glad they are having fun but the M’s bullpen has been awful minus Aardsma and Lowe. Speaking of the bullpen, the major thing I don’t understand about Wak or any other ML manager is the need to only use their closer in the 9th inning with a 3 run lead or less. Here is Waks quotes per Stone last night after the loss:

    Noting that Aaardsma has pitched just once in the last 10 days, he added, “We have to find the guy that’s going to step up and give us a solid seventh.”

    That need is particularly acute now that White was placed on the 60-day disabled list Tuesday with right shoulder tendinitis.

    “We’ve left it to Sean all year,” Wakamatsu said of the seventh inning. “It’s been pretty critical the last week or so missing him, and not having that guy to get to (Mark) Lowe. We’ve talked about Shawn Kelley or (Randy) Messenger or someone earning that role, but no one’s stepped forward yet.”

    I got an idea Wak, if the game is on the line in the 7th inning bring in Aardsma. Wak is worrying about the save situation when 6 more outs still have to be recorded for that to even be an issue. I am a fan of winning games and if I feel that only Lowe/Aardsma are the only guys that can keep a lead then I throw my best out there first in Aardsma. I would rather have Aardsma throw 2 innings (he’s only thrown once in 10 days) and then Lowe could close it out. Who cares who gets the save?? I am not personally blaming Wak as most ML managers are like this but I am shocked none of the sabermetrics sites have covered this issue in detail.

    • http://proballnw.com Jon Shields

      Churchill had an identical rant over at Prospect Insider. I wholly agree and have for some time. One of these days someone will challenge that, and baseball will be better for it.

      As far as bullpen performance, you have to look at what Wetteland/the Mariners have to work with. Morrow was supposed to be the closer, imploded after a stop and go Spring Training, and is now a starter. Aardsma and Lowe both have exceeded expectations, DA more than Lowe. Kelley and White are both rookies, with Kelley dominated until he got hurt and White exceeding expectations. The rest of the players are scrubs who shouldn’t be expected to do good. No one is going to make Miguel Batista into a great reliever at this point in his career, for example.

      There are some interesting relievers coming up through the system that should be ready for the big leagues at some point next year, if not opening day, including Phillippe Aumont, Josh Fields and Anthony Varvaro. Add those guys to any 2009 holdovers (DA and to a lesser extent Lowe are probably trade candidates) and any other diamonds in the rough Zduriencik brings in and the 2010 Mariners could have quite a bullpen.

  • MarinerMan6

    Jon,
    I’m glad someone was thinking the same thing. For the record, I had no idea Churchill had just posted this so my post was a mere coincidence.
    I agree with your sentiment about the future of the bullpen and I think both DA and Lowe should be made available this winter because relievers are generally unreliable and volatile year to year (see high Jack Z). If we could package these guys along with someone like Lopez to help get the M’s a Reed Brignac or JJ Hardy I would be all for it. Plus there are retread guys like Billy Wagner that even admitted he would take less money to close.