Yankees Aaron Boone makes managing tough on himself

When Aaron Boone is forced to make decisions on the fly and really manage his club, the Yankees get into trouble and have to hit their way out.

Managing the Yankees, with their abundance of outstanding talent should be far easier than manager Aaron Boone makes it. In his rush and zeal to win, he causes himself and his team problems they don’t need. It’s about time he learned who his players are.

In the final game of the series versus the Houston Astros, Yanks’ starter Masahiro Tanaka was dominant through six innings, allowing no runs and five hits with just 71 pitches thrown starting the seventh-inning.

The Astros began the inning with two scratch singles by Yuri Gurriel and Josh Reddick. Then Tanaka, still throwing well, was deemed by the plate umpire to have hit Alex Bregman with a pitch, that on replay certainly didn’t look to have touched him. The Yankees challenged and lost another funny call from New York.

Anyway, that is not the problem. Instead, watching Boone’s managerial process from here was disturbing. He was frantic, seemingly panicked and pitching coach Larry Rothschild was visibly upset in the dugout.

Boone is the manager, and I do respect that he made a decision, but Boone practically bull-rushed the mound to get the ball from Tanaka’s hands

Gary Sanchez had caught him well all day, and they were really in sync.

Doesn’t yanking a very unhappy Tanaka wear at his confidence levels that were a big problem last year? Do we need to see that rear its ugly head again?

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Tanaka is Japanese. Although not his best stuff, he knew how well he was performing, and it was a matter of honor for him. Boone better learn how that works and get to know who all of his players are if he wants the very best from them.

Why Chad Green at that point? I’m not saying Green hasn’t been great, but he has been far better pitching a clean inning than coming in with men on base. With the bases packed and nobody out, isn’t David “Houdini” Robertson the go-to guy to escape the inning? I wonder where the nickname Houdini came from!

Changing to a fastball pitcher that throws 95-97 mph from the slow spinning stuff Tanaka deals is a significant adjustment for a defensively challenged Gary Sanchez, and a passed ball is almost inevitable in that situation.

So Green drops the lead and goes one run down. Is Aaron “The Puppet” Boone already conceding by leaving an already frustrated Chad Green into pitch another inning? Maybe Boone is trying to build his confidence or save arms after not needing them yesterday? (That was a sarcastic question.)

Having the weapons but not knowing how to use them will eventually catch up to the Yankees. By May he is supposed to understand the starters and relievers and know the correct combination of how and when to use them.

Boone was excused by many when the season began because of the “learning curve” a rookie manager must go through. I didn’t justify him then, and I certainly don’t now.

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The only major weakness and reason for a failure by this Yankees team is Aaron Boone. His puppetmaster, GM Brian Cashman put him in this job so that Cash could be the one to manage the Yankees by remote control.

Cashman needs to pull Boone’s strings much better in situations that actually require him to manage.