It’s been an odd half-season for the Yankees. As the mostly positive grades below suggest, the team whole hasn’t been equal to the sum of its parts. This is fitting for a team whose outlook would have been very different if it only had come closer to breaking even in close games. The team’s 8-24 record in games decided by one or two runs has been the result of several small deficiencies that have been magnified by bad luck and worse choices into a malignancy that has overcome the team’s many assets.

CATCHER — JORGE POSADA, A

A career.270AVG/.375OBA/.472 SLG hitter coming into the season, Posada is driving for a new contract at .326 AVG/.399 OBA/.505 SLG. His June/July numbers are closer to his career norms, but he’s still a huge asset at that level. On defense, he’s not throwing as well as he did last year, but he’s cut down on his passed balls, an unseemly career-long problem for a backstop that has never had to work with a knuckleballer.

FIRST BASE — VARIED, C-

American League first basemen are batting .276/.359/.455. As a group, Yankees first basemen have come shockingly close to the norm, batting .283/.348/.424, despite 141 wasted plate appearances by Doug Mientkiewicz. This is because Josh Phelps (.302/.380/.429), Andy Phillips (.333/.405/.515),and Miguel Cairo (.324/.348/.385) have hit decently when filling in at the position. Phillips is the latest stopgap; he won’t maintain his current rates.

SECOND BASE — ROBINSON CANO, C+

At no time has he resembled last season’s .342 hitter, though it’s worth remembering that Cano was the Yankees’ best in the second half last year (.365/.380/.635 after the break), and he’s been turning it on of late, hitting .288/.333/.470 from June1 on, and he’s 10-for-31 with three homers in July. Still, the overall results have not quite risen to the level of average. Cano’s fielding deficiencies have been greatly exaggerated; in truth, he’s been good.

THIRD BASE — ALEX RODRIGUEZ, A+

The only mild negatives in his season are a streaky tendency — April and June were hot, May was not, and so far July has been cold as well — and his unresolved contract situation. Last year’s fielding yips have gone. No one can complain if he wins his third MVP award.

SHORTSTOP — DEREK JETER, A

As players age, their batting averages tend to ebb. Jeter doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo. The only worrying sign is that his speed might be starting to fade — his stolen base success rate is down (he’s 7-for-14), and he’s likely to set a career high in grounding into double plays (he has 11; his high is 19). These are concerns for the future; for now he’s not far off of last year’s shoulda-been-MVP pace.

LEFT FIELD — HIDEKI MATSUI, B-

Injured early, streaky since, with a productive May, dead June, and three home runs in the first eight games of July. Lefty pitchers, not normally a problem, have shut him down. Defensively, he looks like a 33-year-old left fielder.

CENTER FIELD — MELKY CABRERA, B

Credit Joe Torre with this much: In making Cabrera his everyday center fielder, he’s actually playing his best defensive outfielder where he’ll do the most good. In the absence of Bernie Williams, he has the freedom to do that. Since June 1, Cabrera has hit .331/.383/.465, and if he can keep that up and maintain his current level of defense he’s going to be a minor star. Small negatives, if you must have them: He hasn’t hit at all against lefties, and April was an offensive disaster.

RIGHT FIELD — BOBBY ABREU, D

When Posada and Andy Pettitte grumble about players going through the motions, there’s every reason to suspect they’re referring to Abreu — Cano is nonchalant, but young and popular, Johnny Damon is playing hurt, and any Yankee who had great expectations for the first basemen was naive. That leaves Abreu — who batted .228/.313/.289 over the first two months — helping to strangle the season in its cradle. Since then, Abreu has hit .325/.410/.512, or about what he hit for the Yankees in 2006, but it’s probably too little too late. Adding insult to injury, as a defender, he’s phobic about running into the wall, which means he pulls up short on catchable balls. Abreu has been a great hitter in his career, and may well have a great second half. It may even be unfair to say that he doesn’t care — who among us knows another man’s mind? — but if this season had an assassin, Abreu was it.

DESIGNATED HITTER — JOHNNY DAMON, D

If Abreu pulled the trigger, Damon was driving the getaway car. Damon has played hurt, which can be viewed as a plus inasmuch as the Yankees have no one to replace him. Still, you’d have to think that Josh Phelps or Kevin Thompson or Shelley Duncan or anyone would have done better than the .211/.301/.303 Damon has hit since the end of May. Damon loathes the disabled list, but sometimes being a gamer means knowing when not to play. If the Yankees are serious about pulling out the second half, they’ll try to find a way to get some offense from this purely offensive position.

BENCH — F

In a word, nonexistent. If Brian Cashman and Joe Torre have a major fault when it comes to roster construction, this is it — year after year, they don’t bother with the reserves. Special commendation for pretending Wil Nieves is a major leaguer.

NO. 1 STARTER — ANDY PETTITTE, B-

Until July hit, Pettitte’s season was one of good pitching and no run support. Since then, he’s been annihilated in two starts, and given his injury history, you have to worry. We’ll give him the benefit of the doubt here, but stay tuned.

NO. 2 STARTER — CHIEN-MING WANG, B+

Other than his early stint on the DL, there’s little to complain about, with nine quality starts in 15 attempts. His groundball rate is down a bit, but strikeouts are up — just another wrinkle from an unusual pitcher.

NO. 3 STARTER — MIKE MUSSINA, C

Since a rough patch in late May, Mussina has actually been pretty good, positing a 3.49 ERA in eight starts. He has only a 2–3 record to show for it, because Torre tends to hook him by the sixth, and neither the bullpen nor the offense has been friendly.

OTHER STARTERS — C

Phil Hughes, Darrell Rasner, and Jeff Karstens got hurt before giving a full account of themselves; Carl Pavano gave a full account of himself by getting hurt; Kei Igawa is a lemon awaiting a Jeffrey Loria deal; Matt DeSalvo, Tyler Clippard, and Chase Wright weren’t quite ready; with four quality starts in six times out, there’s still a lot of life in Roger Clemens’s arm. Rocket raises this group up a full grade.

BULLPEN — D+

Since his horrible April, Mariano Rivera has a 1.71 ERA in 26.1 innings. Scott Proctor is indefatigable. Everyone else has been in and out, but mostly out. The inability to cut bait on Kyle Farnsworth is a mystery for the ages. The pen ranks second to last in the majors in strikeouts per nine, signifying their inability to get a big out when needed. Not the worst pen in the majors, but closer to the bottom than the top.

MANAGER — JOE TORRE, D+

Too much ink has been spilled on this topic already. Suffice it to say that his obsession with giving aleadtoRiverahasledhimtomiss the fact that he’d be better off if he just cut out the middle man wherever possible. This has been a key contributor to the team’s miserable record in close games.

Mr. Goldman writes the Pinstriped Bible for yesnetwork.com and is the author of “Forging Genius,” a biography of Casey Stengel.