A TALE OF TWO BOONES
Not all that long ago, I think we all wanted Boone Logan gone from the Yankees as soon as possible. The lefty appears to have turned a corner in his second time up with the Yankees. In his first stint, he had an .861 OPS against and had more walks (7) than strikeouts (6) and 13 hits in 10.2 innings. Since being recalled on June 16, Logan has pitched better. His OPSA is .597 in that span and his k-rate is improved (13 K in 13.2 IP). The walk rate (6; 4.09 per nine) is better, too. So, what’s he doing differently? Let’s look at the Pitch F/X and see if we can dig anything up from there.
His velocity is almost identical to where it was in April and May, but he’s getting more swings–and swings and misses–on his pitches.
In April and May, Boone got swings on 50.3% of his fastballs and swings and misses on 7.7% of those. On his slider, the numbers were 45.8 and 16.7 respectively. His changeup: 35.7 and 14.3. Fast forward to June through August:
Fastball: 52.8/10.4
Slider: 50/25
Changeup: 53.8/15.4
So, with similar stuff, Boone’s getting some more swings and misses. We can guess that he’s simply throwing more strikes, as evidenced by the decreased walk rate and the fact that he’s thrown more strikes on each of his pitches. Despite the frustrating control, the stuff was there. Now that Logan’s (apparently) started locating, he could be a solid LOOGY.
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