In the current state of Yankees universe, it’s hard to have a discussion about the team without mentioning the influence of analytics and advanced data in the team’s approach towards trying to win a 28th World Series.
Often times, the team’s reliance on numbers and expected outcomes is criticized by those who believe gut and feel need to be a bigger part of New York’s strategy. Manager Aaron Boone, brought back on a three-year deal on Monday, is often called a puppet by a large portion of the Yankees fanbase, who are convinced that Boone is only a trigger puller for moves that have already been decided behind the scenes.
Boone and general manager Brian Cashman again tried to extinguish that belief on Monday.
“We’ve built this strawman that this is what happens and we call up and ask for permission to push this button, and at least in my experience…it’s not the case,” Boone said. “I think people like to think they know exactly how it goes, and have done a good job of creating this perception or sometimes even this boogeyman of how it all looks, and I would say it’s not quite like that.”
The Yankees have a robust analytics department, as do currently contending teams like the Dodgers and Astros, while the Red Sox, now two games away from advancing to the World Series, revamped their analytical approach by hiring Chaim Bloom just two seasons ago. But the Yankees haven’t found the recent success those teams have despite trying a similar approach, one that Cashman still stands by despite the lack of World Series appearances.
“I think our analytics department is very good at what they do,” Cashman said. “They are charged with in their specialty category to present player evaluation…we have algorithms on our defensive shifts and a whole bunch of different levels where analytics play a role. I think it served us extremely well.
“They are very good at what they do in their category…separately we have our pro scouts go out and about and do their advanced scouting and pro assessments, and we have our amateur world as well, where the analytics blend into that from the development side to the amateur scouting to the pro side, as well as the managerial strategies and an array of choices that will be leveraged for him to pull if he so chooses.”
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But, as Cashman has stressed throughout the 2021 season and even before, the analytics department isn’t a superior voice in the realm of decision making, rather part of a collaborative effort that tries to tie in what worked in the past with what works now in making the best preparations for future in-game decisions.
“Ultimately, I think from the operation I’m running, it’s a buffet table that gets set for our staff…it’s not affecting us in nearly the adverse way I think the public perception seems to be, but we’ll continue to evaluate all the ways we communicate,” Cashman said. “But I think analytics have served us extremely well to get us to this level, to maintain and put us in position to have success, just like hiring the best pro scouts has, trying to hire the best amateur scouts has…they’re all each individual categories that collectively are supposed to add up to serving us well. The Yankees should use every tool in the toolbox.”
The analytics department is a crucial tool in that box in the eyes of Cashman, but not one that has final say in areas of Boone’s job description. It is still on Boone to make the ultimate choice, despite public perception, and Cashman approves of the job that department has put forth since being constructed into one of the biggest departments in all of baseball.
“They’re very good,” Cashman said. “The people we have served us well and allowed us to maintain a successful, consistent playoff-caliber team and a potential World Series contender on a year in and year out basis. They have a hand in that, just as our other parts of the operation have a hand in that success.”
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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