DEAR HAL STEINBRENNER, STOP HIDING & START LEADING!

When a team loses its fan base, there’s only one person who can change the temperature of the room—the owner. The man who signs the checks. The man who’s supposed to set the tone. That means you, Hal Steinbrenner. And right now, you’re nowhere to be found.

You’ve ducked behind closed doors while the Yankees collapse under the weight of their own incompetence. Radio silence. No leadership. No statement. Nothing. And let me tell you, Hal: it’s sickening.

Meanwhile, we’ve watched Aaron Boone suck the life out of this franchise year after year, handing him extensions like participation trophies while he delivers absolutely nothing. Boone’s in-game management has bled this team dry of millions, and in return? Smiley faces on the lineup card and excuses in the postgame pressers. He should be thanking you for his job security every day, because the fans sure as hell aren’t.

Then there’s Brian Cashman. Oh, Brian. The man who strutted out of the trade deadline acting like he just cracked the code to baseball itself, only to deliver a worse team than the one we had before. His grand plan? A spit-and-duct-tape rotation that can’t get past the fifth inning. A Frankenstein pitching staff that collapses nightly. Even Max Fried—when he’s on the mound—looks exhausted from carrying this circus. I wonder if this poor guy wishes he never came to the Yankees.

And so, my question is what’s the approach here? What’s the strategy? Because from where the fans sit, there isn’t one. It’s pathetic.

And again, where the hell are you, Hal Steinbrenner? Do you even care?

This is the Yankees we’re talking about. The franchise of Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Jeter. The pinstripes that once struck fear into opponents. And yet, we just dropped three straight to the Red Sox. We are 1-8 against Boston this year. Let that sink in: one win, eight losses. These are games you absolutely must win, and instead, we’re getting humiliated.

Yesterday’s loss was maybe the worst I’ve seen in 15 years of covering this team. And the most insulting part? Nobody in that clubhouse seemed angry. Nobody smashed a bat, nobody flipped a table, nobody even looked ticked off. No fire, no edge, no pride. Just another day at the office for these guys.

You know it’s bad when even the broadcasters can’t hide their disgust. Michael Kay and Paul O’Neill could only sit there and watch in horror as the Yankees melted down in real time:

“It can’t get much worse than this,” Kay said.

“Every once in a while, you get embarrassed on the field and this game has just snowballed…” O’Neill admitted. “The Yankees have absolutely fallen apart here in the last couple innings.”

“Quite frankly, the Yankees are getting schooled by the Red Sox…” Kay jumped back in.

That’s your brand right now, Hal: embarrassed on national television. Schooled by the Red Sox. Fallen apart.

A few weeks ago, I did something I never thought I’d do: I wrote, HEY HAL STEINBRENNER, WE HATE THIS TEAM RIGHT NOW. Guess what? Nothing’s changed. In fact, it’s gotten worse. I’ve reached a point in my 15 years of Bleeding Yankee Blue where I flat-out don’t give a damn anymore. That’s how far this has gone.

I haven’t been to Yankee Stadium in almost two years—and it’s not because I don’t love baseball. It’s because I refuse to spend a dime on this embarrassment. Not on tickets. Not on food. Not on merchandise. Nothing. Why should I? Why should any fan bankroll this clown show while you sit in silence?

Hal, you need to speak. You need to act. You need to care. Because right now, Yankee fans are losing their minds as they watch the team they love sink deeper into mediocrity while Cashman counts his job security and Boone happily sharpens his pencils for tomorrow’s lineup card.

We’re furious. We’re exhausted. And yes, we HATE this team. Not because we’ve stopped being fans—because we are fans. Because we know what this team should be, what it once was, and what it’s failing to be now.

This? This ain’t it.

Fix it. Fire someone. Light a fire. Make a statement. Do something. Because if nothing changes, then what’s the point? What the hell are we even doing here?

We are the Yankees. Start acting like it.

And here’s the thing, Hal—it’s not even the roster. On paper, this team should be stellar. It’s not the players, it’s the philosophy. The Yankees have become slaves to numbers, strangled by analytics, blinded by spreadsheets. They’ve let computers replace common sense and they’re dying by their own algorithms.

Clint Hurdle once described what’s missing in baseball these days: “guts and nuts.” The intangible traits that actually win games. He’s right. You can’t measure heart, toughness, or ice in your veins on an Excel sheet. You need guts. You need balls. You need a front office willing to trust its instincts instead of its calculators.

But guess what? We’re running out of time. The postseason is slipping away fast, and honestly? I don’t see this team making the playoffs. And maybe—just maybe—that’s exactly what needs to happen.

Maybe missing October is the only wake-up call that’ll force you to fire Boone. Maybe it’s the only thing that’ll make you finally show Michael Fishman and his analytics cult the door. Maybe it’s the only thing that’ll burn this failed philosophy to the ground and let real baseball people take over.

Because right now, Hal, this isn’t baseball. This is an embarrassment. And it’s happening on your watch.

So, I’ll ask it one last time: Where the hell are you, Hal Steinbrenner?

BURN IT DOWN: BOONE, CASHMAN & FISHMAN HAVE TO GO

Let’s not sugarcoat it—the 2025 Yankees are a goddamn embarrassment. OK fine, make a huge deal that we snapped a losing streak and beat the Mets, but let's face it... it's the Mets. This isn’t just a bad stretch or a team “trying to figure things out.” This is a full-blown organizational meltdown, and it starts right at the top with Aaron Boone, Brian Cashman, and Michael Fishman—the Bermuda Triangle of baseball incompetence.

We’ve said it before here at Bleeding Yankee Blue, and we’ll keep saying it louder for the people in the back: these three are destroying the Yankees from the inside out.

Let’s start with Aaron Boone. A manager is supposed to lead. He’s supposed to get the best out of his players, make smart decisions, manage a bullpen, and inspire a clubhouse. Boone does none of that. Zero. Zilch. The guy looks like he's watching the game from the dugout, not managing it. His bullpen usage is a disaster. His in-game strategy is nonexistent. His postgame interviews? A masterclass in shrugging off accountability. He’s supposed to be the field general—he’s acting more like a substitute teacher who lost the lesson plan.

Now don’t come crying that Boone can only work with what he’s given. Because that brings us right to Brian Cashman—the architect of this dumpster fire. Yes, he made some “moves,” but most of them were cosmetic at best, reckless at worst. Devin Williams? That guy’s about as intimidating as a water balloon in the ninth inning. Still no real third baseman. Still relying on broken veterans and “bounce-back” candidates who haven’t bounced back since 2021.

And when he does address a hole—like third base—he fills it with someone like Jeimer Candelario, who’s hitting worse than Anthony Volpe. That’s like patching a leaky roof with paper towels. Meanwhile, the rest of the league is making meaningful additions.

But the real shadowy villain behind it all? Michael Fishman and the analytics cult. This guy has turned the Yankees into a case study in overthinking. Baseball isn’t just math, it’s feel. It’s rhythm. It’s human instinct. And yet, every decision—every lineup, every pitching change, every trade—is filtered through spreadsheets and predictive models that completely ignore the realities of the field.

Cashman might be the face of the dysfunction, but Fishman is the puppet master in the back room whispering bad ideas into everyone’s ears. (Read this from 2023) And it’s not working. It hasn’t been working for a long time. Yet here we are, watching the same flawed roster construction, the same blind faith in data over baseball IQ, and the same crash-and-burn season play out again.

Yes, the Yankees might sneak into the playoffs. Who cares? This team isn’t built to win a championship and that's the most important thing. They won't win with Boone asleep in the dugout. Not with Cashman making panic moves that solve nothing. Not with Fishman turning the Yankees into a lab experiment gone wrong.

Yankee fans aren’t stupid. We see it. We feel it. We’re fed up. And frankly, it’s insulting that Hal Steinbrenner continues to let this show go on. The standard used to be winning. Now it’s spin rates, exit velocity, and hopes and prayers.

We don’t want tweaks. We don’t want reassurances. We want heads to roll.

Boone has to go.
Cashman has to go.
Fishman has to go.

It’s not optional anymore. It’s mandatory. You want to win in New York? You want to restore the Bronx to what it used to be? Then clean fucking house.

The fans are finally banging the drum. Now it's time to blow the horn and burn it down.

BLOG SUGGESTS YANKS SHOULD HAVE PLAYED GRISHAM OVER VERDUGO

Grisham over Verdugo in 2024 appears to always have been the move, and the Yankees blew it, again. 

Well, what do you know—Yanks Go Yard comes out swinging and absolutely crushes one with their latest take. They’ve pointed out something Yankee fans have been grumbling about since last summer but maybe didn’t quite articulate this sharply: “Trent Grisham is making it clearer every day he should've played over Alex Verdugo with the 2024 Yankees.”

Boom. Here’s the thing—the Yankees, supposedly darlings of modern baseball analytics, are suggested to have botch a decision that probably could’ve been solved with a napkin and a Sharpie. This is the same franchise that’s touted as a pioneer in data-driven player development, yet they couldn’t run the numbers to see Grisham—yes, the same guy who posted 10.1 WAR from 2020 to 2023—was likely to offer more value than Verdugo, who clocked in at a decent but clearly lesser 8.0 WAR in that same span.

And no, we’re not just box score watching. Verdugo was supposed to be the “contact guy.” Low strikeouts, decent OBP, solid glove. But after a hot April last year, he turned into a pumpkin. He never OPS’ed above .687 in any month post-April. Not once. You know how hard that is to do when you're playing every day in Yankee Stadium?

 
Meanwhile, Trent Grisham, the power-speed Gold Glover with untapped offensive upside, was collecting splinters on the bench—and a cool $5.5 million—for doing nothing. Not because he wasn’t good enough, but because the Yankees never gave him a real chance. Imagine paying someone that much to not help your team.

Fast forward. Grisham is finally getting reps in the Bronx, and surprise: he’s raking. Hitting .320 with 6 bombs and a 1.093 OPS, all while playing his usual solid defense. This isn't just a hot streak. It’s a giant, flashing sign reading: “Hey, I should’ve been out there last year.”

And as for Verdugo? Well, he’s now with the Braves and hitting .341 with an .850 OPS in his first 10 games. So yeah—good for him. But that’s not really the point, is it?

The real kicker here is the irony. The Yankees—the self-proclaimed kings of baseball analytics—somehow managed to miss this obvious call. Depending on who you ask, they either have one of the most advanced analytical systems in the league or one of the smallest staffs in the AL East. Either way, someone’s not reading the right spreadsheets.

Michael Fishman, the man at the helm of the Yankees’ analytics department, has been praised in some circles. But if this is the output—players like Grisham buried while underperformers are force-fed opportunities—then we’ve got to ask: are these really the right analytics? Or just a really fancy way of justifying bad decisions?

Aaron Judge, ever the diplomat, offered a telling quote after the 2023 letdown:

“I think it’s about funneling [the numbers] down to the players in the right format… I think maybe we might be looking at the wrong ones.”

Now Judge is being polite, but let’s call it what it is. The players don’t pick the numbers—they’re given the numbers, instructed by the analytics team. So if the Yankees are looking at the wrong ones, it’s not a player issue—it’s a leadership issue. And this Grisham-Verdugo mix-up is just another shining example.

It’s honestly baffling. Outsiders, fans, blogs like Yanks Go Yard, us here at BYB, we all see the problems clear as day. Yet the folks inside the organization—the ones getting paid to see them—are the ones missing the forest for the trees.

At some point, something’s got to give. Until then, we’re stuck watching talented players bloom after leaving New York or only when injuries force their hand. It's the ongoing saga of the Boone era: great potential, questionable choices, and a whole lot of missed opportunities.

Yanks Go Yard nailed this one. The irony stings, but the truth? It’s sharper than ever.

TORRE MAY BE DEFENDING BOONE, BUT IT DOESN'T CHANGE THE FACT THAT BOONE'S NO LEADER

Joe Torre is the latest guy to back up Boone (or I guess any manager who has struggled.)  I mean look, the big thing happening for the past four years when it comes to Aaron Boone is that he just doesn't know how to get over the hump.  

When players are clicking, pitching well, hitting well, that's always a great thing for a manager, because, well, things are just working.  But a manager's job is the hardest when they have to manage through tough stretches.  Boone don't know how to manage through tough times.  And that's where I have my biggest beef with Boone.  

He's not good at the ultimate challenge of righting the ship.  He doesn't know how to navigate through tough times and that is evident when you see him losing his mind in front of the press with profanity.  He's been exposed at that point, and he knows it.  And so, banging on the desk and suggesting that "It's right in front of us" may be a true statement, but you're never gonna achieve it if you don't know how to manage your players.

Fans will say "this is Cashman's fault, fire him."  I am not a big Cashman guy these days either, but he got the players that he could because he thought he could get us moving this year.  In essence, he really only got Soto and Verdugo.  It just so happened that the Yankees went on a tear in the beginning of the season... call that luck.  

But in the end, the players leveled out, as we predicted here at Bleeding Yankee Blue, and now, with the team in turmoil, you need a manager to lead.  A manager to take the reins, to dictate what needs to be done... not just saying "It's right in front of us" every night. 

Enter Joe Torre who makes a great statement, but an obvious one. And to be honest, he really didn't move the story forward in my eyes as much as I love the guy. Audacy has this:

"You don’t know what happens behind closed doors," Torre explained, as shared by Ryan Chichester of Audacy. "You may be sitting there in your seat saying, 'You have to do something about this guy,' but you don’t know if he has done something. 'Boonie' doesn’t miss anything. He understands what’s necessary to go out on the field and not necessarily win, but get the effort on a regular basis."

Torre suggested it's important for a manager to know how to interact with different players at different times.

"They’re not all the same, so you can't really treat them all the same," Torre continued. "You have to treat them all fairly."

"You have to gain perspective here by saying that it’s 162 games," Torre added. "Yeah, you hate to lose to the crosstown rivals. There’s a certain embarrassment to that…you’re the Yankees."

So break this down. 

First off, Joe and Bob Boone are buddies. You don't think Joe's doing a favor there for the old man's kid? Of course he is, but there's more to it... Boone misses a lot. Torre is wrong about that.  Boone makes terrible personnel changes, pitching changes, horrible lineups batting JD Davis fourth.  He doesn't go by feel, he goes by analytics and that idiot Michael Fishman in the analytics Yankee office needs to be bound and gagged and thrown in the women's room because he's wrong all the time.  That's one.

Then what’s the point of having a fucking manager. Seriously. What are you talking about.

— Robert Casey (@BleednYankeeBlu) July 25, 2024

2.  Manage a game by feel.  Watch the way Bruce Bochy works... analytics is important, but so are matchups in the moment.  The best hitter in the game could come up to the plate, but you don't know how he's truly feeling. Same with the pitcher pitching to him. And is it cold, warm, rainy? Whatever analytics were compiled in a matchup, think about it, BUT THINK ABOUT THE MOMENT YOUR'E IN.  Sometimes you need to make adjustments based on a gut check.  Boone doesn't leave the book of analytics... Boone follows it like a bible and at this point it has really hurt him.  

3.  Manage the team, don't be managed.  Aaron Boone is a puppet. He is told what to do, how to build the lineup, who to play.  This has been going on since he got there and the reason why we know this is because when Joe Girardi started to do it his way, he was asked not to come back.  We all knew when Boone was being interviewed for the Yankee managerial job, he wasn't qualified, and I think that's what bothers a fan like me most. No experience... just a puppet mentality.

Now Torre is right to say that we don't know what he does behind closed doors with his players. Sure, makes sense, but what we also know is that he coddles, and he coddles more than most managers. He's a player's coach, not a manager that commands respect.  

There is a difference;  Bochy is "buddy-buddy" with his guys, but his guys respect him to guide him through the tough times.  I personally feel like Aaron Judge saying Boone "backed up his guys" last year was a pretty surface thing, meaning, it wasn't that deep because Boone isn't that deep.  Sure, Judge is right to back his manager, but Boone "backing them up" and commanding respect from his guys are two very different things.  Boone doesn't command respect. Boone just likes to have the title of manager of the New York Yankees. It doesn't mean he actually knows how to do it.  

In the end, I love Joe Torre, but let's face it, it doesn't change my mind and it shouldn't change yours either. Boone is no leader. 

He never was, he never will be.  We won't win a championship this year.  And it's all because of him.  

Boone ain't no Patton.  He's more like Paddington Bear and that's exactly how the Yankee front office likes it.

Just keeping it real.  Now go buy my new design below!

THE FACE OF THE YANKEES ANALYTICS FLOP HAS NO ANSWERS

Maybe that's because he doesn't know much about anything.  Am I right?

Meet Michael Fishman.  He's the guy we can blame for the "wrong numbers" that Aaron Judge referred to when the season ended and what Zack Britton said was where there was a rift in the clubhouse.  So, this is the guy who got it wrong, even though the New York Post calls him the Yankees' stat guru, I'm hoping that nickname is sarcastic, because he sucks.

The Post writes:

"...Fishman said the Yankees have continued to try to adjust their analytical processes over the years, even though the recent results have not been up to snuff... “When we develop a model and we’re having success and relying on it, we don’t just say, ‘All right this is great, let’s keep using it,’ ” Fishman said Monday at the winter meetings. “We continue to test that model and see if there are adjustments that need to be made to it. Even some models we’ve had success with, there have been tweaks over the years to make that a little better.”

Asked if that model now needed tweaks or overhauls, coming off the Yankees’ 82-80 season and a number of recent transactions that have not worked out, Fishman hedged.

“I think there are some cases where tweaks are needed and some cases where overhauls are needed,” he said, though he declined to provide specifics on what might need an overhaul."

Being cagey is no way to lead, but that's what he does, Cashman does, Boone does.  It's all the same business model. "Don't reveal anything to the fan base... in fact, just keep doing what we're doing and if we land a big free agent or big bopper like Juan Soto, the fans will forget."

But fans won't forget. Last season sucked.  Players are now calling out the Yankees analytics system.  Cashman is super defensive.  Clearly there is a problem in their front office.  And the biggest disappointment right now has to be Hal Steinbrenner who has really said NOTHING... and he drives the ship.  

I leave you with this... Fishman said this about the whole audit mess and it's very telling:

"Fishman clarified Monday that the Yankees won’t be opening their books for Zelus to audit, but that the Yankees will examine the company’s statistical models and compare them to their own.

“It’s an outside perspective, unbiased opinions, unbiased approach that may approach things in a different way than we did,” Fishman said. “A chance to get a different look. "

Zelus is the outside firm that was set to do the audit on the Yankees Analytics mess... the same mess that Hal said they would fix.  But the Yankees aren't offering them to help make the changes... instead, they are asking for their opinion without showing them the books... without showing them the full scope of the problem.  And so I ask you... WHAT THE HELL ARE THE YANKEES ACTUALLY DOING?

Yankee fans? Get ready for another crap season of non-confidence, ill advised, unsure and unreliable fixes to the 2024 season.  It's an FU sandwich to us fans.  It's pretty unbelievable.