Some thoughts on Wada

Tigers formally announced their new kantoku and talking to my friends in the Tigers community the general feeling seems to be one of underwhelment. Despite his comments so far (see Yakyu Baka for Gen's excellent translation of the interview) no one seems to be that impressed. On recent polls Wada came 13th as manager Tigers fans would like to see and so has a lot of work to do to win the trust of fans. If one can generalise the thought is 'just another OB'.
Wada has indicated he wants to continue Mayumi's work with the younger players but with only Shibata and Enokida showing promise this seems to be a forlorn hope. With the drafting of Itoh though he may well be able to add power at six or seven and Itoh is fast (see Deanna's comments on Marinerds) but unless his coaching team is effective one doesn't see him being particularly effective either. In fact the impression he has given so far is that he is out of date and facing a steep learning curve. Sakai-owner's justification that Wada had seen both the good times and the bad times of Tigers was laughable as a reason for appointing him manager. With Wada the impression is that his rise is because he kissed the right arses not because he has managerial ability. Of course, he might prove to have this but at the moment he is starting from a very low expectation level.