It’s always fun to make predictions on how the players will perform each season. About six months ago we did community projections for both the hitters and pitchers, and asked readers to give their predictions.
We thought it’d be a good way to end the season by looking back and seeing just how close (or far off) some of the predictions were. Next to each question and bolded is the answer. In the parenthesis are all of the guesses.
First up are the hitters.
Carlos Gomez:
Number of steals? 33 (50, 34, 42, 52, 48)
Outfield assists? 9 (15, 8, 11, 12, 14)
Will he be in Minnesota all season? Yes (All answered Yes)
Joe Mauer:
Batting average? .328 (.325, .324, .312, .308, .362)
Number of games? 146 (135, 135, 145, 139, 134)
Will he win another batting title this season? Yes (4 No, 1 Yes)
Michael Cuddyer:
Homeruns? 3 (22, 23, 24, 22, 26)
Outfield assists? 7 (15, 15, 14, 19, 16)
How long will he bat third? Injured(4 All Season, 1 Until Mauer)
Justin Morneau:
Over/Under 40 HR? Under (2 Under, 2 Even, 1 Over)
How many RBI? 129 (120, 125, 121, 139, 131)
Will he win a Gold Glove in ‘08? Unknown
Delmon Young:
How many HR? 10 (23, 22, 23, 30, 33)
Will he get to 100 RBI? No (5 Yes)
Will he play at least one game in center? No (5 Yes)
Jason Kubel:
Over/Under 15 HR? Over (5 Over)
How many RBI? 78 (80, 89, 72, 93, 81)
Will he last as the designated hitter? Yes (4 Yes, 1 Forty in LF)
Brendan Harris:
Double-digits in HR? No (4 Yes)
Games at second? 39 (140, 115, 135, 145)
Will he last the whole season as the starter? No (3 Yes, 1 No)
Mike Lamb:
Will he get close to 20 HR? No (3 Yes, 1 No)
How many errors at third? 5 (17, 15, 12, 13)
Number of at-bats? 247 (550, 145, 524, 512)
Adam Everett:
Batting average? .213 (.265, .235, .265, .274)
Over/Under 10 errors? Under (4 Under)
Will he hit at least four homeruns? No (2 Yes, 2 No)
Mike Redmond:
How many hits? 37 (50, 68, 62, 59)
How many runners will he throw out? 5 (12, 17, 9, 12)
Will he hit .300 off the bench? No (3 Yes, 1 No)
Nick Punto:
Over/Under .210? Over (3 Over, 1 Under)
How many games? 99 (90, 75, 78, 114)
Will he be with the team all season? Yes (4 Yes)
Craig Monroe:
Homeruns? 8 (15, 11, 14, 15)
Steal or Bust? Bust (3 Steal, 1 Bust)
Will he play in center at least five times? Yes (4 Yes)
Matt Tolbert:
Days in the majors? All Season - 41 Games (2 All Season, 1 Half Season, 1 11 Days)
Average in the big leagues? .283 (.275, .125, .282, .293)
How many games will Tolbert start? Unknown (25, 0, 15, 14)
It was interesting to me how close people were on so many of them. The ones that seemed to be way off all-around were Delmon Young, Brendan Harris and Michael Cuddyer. Cuddyer is understandable since we expected him to play all season and be a big factor in the lineup.
Young I think we expected to much from. He put up somewhat similar numbers to last season, but we all expected his power to increase drastically, and 100-RBI’s isn’t an easy thing. As for Harris, we expected him to play the entire season based on the predictions, and who would have thought that Alexi Casilla would have come along so fast?
The pitchers will be up next, so keep your eye out.
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