It's the biggest disappointment in the Yankees 2021 season.... and all of it has to do with failed leadership.
Bleeding Yankee Blue is not the only ones that are piling on. Several are out there voicing frustration, fans and media alike. And you can try and blame the players all you want. We here at BYB are not. We go to the top. We blame the top! And I'm not talking about Brian Cashman or Hal. No. Those guys got us the right players to achieve greatness. But much like a bunch of Little Leaguers... motivation from a manager needs to be significant. I mean, these players have MADE it, they're in the MLB, but even players need motivation no matter what level you are.
And where do you get motivation? You get it from your leader. In the Yankees case... lack there of.
Aaron Boone needs to be fired.
Enough of this "friends with my players" bullshit. You can't be a friend and be a leader. You need to seperate to 2 until your goal is achieved. And the goal? Winning. Let me rephrase... winning consistently.
Everyone knows the Yankees can't win 162 games. No team can, but there needs to be some consistency. There needs to be a guy at the top that knows what to say and when to say it. No one loved Joe Girardi, but Girardi was competitive. Girardi IS competitive. He brought a loser Phillies team all the way up to .500. The Yankees?
They're better than the Phillies. They're one game above .500 and 9 games back. Worst Yankee team since the days of Bobby Meacham? Probably.
But in the 2021 Yankees team, one thing is missing... leadership. Boone is not a true leader. Boone is the grandson of Ray Boone, son of Bob Boone and brother of Bret Boone and that's where his baseball experience begins and ends.
Sometimes... sometimes it doesn't translate. Experience isn't hitting a home run to beat the Red Sox in the 2003 ALDS. It goes much deeper than that. It was exciting then, but do you notice that's all this guy has?
And so how does that transfer into leadership? How do leaders get respect? How do leaders lead? Well, it's about trust and not about friendship. And Boone needs to dig deep and see what that means. I don't know if he needs to go to a Vegas desert and take some peyote and reflect or if he needs a nice stern talking to from Cashman and company. But one thing is certain... He needs to change his approach, because he's TERRIBLE at it.
This Yankee team won't play for him. This group of coaches he surrounds himself with don't believe in him. This guy is on his own island and the team has left him whether they act like it publicly or not. Why you ask? He's not a leader... he's a friend. That's a loser all day long, folks... especially if you're the manager.
Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes:
"The 1995 Yankees were 30-35, yet surged to be the first AL wild card in a 144-game season. The 2016 Yankees were 31-34 and for the only time in Steinbenner ownership were sellers at the deadline, yet actually played better after dealing Aroldis Chapman, Andrew Miller, Carlos Beltran and Ivan Nova.But dig deeper. The 1995 Yankees obtained David Cone and rallied around getting Don Mattingly to the playoffs to have a historic season. The 2005 club received pretty much baseball miracles in Shawn Chacon and Aaron Small, plus the farm system gave that roster Robinson Cano and Chien-Ming Wang — neither of whom were viewed as an elite prospect at the time of promotion. The 2016 Yankees got a historic homer binge from Gary Sanchez after his elevation. The 2005-08 teams still were clinging to key pieces of a dynasty that had winning at the highest level in their muscle memory. The 2007 club received an MVP season from Alex Rodriguez."
Now while comparing teams to each other isn't exactly a good execise because talent and feel are different every season... there is one thing that is pretty signicant in what Sherman is trying to say. Leadership WAS different. Showalter. Torre. Girardi. These guys were battle tested. They understood competition. They weren't handed the keys with some blind faith... they used to drive the fucking car. ALOT. Boone didn't drive... he rode shotgun. And while he was supposed to be observing the way it all worked as a manager... he would get easily distracted looking at dogs and street signs as the drive to managerial stardom unfolded for him.
And so here we are. He can fake it all he wants, but he just wasn't paying attention all these years... despite the pedigree.
Aaron Boone is the reason this Yankee team is terrible. Leadership is vital in this game and Boone doesn't have it. You know who else didn't have it?
Those were dark times as a Yankee fan. We're back to those times.
Fire the manager.
Bring some new light and energy to this Yankee club and find a way to convince them that they are the shining light in the Bronx. Because right now... they don't believe in themselves or their ability. And adults or not... motivation is always vital. That starts with solid leadership.
Boonie? You're finished.
Boone was the choice of Cashman and approved by Hal. This mess is on the three musketeers
ReplyDeleteExactly!
DeleteI agree with you 100%. A team unhappy playing for a manager is a disaster. Agreed time to fire Boone not because he's a bad guy it's because he's a good guy, friend, buddy to the players. This is true in most businesses. You can't manage and be buddies with you players at the same time. There's a certain amount of toughness that's needed to do the job. But if you're buddy buddy with them they think all they have to do is just go out there everyday and just collect a pay check. What you get is a ho hum team. Players need to be motivated every single day.I think the Yanks should seriously think about bringing Buck Showalter back.
ReplyDeleteCashman is the guy who fired Girardi & brought in Boone. They both need to go?! As do most of the Yankees front office including Randy Levine and many of the analytics people
ReplyDeleteHere's a crazy idea. Given that it's New York City and given that the chances of the Yankees coming back this year are slim.... Fire Brian Cashman. The thinking is we don't want him influencing any more major decisions. Unfortunately, all of his trusted advisors need to also be let go and while you're cleaning house you can get rid Randy Levine who.should have been fired a long time ago.
ReplyDeleteThe next obvious move is to hire Buck Showalter but not as a manager. Make him the GM. Let him put in place whatever scouts or advisors he wants who can help him maneuver around the trade deadline. Chances are, the Yankees could sell off a few pieces and get some mid-level prospects.
He could also sit in the dugout and act as the bench coach for games. This would put a real baseball person with a lot of experience into a leadership role off the field and to a degree on the field in terms of strategy and game management.
From there, the main thing would be to deal with the media this year and that's kind of what the manager does. Boone is good at that. But we have a culture of Buddy Buddy going on so unfortunately he would need to be fired also.
ReplyDeleteIn his defense he's struggling to put left-handed hitters in the lineup to get some balance and that's what causes him to bat Odor & Gardy #3 & #5 so much, but those are the left-handed hitting players he has to work with and that his boss gave him.
To start creating the right culture all of the underperforming Yankees who can be either offloaded, released or demoted need to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.
This brings up younger hungry players and if they don't perform then they get demoted and someone else comes up. This creates more of a business atmosphere and a culture of accountability which is dearly lacking.
Lastly, the team would need a manager who could roll out something consistent on a daily basis instead of constantly tinkering and getting out managed during games.
The manager would also need to be very good with the media under tremendous scrutiny because the Yankees would be sitting near the bottom of the division - which is going to happen no matter if you make a change or whether you stay with the current crew.
So you would need a hard nose person dealing with the media who would jump at a chance to manage the Yankees. With Buck serving kind of a dual role, you'd have plenty of experience on the bench.
Therefore Mike Francesa is the obvious choice to be the manager. Fans would love it. He could easily deal with the media & nobody's going to knock him around. The players would also probably like him to a degree and he would have a ton of thought behind what he was doing but he wouldn't be an analytics beotch either.
Odor & Frazier would be the first two casualties. I'm fine with releasing Odor and demoting Frazier.
Gardy isn't performing either and it's probably time to call it a career. Most of us love the guy but if you're going to start instilling a culture of perform or else, he'd have to go for the sheer principle of it.
First crack at being his replacement until maybe a trade gets made goes to Thomas Milone. Milone can play all three outfield spots, he hits from the left side & he effectively replaced Gardy.
Let Buck figure out what he wants to do and he can talk about it with Mike and any other personnel moves could be their joint decision with Buck having the final say.
As the deadline approaches you've got your leadership team in place and all of the bogus advisors are gone. You can also save some money by canceling the 30 subscriptions to FanGraphs that all of the trusted advisors were relying on to screw up the Yankees.
Hal would come out of this looking like at least he has a backbone. Boone could be graciously offered a job in the booth, replacing Buck if he wants to. Or, Boone could maybe take a minor leagues coaching job and get some experience and who knows? Maybe he could come back down the road.
John Flaherty could become part of the coaching staff at the Big League level and maybe David Cone could become the pitching coach. Then the Yankees would just need a new hitting coach and Paul O'Neil, if he'd accept the position, would make perfect sense.
The idea would be to groom Flaherty to become the next manager, after Mike hangs it up. I could see Mike at least finishing out the rest of the year and maybe even tackling another year provided he has Buck.on the bench.
ReplyDeleteSince it's obvious Buck is not going to let anyone tell him what to do, then let him make the decisions. He's got the credentials in the experience to do just that. He'd be a better GM in many respects than Cashman.
Is Cashman's main strength his ability to negotiate contracts? I'm not sure but there are other GM's out there who are currently out of work who could be brought in to handle some of the administrative duties like that.
The benefit to the Yankees is that they would be electricity around the team because Mike is now the manager and Buck is now in the dugout. That would really put a charge into New York City. It would take a horrendous situation and make it a very intriguing one.
Also, actual baseball decisions would be being made by a guy who's a lifer. Buck is at the stage of his career where having only managerial duties is a misuse of his tremendous talent.
Freeing Buck from having to talk to the media regularly and letting him apply himself is really what would benefit the Yankees the most which is why he's an ideal candidate to be the next GM.
Also I forgot to mention when Frazier is demoted, Trey Ambugey would be the first minor leaguer up to the big league club.
ReplyDeleteReplacing Odor isn't really necessary because Wade could simply play more. That doesn't mean start Tyler Wade regularly either. It means going with Chris Gittins who's doing absolutely nothing at the plate with the thinking that he plays good defense and it lets DJ at least play 2B, where he is very strong defensively & can make the most impact.
This creates an additional roster spot for Buck to do with what he wants. With a bench of Higgy, Wade & Amburgy, Gittens & Milone would be starting in the short term and Voit would be returning when he's ready.
Miggy is your starting left fielder & Amburgey replaces him when the team has a lead, late in the game or he can also be used in RF to spit start when Judge is DHing.