The Seattle Mariners have fired manager Don Wakamatsu, pitching coach Rick Adair, and bench coach Ty Van Burkleo.
If ever there was a case of a general manager totally screwing things up six ways to Sunday, and passing the blame along to the most convenient nearby scapegoat - this would be it. Jack Zduriencik completely misjudged the quality of his team (he could have asked me, I would have told him the 2009 Mariners were a lousy team who got really, really lucky.) As well as being required to count on Milton Bradley - and when has counting on Milton Bradley ever worked - Wakamatsu was saddled with an utterly useless player whom he was nevertheless expected to pencil into the lineup as the everyday DH. When Wakamatsu got tired of giving away games because Ken Griffey was completely washed up, he got no support from management. Griffey is an icon in the game in general, and Seattle in particular, and Wakamatsu actually lost the clubhouse when he tried to ease Griffey out of the lineup (ballplayers are not necessarily rational beings, and Griffey's teammates actually wanted him to keep playing.) His GM should have had his back, but he was covering his own ass then and he's covering his own ass now.
The Morrow for League and Chavez deal isn't looking all that brilliant this week, but I'm sure the timing of this move is entirely coincidental. Entirely.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20100810052240564