The Yankees went 2-6 last week, which effectively killed any chance to win the AL East. Not only is Aaron Boone’s club 5.5 games behind the first place Rays, but the Yankees are also now a game back of the Blue Jays with 20 games left this season. Fortunately, the expanded playoff system will allow the Yankees to almost assuredly make the postseason. Let’s get the latest on the Yankees’ skipper:
- Boone served a one game suspension after Aroldis Chapman nearly hit Tampa Bay’s Michael Brosseau in the head on Tuesday. Benches cleared for a shouting match following that game. The manager didn’t think he should have been suspended.
- Gary Sánchez’s season-long struggles reached a boiling point over the weekend. The manager benched him and was asked quite a bit about it. How long will it last? His response: “…hopefully, a day or two or however I decide to do it here can help get him going because once on all of us to get around him and try and help him get to what we know he can be.” More quotes from Boone within the link above on how Gary handled the news and how this is part of the manager gig.
- The manager was not pleased with Tyler Wade’s poor baserunning after losing to the Mets on Thursday.
- Boone was scrutinized for some of his moves over the weekend.
- He brought Clarke Schmidt in for his debut with two on and two outs in the fifth. It’s easy to Monday Morning Quarterback that decision after Schmidt gave up a few hits, but Boone also didn’t have many options in the nightcap of the doubeheader. Remember, Aroldis Chapman, Zack Britton, Chad Green, and Jonathan Holder all pitched in the first game that day. Adam Ottavino had pitched back-to-back days.
- Yesterday, he didn’t pinch hit for Erik Kratz in the seventh inning. The Yankees were down 4-1 and had two runners aboard with one out. If he didn’t want to go to Gary, fine. But clearly, Gleyber Torres could have hit! He pinch hit after Kratz was retired. Boone took a chance of Kratz hitting into an inning ending double play rather than use Torres. Boone’s lucky Kratz only flew out.
- Speaking of Gleyber, why was he able to pinch hit but not available to start on Sunday? Granted, after Torres pinch hit for Tyler Wade, Thairo Estrada took over in the field.
- Is the whole load management thing becoming overkill? I already mentioned Gleyber, but DJ LeMahieu didn’t feel like he needed a break this weekend. Boone had been wanting to get him a day off nonetheless.
- Lastly, I think this sums it all up:
Now, to the survey:
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Plan
Boone needs to go.
Cashman and the front office made a major miscalculation when they thought this young team needed a buddy manager. What the young players needed most of all was a manager who was going to light a fire under their asses and push them to become true professionals.
Nowhere is this more obvious than with Gary Sanchez, who has no incentive to get serious when his manager goes out there night after night, making excuses for a guy hitting .125. Boone allowed Sanchez’ poor play, unprofessionalism and laziness tester into habits, and now the Yankees are faced with some uncomfortable decisions in addition to getting zero production from the catcher position.
Through it all Boone has been nonchalant and has not demonstrated any ability to motivate these guys or even appeal to their sense of pride to rally them back to life.
Potential championship windows close quicker than most people realize, and we cannot afford this one to be squandered with Boone remaining at the helm. Enough.
Jose Negron
Need to go
Mungo
A vent.
I like Boone, but his in-game managing skills seemed to have taken a step back this year. All managers look bad when their teams are losing, but in Boone’s case we’re seeing some very questionable moves. Beyond that, he also hasn’t been able to motivate this group during this bleak run. Hopefully that changes.
The Yankees, unfortunately and frustratingly, are not a very good team at the moment and they haven’t been for nearly three weeks. They’re 5-13 over their past 18 games, a stretch that included a 7 game losing streak. I mention the losing streak because they’re STILL a losing team even if that really bad 7 game stretch is REMOVED, going 5-6 in all the other games. The Rays embarrassed them, and even the lowly Orioles had their way with this squad.
The ball seems to be de-juiced this year, back to pre-2018 levels, and that could very well explain guys like Ford and Tauchman’s numbers, or lack of them. A more normalized ball (whatever that even is nowadays) should benefit the true power hitters like Judge and Stanton, increasing their value. Unfortunately, for a second straight season, both are MIA, and that’s killing the offense. It’s going to be a problem moving forward if the two of the main studs can’t even take the field for half the games. Hicks is likely dealing with the same post-TJS issues Didi had last season. It’s not uncommon, so I’ll give him a pass. Gary?????? How a man so talented can be so bad for this long is unfathomable. He did have a very bad and similar stretch in 2019, although that was spread out over months, IL stays, and several injuries. He wasn’t healthy. As far as we know, he’s healthy this year. So I’ll stick with the word I wrote–unfathomable.
There is some positive news. Voit and Urshela don’t seem to be fabrications of the juiced ball. Clint has made great progress and likely should take over for Gardner in LF. who may be dealing with age and a more normalized ball this year. That’s good to know planning forward.
Hopefully the Yankees can get a healthy Judge and Stanton back, get the bullpen in order, and find a third starter beyond Cole and Tanaka they feel comfortable giving the ball to. Slumps end. A hot streak heading into October can make this period seem like a distant bad memory. But, yeah, this is not a very good team right now, and Boone isn’t helping.
Rant over.
Mungo
Clarifying. I typed the wrong year for Gary’s equally bad slump from the past. It was 2018. From May 26th through September 30th, 2018, Gary “hit” .142/.251/.278 for a.529 OPS over 46 games. He was injured though on in the IL two separate times. Not the case this year.
It’s something Cashman is going to have to seriously look at moving forward. Gary can be a streaky #6 or #7 hitter when the team is hitting on all cylinders. That’s rarely going to happen if Judge and Stanton are going to be out constantly. That highlights Gary’s flaws.
CentralScrutinizer
You can “motivate” bad players all you want. They’ll still be bad.