Owner George Steinbrenner expressed his unhappiness about the team's offense at one point; every other trade rumor seemingly involves the Yankees; coach Don Zimmer bashed Mets' slugger Mike Piazza; and
Roger Clemens is an early candidate for the Cy Young Award. So basically, all is normal in New York aside from the fact that rival Boston has held the divisional league for a part of the season.
First-half MVP: There's Bernie Williams, who struggled early on between trips to Puerto Rico to be with his dad who eventually lost his battle to lung cancer, but hit .450 (45-for-100) in June. Mariano Rivera, who's actually been touched a couple of times this season, but has still been a pain in the rear for opposing batters. However, neither has impacted the team like Clemens, who could conceivably earn his sixth Cy Young. With Andy Pettitte and Orlando Hernandez serving stints on the DL, Clemens has by far been the pillar of the starting rotation.
Biggest surprise: Catcher Jorge Posada has proven that he's an offensive threat. But batting .304 with 62 RBI is probably a little more than manager Joe Torre would have expected. More impressive is when Posada is doing his damage. He's batting .397 with runners on; .440 with runners in scoring position; and hit .406 in June. Heck, he could just as well be first-half MVP when you considered how he's had to work with so many pitchers this season.
Biggest disappointment: The fact that
Adrian "El Duquecito" Hernandez was more popular than El Duque at one point says it all. Orlando Hernandez has been out since May with a toe injury and they're not sure when he'll be back. When he returns, they'll surely need the guy who has been a money pitcher in the postseason: Not the one who is 0-5 with a 5.14 ERA so far.
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Yankees first-half comparison
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2000
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2001
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W-L
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45-38
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52-34
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HR leader
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Justice, 22
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Martinez, 17
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BA leader
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Williams, .329
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Williams, .321
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ERA
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Hernandez, 4.22
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Pettitte, 3.04
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Second-half goals: The Yankees have seen most of their top hitters (Williams, Derek Jeter, Tino Martinez, Paul O'Neill, David Justice, Chuck Knoblauch) struggle at some point or for most of their season. They've also had their share of headaches in the starting rotation and bullpen, but lead the division which means they are primed to make another championship run. And by the way, 60 of their final 76 games are against teams that were under .500 as of July 1.
Minor-leaguer to watch: Triple-A Columbus first baseman Nick Johnson is the focus of attention simply because he's been mentioned in trade rumors should the Yankees go after Oakland's Jason Giambi. If the Yanks decide to stay with Martinez, who started swinging a hot bat at the end of June, they're likely to let Johnson stay in Columbus for now and bring him up next year.
Grade:  -- The Yankees are not a perfect team, but they still need to be feared if they return to the postseason. In spite of all the things that haven't gone right so far, they're where they want to be. What more can you ask for?
(Scale: 1 to 4 baseballs; 1 = worst, 4 = best)
We told you what we thought of the Yankees' first-half performance, now you can tell us what you think.
James C. Black is an associate editor at ESPN.com
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