Grading the Yankees: Midseason Report Card

I don’t know whether the Yankees were still emotionally drained after the passing of Bobby Murcer on Saturday, or if they just thought the All-Star break began a day early, but the Bombers were flat again on Sunday in their 4-1 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.

The defeat not only ends the first half of the season on a bad note, but it also leaves me one game shy of the record prediction I made in my article “Grading the New York Yankees: First Report Card in 2008” back on May 11. 

In the article, I wrote, “If the Yankees ever switch Giambi and Cabrera's spots in the lineup, and put Chamberlain into the rotation, they may actually have a shot at going far this year. As for now, I will predict a 51-44 record at the All-Star break.”

I was right about Joba (1-0 with a 2.57 ERA in seven starts), half right about Giambi and Cabrera (Giambi is hitting .346 batting sixth and just .194 in the five hole, but Cabrera has really nose-dived to a .241 average at the break), and I nearly nailed the record (the Yanks are 50-45).

Surprisingly, pitching has really been the strength of the Yankees lately, despite the injury to ace Chien-Ming Wang. Still, I believe New York needs to make a trade for another starter.

While a postseason rotation of Wang, Mussina, Pettitte, and Chamberlain sounds pretty good, the team may not make it to October with too many Rasner and Ponson starts between now and when Wang is scheduled to return in September.

The offense, however, is really where the Yanks need to improve. 

The team is seventh in the league in runs scored, far below where a lineup like the one the Bombers sport should be. As I’ve been saying, the loss of Hideki Matsui and Johnny Damon hurts, but a team with Jeter, Abreu, A-Rod, Giambi, Posada, Cano, and Cabrera should still be averaging more than three runs in its last 10 games. 

The main problem is a lack of good situational hitting. The Yankees are next to last in the American League with just 21 sacrifice flies and a .250 average with the bases loaded, 10th in the AL in hitting with runners on (.269), and 11th with runners in scoring position (.256). Someone needs to step up and get that runner home from third with less than two outs.

Now, let me explain how my midseason grades work.

Throughout the season, I have handed out grades to each player, and manager Joe Girardi, following each game. Those letter grades are then converted to a corresponding number, using the old Grade Point Average (GPA) system where an A+ is a 4.3, an A is a 4.0 and so on.

I added all their scores up, multiplied that sum by the number of innings each has played, and finally divided by the total number of innings played by the Yankees this year (864), to come up with each Yankee's GPA.

To make things fair for pitchers, who don't play as many innings but have a greater impact on the innings they do participate in, I have multiplied their final scores by nine. That still leaves relievers with a lower score than some of you may feel they deserve, but in this report card, I am not grading each player on their individual performance, but rather on their overall contributions to the team. 

That is important to remember when you see the GPA given to guys who have missed time due to injury.

Here are the Yankees, listed in order of their importance to the team so far, with their corresponding GPA.

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