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White is one of the pitchers that makes me antsy about how good the Ms bullpen will end up being.  I personally wish he were already in Tacoma.
But, as for why you use him in that situation?  Because he has EARNED that position with his previous body of work. 
It is great that the new club is sabr-savvy.  But, this club is about a million light years ahead of the SABR pack on the HUMAN aspects of managing a team.  White was in when he was for the same reason EOF got 6.2 innings at the beginning of 2008 -- it is based on his entire body of work.  Despite miserable TTO numbers, White had the second best ERA in the pen during 2009 - and while that may not carry weight with the slide-rule crowd, it still does with the people who have to make those day-to-day calls.
Has Wak *EVER* seen League come into a critical game situation first hand?  Spring Training doesn't count - because those games are meaningless.  Well, if League comes in and has an outing like White ... what happens to him in the press? 
Wak will undoubtedly use White in upcoming similar situations.  W *MUST* let ALL the pitchers in the pen that he has their backs -- that he's not going to punish players or over-react to a single bad outing. 
In the end, April tends to be a hunt-and-peck month for most bullpens.  It's nice for the fans to think they know ahead of time how everything will break, but that's rarely the case.  By the end of April, Lowe could be closing with League setting up and Colome pitching the 7th - (depending on injury, ineffectiveness, etc.).