Aaron Boone heard chants of fans calling for his job at Yankee Stadium after his move to Clay Holmes backfired for the second time in three nights, and Sal says Boone’s rigid faithfulness to strategies implemented from the front office and analytics staff are what has burned him through his Yankees tenure.
“I’ve never seen a manager get to relievers in the middle of innings more so than Boone,” Sal said. “He’ll get an out, he’ll get two outs from another guy, and he’ll mix over…he can’t wait, because he’s looking at this as lanes. He’s a data applicator looking at the lanes that the Yankees data staff tells him, ‘Hey, this guy should be pitching against this part of the order.’
“I think Boone just hasn’t gotten better, and he hasn’t changed. I don’t think he’s making these decisions on his own. I think he’s going based off what the entire analytics department tells him, which is why he got hired. Brian Cashman wanted that. The Yankees want a manager who sticks to the numbers.”
Boone has drawn recent criticism for his bullpen management, and Sal believes Boone is bearing the brunt of what really is a directive from the top. Still, Boone could help himself by letting his relievers start clean innings rather than mainly bringing them in with runners on in the middle of an inning, just because he likes the matchup.
“He keeps talking about these lanes for years,” Sal said. “Forget what your eyes are telling you, watching [Ron] Marinaccio deal, one out away from getting through the inning clean. There’s no need to go to another reliever there.”
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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