Miguel Tejada
AVG OBP SLG 2B HR RBI
PROJECTION .308 .355 .524 44 31 120
ACTUAL .330 .379 .498 37 24 100
Miggy had one of the quietest .330-with-24-homers-and-100-RBI seasons by a shortstop you'll ever see. His slugging was down, but he set a franchise record for hits and was one of the only threats in the lineup, so it's hard to really complain. He's an All-Star player year in and year out. What more can you ask, really?
This was the second straight year that his power dropped off pretty considerably in the second half, though. But despite going from 17 homers to 7, Miggy also hit .350/.402 in the second half. In a way, we may have been spoiled by Tejada's first year in Baltimore, the gaudy 34-homer, 150-RBI year that marked his arrival to the Birds. He's been superb both seasons after, but it seems like he's been a letdown in some ways. He hasn't. It's just our expectations being a little high.
Melvin Mora
AVG OBP SLG HR RBI BB
PROJECTION .301 .369 .489 25 89 60
ACTUAL .274 .342 .391 16 83 54
Shit. Melvin is getting old. That .391 slugging percentage was pathetic. He still popped a few homers, but his doubles were down for the third straight year (41, 30, 25), and he had by far his worst season since 2002, when he hit .233 but actually posted a higher OPS (.742) than he did this year (.733).
Corey Patterson
AVG OBP SLG HR SB/CS BB/K
PROJECTION .261 .299 .432 18 19/6 34/119
ACTUAL .276 .314 .443 16 45/9 21/94
Corey was a pleasant enough surprise, emerging as the everyday center fielder and a threat on the basepaths. He showed his bit of power to go along with it.
It's remarkable that we were 15 points low on his batting average, and thus 15 points low on his OBP. I didn't figure Sam would have him run as much, but they gave him the green light and he went 45-for-54 in stolen base attempts. Good on them.
Kevin Millar
AVG OBP SLG HR BB/K
PROJECTION .275 .351 .434 14 52/75
ACTUAL .272 .374 .437 15 59/74
Outperformed our expectations, which were that he would bump up from 2005 anyway. He did that. I've said it enough about Millar, but I hope someone listens: Bring Millar back.
Jay Gibbons
AVG OBP SLG HR RBI BB
PROJECTION .277 .327 .515 27 88 39
ACTUAL .277 .341 .458 13 46 32
In 2005, Gibbons hit .277. This year, we predicted he'd hit .277. He hit .277. In 2003, he hit .277. Jay Gibbons loves to hit .277.
Gibby was unhealthy, which was nothing new. We signed him to a dumb contract extension, also nothing new. His walks were way up, though, and that .341 OBP was a career high.
Ramon Hernandez
AB AVG OBP SLG HR BB/K
PROJECTION 418 .286 .333 .462 21 34/51
ACTUAL 501 .275 .343 .479 23 43/79
Razor did pretty much what we expected, with about 100 more AB than we predicted. He was a workhorse catcher, but that'll happen when Javy Lopez stinks and everyone else is even worse. We could use a quality backup that can hit a little to give Ramon some days off next season.
Brian Roberts
AB AVG OBP SLG 2B HR SB/CS BB/K
PROJECTION 596 .297 .372 .423 44 10 28/10 75/78
ACTUAL 563 .286 .347 .410 34 10 36/7 55/66
We got the homers right thanks to a late power surge, but his OBP dipped to rather crappy levels for your leadoff man. Roberts plays hard, but his 2005 was likely a fluke. His 2006 is probably more of what's going to be in line with the rest of his career. He wasn't bad, really, but he wasn't the All-Star he was the year previous.
And now, three guys that didn't last the whole season.
Jeff Conine
AB AVG OBP SLG HR BB
PROJECTION 340 .281 .335 .400 8 36
ACTUAL 389 .265 .325 .401 9 35
Yeah, we were pretty much on the nose there.
Javy Lopez
AB AVG OBP SLG HR RBI G-C G-1B
PROJECTION 476 .288 .345 .492 23 84 32 26
ACTUAL 279 .265 .314 .412 8 31 21 0
I thought the Javy projection was way high. I had him at .271/.320/.458 with 20 homers in 460 AB, which was the lowest of anyone, and he didn't even meet that. Javy went to Boston, was an abomination, and got released. He's either going to retire or look for a non-roster invite, probably. I don't care enough to upload Javy's roster photo.
Luis Matos
AB AVG OBP SLG HR SB/CS BB/K
PROJECTION 329 .272 .329 .405 6 14/6 20/52
ACTUAL 121 .207 .278 .331 2 7/0 10/21
I was low on Luis, too, at .254/.307/.371 over 310 AB. And again, the crappy player couldn't even meet my low-end projection. Matos stunk for years and it's a blessing that he's gone. He's another guy looking for a non-roster invite in 2007.