DILLON LAWSON GONZO & IT'S ABOUT TIME!

It's about damn time! FINALLY, after the Yankees lose a series to the Chicago Cubs of all teams - the Yankees finally make a move heading into the All-Star break. It's overdue but I guess it is better late than never.....Dillon Lawson has been fired!

I am sure Brian Cashman tossed and turned before finally making the move because Cashman doesn't make midseason moves. This is his 26th year as a GM and the first time he has ever fired a coach midseason. "It has been well documented that I have been reluctant in the past to make changes to our coaching staff in 'the middle of a season,' " Cashman said in a statement. 

"I am a big believer that successes and failures are collective efforts. However, I ultimately felt that a change was needed and that a new voice overseeing our hitting operations would give us the best chance to perform closer to our capabilities as we move forward into the second half of our season." You can read more HERE.

Cashman's reluctance to make moves before the end of the season is well documented, but so are the Yankees stats. The Yankees finish the first half of the season fourth place in the division and on the outside looking in for a playoff spot. The Yankees have massively underperformed this season and are tied with the Detroit Tigers for the second-worst batting average in all of MLB (.231) this year. Their on base percentage (.300) and OPS (.710) are ranked near the bottom of MLB. Something had to happen.

So NOW can we finally ask Hal Steinbrenner if he understand why we are so frustrated now? Has it sunk in yet, Hal? Or maybe you are still confused. I know I am when I watch this team play every night and implode without Aaron Judge. One guy can't carry the team, but we can all see how different this team is without him on the field every night. Someone had to take the fall here.

I admit I was never a fan of the Lawson hiring. Cashman considers him a "bright baseball mind" but the more I heard him talk the less I liked him. The whole "hit strikes hard" philosophy with no real context or strategy behind it bothered me. His lack of MLB or even minor league experience showed, in my opinion. Then when he was "flipping over all the rocks" last month to try and figure out how to get the guys to hit better.....it was just obvious to me that he was in way over his head. He never struck me as a man that knew how to get inside a struggling hitters mind and motivate him and help him work out the kinks. This just wasn't a fit and the Yankees needed to stop the insanity.

A replacement is yet to be named and we do not know the fate yet of assistant hitting coach Casey Dykes or first-year hitting assistant Brad Wilkerson. It will be interesting to see where the Yankees go from here. I do not think firing Lawson is going to do much (if anything) for this offense, but he had zero impact on team performance, so this is just an optics move. All I know is, losing Lawson can't make this team any worse offensively.

SEE YA Lawson! No hard feelings, but this is business. You can start "flipping over all the rocks" to find a job elsewhere but your services are not wanted here. Thank goodness the Yankees finally did SOMETHING right.

--Jeana Bellezza-Ochoa

BYB Senior Managing Editor

Twitter: @nyprincessj