THE YANKEES NEED TO SAY BYE TO BOONE THE BONEHEAD!

I'm still sitting here stewing. It's going to be a long winter and I don't want to sit here and be aggravated about the state of the Yankees the entire time, but unless major changes happen many fans will be aggravated. We are Yankee fans, we have high expectations....VERY high expectations actually.

The Yankees didn't win the World Series. The Yankees tanked the first ten games of the season and then chased everyone in the division for the rest of the season. The team never clicked and it's frustrating to see a huge payroll filled with a bunch of underperformers.

And on top of the underperformers, a manager who just doesn't know how to manage and get the best out of his team is the biggest concern for me. Brian Cashman thought Aaron Boone was the right man for the job for his ability to communicate and connect with players. We've had four seasons with Boone in the dugout now, we should've seen his great skills translate with someone on this team. The sample size is large enough for that, so what will it take for Hal Steinbrenner to realize that Boone's skillset isn't a fir for the job?

Hopefully NOW, but I am not going to hold my breath. Boone relies solely on analytics and not actual strategy or instinct. Every call comes from someone in analytics. Every lineup or bullpen move is predetermined. A good part of a managers job is done behind closed doors, something we never get to see. If Boone is so good at what he does (like Cashman says) why hasn't that translated to wins on the field? Why haven't we seen breakthroughs with Gary Sanchez or Gleyber Torres? And what about Clint Frazier? This was supposed to be his year. Boone even called him a starter in Spring Training. If he's supposed to be a players manager, why hasn't he helped improve these struggling players? It's not all his fault or even the players fault....but a good communicator and baseball mind will find ways to win and improve.

What have we really accomplished under Boone? Nothing. I don't care that he has won 328 games because none of those games gave us a championship. We went from being one win away from the World Series under Joe Girardi to four years of disappointment. The Yankees made the choice to walk away from Girardi and even Joe Torre before him when their contracts were up and now it is time to do the same again. This leadership is not getting us back to being champions.

I don't think the Yankees are ready to move on to another manager, but they should be. It's clear that things under Boone haven't worked and adding more high priced talent isn't going to change that. Even Boone said on Tuesday night that the entire league has "closed the gap on us" and that's under part of his watch....so why shouldn't he take the blame for that? We haven't been to the World Series in 12 years but the Yankees haven't gotten any closer in the 4 years he's been skipper. He's not the only one to blame BUT you have to start somewhere. 

Right now on the top of my offseason wish list is getting rid of Boone. The Yankees can just walk away from him and regroup unlike with Cashman....but there's more to come on that later. The Boone experiment didn't work. The Yankees have lost some of their mystique, and this is the first move to get it back.

  --Jeana Bellezza-Ochoa

     BYB Senior Managing Editor

    Twitter: @nyprincessj