Boone “Flippin'” Logan and his “Terrible” Second Half

How many times have Yankees fans said, “Boone flippin’ Logan,” in the second half of the season? I, like many others, was ready to anoint Boone Logan as a bonafide top-flight reliever. It appeared he graduated from LOOGY to a reliever who can go more than one inning and take on right-handed hitters. His season totals aren’t bad with a 3.83 ERA (3.66 FIP) and holding hitters to a .239/.328/.398 slash line.

However, Logan just hasn’t looked the same in September. It seems like whenever he gets the ball, Yankees fans hold their collective breath in anticipation that a lead will disappear or a deficit will widen. First let’s take a look at his month-by-month production:

Deep breath, Boone Logan. (Image: Rob Grabowski-US PRESSWIRE)

So, after gazing at this little table, we can deduce that Logan has a pattern of a good month, followed by a bad month. During the first month of the season, he was lights out holding batters below a .200 average and only gave up one run (on a home run) the entire month. He followed that up with a terrible May, where he gave up 14 hits in 43 plate appearances. Woof!

By the time June came around, he was making good on the potential he showed earlier in his short career. His live fastball and biting slider was quickly becoming a lethal combination. His production hit a crescendo, where he held batters to a paltry .100/.222/.200 slash line. It was during this stretch that he was on everybody’s radar as the next great reliever.

But, yet again, he followed his best month with one of his worst. Batters hit .320/.469/.640 against him in July and he fell back to Earth. If we fast forward to September, he’s not doing well, but as bad as some would think. Even so, many are claiming that his 77 appearances are finally catching up to him, and that he might need to be shut down until the playoffs begin, if the Yankees make it.

If we compare his first half with his second half production, it looks something like this:

As you can plainly see, his first half and second half numbers are eerily similar. The statistic that really stands out though is his SO/BB ratio. In 33 fewer plate appearances in the second half, Logan has 12 walks compared to 14 walks in 134 plate appearances in the first half. Furthermore, he’s simply striking out fewer batters, which can contribute to higher BABIP, run totals, etc.

Saying all of that, the eye test tells us that something is wrong. If you watched Logan pitch this month, it’s definitely cringe-worthy that culminated in a four-run outburst to the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday. But with the pattern he’s currently pitching in, we can assume his October will be one of his good months, right? Let’s hope so, because the Yankees sorely need him.

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Oh in case you were wondering, here’s his platoon splits against righties and lefties:

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All stats and tables courtesy of Baseball-Reference