WB is the classic #25 on a NL team (even though he had a bunch of Seattle years)   Plays 7 positions, and can hit lefties a bit.  He was a career .280 AVG and .703 OPS vs. lefties.  Guys like that, especially if they are + guys in the club house, stick around....deservedly so.  Flexibility is a neat thing for a team to have....espeically in the NL where you PH and double sub.  -But his signing a year ago was a huge reack....and all about Mac wanting a Pro in the clubhouse.  It didn't work out.   I would still, given the ability, sub him in for McClendon.

Because of the closely packed weirdness of this season, it might only take 86 wins to make the WC.  If 86 is a reasonalbe number...the M's need to go 50-33 the rest of the way (including tonight) to get there.  That's .600 ball.  The only team in MLB above .600 right now is St. Louis.    Even if we only have to get to 84 wins, that still demands a 48-35 run.  That is basically what Houston, the best team in the AL, has done during the 1st half.  BAsically our chances are pretty low.  McClendon isn't doing it.  

Willie became a whipping boy in the local blog-o-sphere, only because he was a way to point to the idea that [oversimplified] math formulas were smart and major league GM's were dumb.  There are many such players in baseball history.  Phil Rizzuto for the Hall of Fame ... it was a way for sportswriters to say they appreciated the subtleties of the game.  "Willie F. Bloomquist" was a way to say that any ordinary commenter in a USSM thread knew much more about baseball than (say) Bill Bavasi did.

He was a quality bench player, a stoploss, and noted to be a terrific "org guy" in the dugout.  Dr. D always LOATHED the "WFB" attitude and wondered what the guy had ever done to the pundits ...  ;- )

Precisely as Moe says, he was a #25 player the way you draw him up on the chalkboard.  Tip o' the kelly, as Mikey Jay would say, to a fine pro sports career.