The New York Yankees are among every other team in Major League Baseball trying to get used to the ABS system. The difference, however, is that New York seems to be more confident in what it is doing with the system than any other team in the league.
Players have to learn when the right time is to make these challenges. Certain counts, spots in a game, who is up, and much more. When speaking about it, New York players sound very confident in using it.
“I think we have players that know the zone really well,” Jose Caballero said, per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. “That’s a fact that is going to help us. We’re aggressive with it. If we think it’s a ball, we’re going to challenge. We’re not afraid to challenge.”
This is something that the organization has been on them about, and it resulted in them being comfortable with the system. The Yankees view this as a way to steal runs and that should work in their favor because of it.
“They wanted us to be informed and just feel comfortable so we can go out there and use it as a weapon,” Aaron Judge said.
From a game-planning standpoint, knowing what to do in certain moments can go a long way. Hitters can be more confident taking borderline pitches, as they know they have a safety net if the call doesn’t go their way.
“We had a pretty good gauge of how we wanted to approach it, and how we wanted to try to make it something we could exploit,” Tanner Swanson said.
“The margins are so thin, so any competitive edge you can gain is super valuable. I think we recognize this is an area that could be the difference in multiple wins throughout the course of the season. That could be the difference between winning the division or not.”
For skipper Aaron Boone, he wants to be aggressive but smart in the approach. So far, the Yankees have done that.
“That’s not everything, because guys – especially veteran guys – were probably sampling it a little more than anything,” Boone said. “Hopefully it’s something we exploit in our favor and do a good job with. I think we will, but it is early.”