Yankees: It’s time to show some support to Aaron Boone

It’s time to give Boone some credit. He just led this Yankees team to a 17-2 record against some of the toughest teams the AL has to offer. He consistently proclaims that struggling players are close to turning it around, and in some cases, he’s been proven right. For example, he refused to give up on Neil Walker and lately that seems to have paid off.

Walker has been a huge spark plug for the Yanks in almost all of their late-inning comebacks, after struggling through April and being a prominent target of angry fans. His emergence culminated in a walk-off single in yesterday’s extra-inning game against the Athletics. This is just one example of Boone’s optimism and unwavering support of his players paying off.

He’s become adept at dodging dangerous questions from reporters about the struggling player of the day and instead has used those questions to praise the player’s hard work and build up their confidence.

He’s also kept the clubhouse incredibly loose and easy-going despite all of the position battles, roster questions, and huge expectations heaped upon the team, allowing the team to really click off the field. This is evident on the field too, with this team’s “never quit” swagger becoming one of the hallmarks of the early season as the Yanks continue to rack up comeback victories.

Since it is so hard to quantify the effect this can have on a team, most tend to focus on the obvious effects manager’s decisions can have on a game. Mainly through their in-game moves, which can be an imperfect exercise.

But we cannot forget, that confidence is everything in baseball, and having a manager that will always have your back, despite the struggles and the mounting media pressure on Boone himself, goes a long way with players. This is better than say when Girardi publically called out Gary Sanchez for his defensive miscues last year and forced him to answer questions about it.

Every player knows when they screw up, and a manager can certainly send a similar message to the player in a private meeting away from the frenzied NY media, as Girardi’s remarks did end up on the back pages of newspapers.

This seems to be the major difference between the two managers, and likely the reason the Yankees went with Boone due to his superior interpersonal skills. This may be picky, but Girardi just kept too many players on edge with his gritty, no-nonsense attitude that doesn’t play as well with this young, personable team.

One thing that Boone has clearly emphasized as manager: he wants his hitters to control the strike zone. In other words, be selective and only swing at strikes. The Yankees skipper said as much throughout Spring Training:

“I want us to be obsessed with controlling the strike zone. That’s one of the bumper stickers, if you will. I know Marcus [Thames, the hitting coach] and P.J. [Pilittere, Thames’ assistant] are really driving that message home with our guys. We want to be great at that.”

The thinking behind this approach is that more walks lead to more baserunners for the powerful Yankees sluggers to drive in. When there are more runners on base, the pressure is on the pitchers to execute their pitches, which is typically when mistakes are made.

It also forces the opposing starters out of the game earlier as their pitch counts elevate, and a battle of the bullpens is something the Yankees would favor, at least when their bullpen’s at full strength.

If the Yankee hitters are selective, they will see more mistakes to hit instead of pitches outside of the zone or borderline strikes that are tough to drive. And mistakes to this lineup can be devastating, with a team that has a legitimate shot to break the single-season home run record.

Now, patience was not something the Yankees struggled with in 2017. In fact, they were first in the AL in walks and second in all of MLB in pitches per plate appearance with an average of 3.98, behind only the Athletics. The Yankees finished third in walk ratio at 9.7% last year.

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This year? They’ve seen some improvement thus far, averaging 4.03 pitches per plate appearance in 2018 while leading the league in walk ratio at 11.2%. But there’s reason to think their plate discipline can get even better as the season progresses.

Gleyber Torres has had an exceptional start to his major league career, providing a legitimate force at the bottom of the Yankees lineup. However, there’s one aspect of his game that has yet to fully translate to the big leagues: his plate discipline.

Torres consistently posted a double-digit walk percentage in the minors, finishing with a 13.5% walk rate in AAA last year while only sporting a 7% walk rate thus far in his short time with the Yankees.

There’s little doubt Torres will settle down and see more pitches as the rookie jitters fade away and he gets more comfortable at the plate. The same can likely be said for fellow Yankees rookie, Miguel Andujar, who currently has a 2.4% walk rate while finishing with a 6.8% walk rate in AAA last year.

One player who has seen substantial improvement under Boone’s lead: Didi Gregorius. After only accumulating 25 walks in all of 2017, Didi already has 20 this year and is sporting a 12.4% walk rate, compared to 4.4% last year and 3.2% in 2016. Looking even deeper, his swing rate has dropped substantially from 58.2% in 2017 to 50.7% this year, swinging at both balls and strikes less frequently. Boone’s edict of remaining selective at the plate has seemed to have gotten thru to Didi.

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Has everything gone perfectly for Aaron Boone so far? No, but just as players often get better with experience, we can expect Boone to do the same with his in-game decision making. For now, he has established a strong clubhouse culture with the team on pace to win 112 games, the best record in baseball despite all the injuries and prolonged slumps.

It’s time that we stop the hate and give Boonie our support as the Yankees manager.