When will Girardi have seen enough of Boone Logan?
By
With this photo, I've already seen enough of Logan today. | Photo credit: Duane Burleson/AP
We haven’t seen much of Boone Logan this season. Recalled after the Yankees placed Chan Ho Park on the disabled list, Logan has appeared in just eight games and has faced 26 batters. Of those 20 have been in low-leverage situations. In other words, he’s something of a mop-up man who sometimes acts as a LOOGY. Either way, he hasn’t shown much in his short stint.
It seems like any time a manager has a lefty in the pen he uses him only against left-handed hitters — hence the term LOOGY (lefty one out guy). Joe Girardi has had Logan face 12 left-handed hitters this year, and the results are pretty disastrous. He has walked a quarter of the lefties he has faced. There is no way to rationalize that as acceptable in any way. Logan has never been a control guy, but at least in the past he’s avoid issuing too many free passes to same-handed batters.
To his credit, Logan had avoided the extra base hit until last night. Unfortunately, last night’s hurt a lot. It started with, guess what, a walk. He had actually walked Johnny Damon to start the inning, but erased him by inducing a ground ball off the bat of Magglio Ordonez. With a fresh slate and two outs he walked Miguel Cabrera. Then, facing lefty Brennan Boesch (shameless Brennan Boesch self-plug here) he laid a fastball right down the middle. That scored Cabrera and gave the Tigers a 5-2 lead. The Yankees would score two in the top of the next inning, but after the extra base hit it wasn’t enough to tie the game.
It might seem like Logan is getting a bit unlucky against lefties, since his BABIP against them is .355. That, however, is not the case. Of the six balls in play he has allowed off the bats of lefties, four have been line drives. Those are going to drop for hits more often than not. He has thrown only half of his 52 pitches to lefties for strikes. Apparently he’s made those count, laying them right over the plate. Lefties have gotten a good look at him, too, seeing 4.33 pitches per plate appearance. Righties have seen 3.64 pitches per PA.
Even if Logan reverts to his career numbers, he still won’t be a quality bullpen component. Against righties he’s an unmitigated disaster, a 5.69 FIP and 5.37 xFIP. Against lefties he’s a bit better, 3.91 FIP and 3.77 xFIP, but he still walks way too many of them and averages about a home run allowed every nine innings. That’s not impressive for a guy whose primary job is to retire lefties. He’s also terrible once men reach base, a 5.28 FIP and 5.15 xFIP. He’s also more prone to walk guys and less apt to strike them out.
This is mostly an emotional rant about the frustration I feel every time Logan enters the game. I understand that everything he has done falls under the short sample umbrella, and that he’s bound to do better against lefties as the season progresses. But, as I said, even his career numbers against lefties don’t represent anything special. The sooner he’s back in Scranton, the better.
35 Comments»
RAB Info
The Founders
Mike Axisa, Ben Kabak, Joe Pawlikowski
Editor-In-Chief
Mike Axisa Archives | Email
Managing Editors
Ben Kabak Archives | E-mail
Joe Pawlikowski Archives | E-mail
Contributing Editors
Larry Koestler (Archives)
Moshe Mandel (Archives)
Stephen Rhoads (Archives)
Weekend Writers
Hannah Ehrlich (Archives)
Matthew Warden (Archives)
Special Contributor
J.R. O'Grady (Archives)
Technical Consultant
Jay Gordon
Subscribe to RAB by RSS and Twitter
Follow @RiverAveBlues Search RAB
Banner Design By
The Mason Williams Watch
Dude, I don’t get your problem with Logan. Here’s a guy that has a K/9 of 10.13. What’s wrong with that?
/rubs eyes
Oh my bad, that’s his BB/9.
DFA pls thx.
My friend calls him Girardi’s new boyfriend. Last year it was Phil Coke.
I am pleasantly surprised with his velocity, but, the walks. Ugh.
Comes in and throws 2 fastballs outside and low and it gets worse from there…
how fast does he throw?
i was told like 93 max
He’s maxed at 98 so far
Fangraphs has his average at 92.6 mph, so his max is probably in the nmid-90s.
http://www.brooksbaseball.net/.....revDate=55
Note: The only current Yankees that I, a) don’t like today & b) never understood why we aquired;
1) Boone Logan…he was the player that the Braves threw in to offset the number of players the Yankees gave up. If the Braves move a pitcher, it is not generally a good thing.
2) Randy Winn…came from the team that is incapable of scoring any runs (Giants). If the Giants don’t believe in your bat, can anyone?
3) Thames…much better bat YTD than i would of ever guessed (SSS), but can he read a ball coming off a bat? Really, he is making Brad Hawpe look like a gold glover.
I understand the Javy trade, I agree with letting broken-wing Damon walk, NJ was a value signing due to the excellent career OBP, Granderson is a steal (cheap & an All Star to boot) in giving up Coke, Ajax & IPK.
I would much rather see what the farm can do & wait for a June trade but I understand that in the OF we are screwed; as no talent exist in the system, on the shelf (no thanks Dye), or on the market.
Winn started in SF, while he was originally slated to be the 4th OF in NY. Big difference.
The thing is, it’s not like he doesn’t have MLB experience. He is what he is: bad.
Coming into this season, over parts of four seasons, Logan’s thrown 127.2 innings (not an insubstantial sample size), and he’s got a 1.692 WHIP and a 5.78 ERA, with 4.1 walks/9 (and 7.2 Ks/9). And from 2007 to 2009, his WHIP got worse every year.
Logan has a track record of being a bad reliever. And this year (I acknowledge, small sample size) he’s been a bad reliever. I don’t know why anyone would expect him to be anything but a bad reliever going forward. It’s what he is, a bad reliever.
(BTW, the above analysis works for Mitre, too, but just insert “starter” for “reliever.”)
It’s kind of hilarious that it’s ok to bash one player with a SSS, but if someone wants to speak honestly about another player with a SSS (Nick Johnson, Javier) they are called trolls.
Just let him pitch maaaaan! The numbers will even out!!?%!
The difference is that Logan’s career numbers are awful, but Vazquez and Johnson’s career numbers are way better. Not a fair comparison.
Well, to be fair, there are other instances as well. Go back and check out the Curtis Granderson vs. lefties thread from a while back. There were plenty of people claiming that although Granderson has never hit well against lefties, over a fairly large sample size, that the sample was still not large enough and given more at bats Granderson’s stats will even out against lefties and righties.
I agree, Boone Logan is not the poster boy for this attitude, but I also with Jammy that SSS is often used conveniently in these parts. Again, not the worst thing, just something we should consider when we debate.
Yeah, but Jammy Jammers is overstating your argument to the point that it’s nothing like what you just said.
Comparing the SSS on Logan in 2010, which matches his career performance, to the SSS on Vazquez/Johnson in 2010, which do not match their career performances, respectively, is ridiculous, and signals what seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding of the meaning/importance of sample sizes.
You could also look at the LSS of Johnson and say he’s injured a lot. The LSS of Javy shows he doesn’t handle high pressure situations.
It always amazes me that a $200 million/yr payroll Team looses
so many games because of a bullpen pitcher/pitchers that probably
are making close to league minimum salary……..
yeah you’re right, all those 3-5 mill dollar relievers the royals have are working out great. they never lose.
Much about baseball must amaze you then.
A-Rod makes $30 million! Why doesn’t he hit .997?!?!?!
Logan was lucky he got that “groundball” DP yesterday.
He looked horrible last night. Like to Boesch he laid a fastball right down the plate and Magglio smoked that pitch. It happened to go right to Jeter though.
Logan has raw ability, just not a finished product, probably cause he was rushed up, let him pitch in AAA a bit more.
Logan was drafted in 2002 and made his major league debut in 2006. He’s thrown 130 innings for the White Sox, the Braves and now the Yankees. Rushed?
Logan path in the minor was unique. He was drafted in 2002 and pitched in rookie ball in 2003, 2004, and 2005. In 2005, he was pushed up to high A, skipping low A, for 4 games. In 2006, he started pitching in AAA (no AA, only 4 games in A+) and was eventually sent to the majors.
Logan essentially played 3 years in rookie ball before being promoted to switching between AAA and the majors, essentially skipping both levels of A ball and AA.
yeah, this, he’s pitched 100+ innings in rookie, AAA, and MLB and 5 in A, A+, and AA combined
Are we gonna have baseball tonight? Looks pretty rainy out there….
Would they schedule a twi-nighter or let it slide until an open date later in the season? I guess it depends on what kind of advance sales they’ve had for this series.
Logan’s tRA+ is 12. 12!
I hope Penditte can be an effective major league reliever so the must for a LOOGY is now gone.
is that the love child of Pettitte and Venditte
or do people call him that because of the fact that his first name is Pat, and I just missed it?
I liked the Javy trade when it happened, and even knowing what it looks like now, I’d still do it, but this Boone Logan thing is starting to sour it a tiny bit.
At the very least, those (like me) that claimed that Logan would make up for losing Mike Dunn were dead wrong (Dunn is tearing up AAA. It’s not that he’d be a super important piece, but he could have been a solid BP contributor).
He’s got a 5 BB/9 right now (in line with what he always does), that’s not really tearing it up even with the K/9. He’s not very dissimilar from Logan, and I’m not sure if the walks will ever go away.
Boone Logan is the sux0r
Joe I already have a VP (Ben), would you like to be the Treasurer in the Boone Logan Anti-Fan Club?
“When will Girardi have seen enough of Boone Logan?”
Well, as he is a lefty, never.