A day after accusing the Yankees of dumb baseball teaching, Ben Ruta continued his tirade against his former team on Thursday. The former prospect targeted the Yankees’ player signing and development and even cited specific incidents to back his claim.
Ben Ruta, who was part of the Yankees’ future plans from 2016 to 2021, caught people’s attention on Wednesday. He was part of the “Foul Territory” live chat that Wednesday, and he also showed up as a guest on the program again on Thursday.
Ben Ruta slammed Yankees’ analytic-driven player development
The former Yankees prospect kept sharing his behind-the-scenes observation to argue how the Yankees have been going too far with analytics in recent years. Ben Ruta talked about a particular analytic “hit-effects OPS” claiming that the Yankees “used a lot” in his opinion.
According to him, the statistic looks at how fast the ball leaves the bat (exit velocity) and the angle at which it hit (launch angle) to predict a player’s OPS. This prediction doesn’t consider luck as a part of it, Ruta explained.
Ben Ruta expressed his concern about this metric, mentioning that he doesn’t agree with it. He pointed out that strikeouts aren’t considered negatively in this measurement, and this is noticeable because they use it in minor league games and to make decisions about signing free agents. He also contended that the Yankees are signing players and making trades based on this metric.
“The problem I have with this metric is strikeouts do not dock you and you see that because they use this in the minors and they use this to make free agent decisions,” he asserted. “So they’re signing guys and they’re making trades based off this.
The former prospect blamed the dependence on this analytic as the reason for the increasing number of strikeouts in the Yankees’ MLB team. He spoke about how the team hasn’t used the tools properly harming their players. However, Ben Ruta has also made it clear that he doesn’t actually disagree with using analytics.
He also suggested that the Yankees’ biggest problem is that they’ve been getting too many similar players and trying to turn everyone into the same type of player.
Ben Ruta cites specific incidents to back his claim
The critical comments by the ex-Yankees prospect came at a time when the team’s record dropped below .500 and people have been closely watching them. This is the first time since September 5, 1995, that the Yankees have hit so low this late into the season.
During his thirty-minute talk on “Foul Territory,” Ben Ruta shared another important piece of information. He revealed that a staff member from the Yankees’ player development team once scolded the 2019 Double-A Trenton Thunder team. This happened when some players disagreed with the team’s choice of not allowing minor league players to use baseball tees and rejected the heavy-handedness of analytics.
The situation happened around the time of the trade deadline, Ben Ruta claimed. Following that, the Yankees’ “head of player development” organized a team meeting while the club was in Altoona. The former prospect recounted how the “Head of player development” arrived in town and strongly criticized them.
“Head of player development comes into town because none of us are doing any of this stuff,” Ben Ruta said. “And we just get reamed out, like reamed out. ‘You guys think you’re so good. You can’t do this. You can’t do that. We’re about to have the trade deadline, now, no one’s calling for anyone on this team.’”
Ben Ruta didn’t mention the name of the player development staff member in the interview. However, in 2019, Kevin Reese was the senior director of player development for the team and Eric Schmitt was the director.
The ex-Yankee stated that the staff member began pointing out specific players in front of the whole team, discussing how they had been performing. This even included using a not-so-nice word to describe how one player had been playing. Ben Ruta added that even though first baseman Chris Gittens, who is currently playing in Japan, hit 23 home runs that season, he still faced the staff member’s criticism.
Ben Ruta shared that they had all been scolded for their actions. He felt that this incident pushed them to a point of frustration. According to him, he honestly didn’t like how it happened and mentioned that many of the coaches felt similarly. He also brought up that their manager departed during that offseason.
Nonetheless, besides the downsides, Ben Ruta did offer a bit of hope for the Yankees fans. He talked about how the team could see a positive shift if they make a small adjustment. The former prospect asked the Yankees to acquire players, who can play in the big league at minimum salaries for three years, along with free agents and star players. He backed this strategy as key to building a strong team.
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
This explains the Yanks inability to develop any talent in their system. Even Volpe is a .210 hitter who strikes our 30% of time. Minors have been barren for years now. Has any mgt lost their jobs over this? Read Bill Maddens column from last week explaining the nepotism that put some of these people in charge.
Same as major league team . No accountability for results throughout the organization..
What else could we expect when the managing general partner of the Yankees (Hal) loves his airplanes far more than he likes the MLB team he inherited?
In a 2016 interview he admitted he didn’t deserve being the head of the most storied sports franchise on the planet. He really doesn’t care about baseball. Hal loves aviation.
Hal fits right in with the analytics guys. They speak his language. He has no feel for baseball like his Dad did. Hal is all numbers, all probabilities, and not a speck of baseball intuition.
As it pertains to baseball, Hal thinks he gets that from Cashman, but Cashman doesn’t have that either (as is evidenced from his many boneheaded trades and FA deals over the years).
As long as Hal is managing general partner of the Yankees I believe we’re stuck with Cashman. Cashman has endeared himself to Steinbrenner, and Hal isn’t one to fire people. He didn’t inherit his Dad’s emotional approach (tempered with statistics) to baseball. Hal is all analytics and measured, level-headed decision making.
Please, sell the Steinbrenner’s controlling interest in the Yankees, Hal. There’s plenty of people in this world with the money, and passion, to make the New York Yankees “A- number one, top of the list, king of the hill, A-number one”, once more.
Think of all the airplanes you could buy then, Hal.