SAN FRANCISCO — More than any other team this spring, the Yankees racked up a quality sample size of data for the automated ball-strike system.
The time for trial and error is now over, but Aaron Boone hopes their aggressiveness remains, within reason.
As the regular season got underway Wednesday with the Yankees squaring off against the Giants at Oracle Park, so too did the use of the ABS in games that counted, with Boone’s club trying to make the most of it.
“I feel like we’re going to be good at it,” Boone said a few hours before first pitch. “That’s the expectation. I’m sure we’ll continue to evolve with it. My thoughts on it now maybe are a little bit different than even at the start [of camp], somewhat. So I would imagine as the season unfolds, those things will continue to evolve and we’ll try to exploit it as best we can.”
The Yankees used 102 challenges during spring training, the most of any team, winning 54 of them. Their batters won 49 percent (24-for-49) of their challenges while their catchers and pitchers won 57 percent (30-for-53).
Entering the season, Boone said he will not have any hard and fast rules about who can or cannot challenge, though he has voiced his opinion about it in meetings with his players at the end of camp.
“I’ve told some pitchers, like, ‘It’s frowned upon,’ ” Boone said. “But I feel like we’ve done a really good job of it this spring. I mean, it’s spring, so it’s hard to judge it totally, because especially some veteran players are probably trying out the limits of it, when maybe they wouldn’t otherwise. But I expect us to be really good at it.
“Really just trying to get our guys to understand leverage intuitively, instinctively, in the moment. Again, I want them to be aggressive, but obviously there’s times when it’s a bad idea to challenge one that you’re not certain on. Our pitchers, for the most part, have done a pretty good job. They’re not outright forbidden from doing it, but I want them to lean on their catcher.”
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Some pitchers have said they do not plan on challenging because they are too emotional on the mound and think everything is a strike — along with often not having the best view of the pitch as it crosses the plate.
Teams will have two challenges per game and get to keep them if they are successful. There may be some inclination to save the challenges for late in the game in high-leverage moments, but Boone has argued that the biggest moment of a game could come in the third inning, depending on the situation. He just wants his players to keep leverage in the back of their mind for when to pull the trigger on a challenge.
Boone has also given his players instant feedback on their challenges during the season, often bluntly.
“I’ve been very direct with our guys when things have happened — good one, ‘Good,’ bad one, ‘Hey, that was terrible. Like that’s a 10 out of 10 bad,’ ” Boone said. “That’s how I’ve been with them. I told [José] Caballero one last week, I said, ‘No. Awful.’ [Carlos] Lagrange [on Monday], ‘That one’s for the catcher.’ So it’s been my little pet project if you will to try and just be on it as best I can. But I think guys have a real good feel for it.”
And while the ABS may take away some of the in-game arguing from managers, Boone, who has led the American League in ejections for five straight years, does not believe that will be going away entirely.
“I’m sure I will [find a way],” Boone said with a grin. “But we’ll see.”
