As you may remember, from earlier in the year, we had a community projections project where we asked YanksBlog.com readers (as well as YanksBlog.com Bloggers, of course) to make statistical predictions for various players on the Yankees roster. With the season well over, it's time that we take a look back and find out how close or far away we were. Today, we'll take a look at the hitters. We'll have the pitchers in the next few days probably.

Before we get started, I just wanted to thank James for coming up with the idea and getting behind it, compiling the averages and more. Thanks James.

Jorge Posada

            AB  R HR RBI SB  AVG  OBA  SLG  OPS
Projected: 457 69 19  73  0 .266 .363 .443 .806
Actual:    465 65 23  93  3 .277 .374 .492 .867
We thought he'd bounce back, but he exceeded even our expectations in all categories except for runs. With a few close categories, it was definitely a nice projection.

Individuals Dead On: James and Mike for runs. Seamus for home runs. SG for OBA.

Jason Giambi

            AB  R HR RBI SB  AVG  OBA  SLG  OPS
Projected: 502 91 37 106  0 .280 .428 .534 .962
Actual:    446 92 37 113  2 .253 .413 .558 .971
Another pretty nice projection, flat out nailing home runs and being 1 off on runs. In the end, because of the higher OPS, I'd have to say that he probably exceeded our expectations ever so slightly.

Individuals Dead On: Nobody.

Robinson Cano

            AB  R HR RBI SB  AVG  OBA  SLG  OPS
Projected: 577 87 19  78  6 .300 .333 .476 .809
Actual:    482 62 15  78  5 .342 .365 .525 .890
Despite the fact that at bats were off by nearly 100, we were dead on for the RBI total and close on home runs and stolen bases. The rest are a different story, thanks to the injury and Cano simply tearing opposing pitchers to shreds.

Individuals Dead On: Mike for stolen bases.

Derek Jeter

            AB   R HR RBI SB  AVG  OBA  SLG  OPS
Projected: 648 123 22  82 18 .311 .393 .464 .857
Actual:    623 118 14  97 34 .344 .417 .483 .900
We definitely had high expectations for our captain. And, with the exception of runs and home runs, he vastly exceeded them with less ABs.

Individuals Dead On: Nobody.

Alex Rodriguez

            AB   R HR RBI SB  AVG  OBA  SLG   OPS
Projected: 610 128 50 146 24 .320 .424 .626 1.049
Actual:    572 113 37 121 15 .290 .392 .523  .914
To be fair, our projection was "MVP season". 146 RBI? Only 1 player had that in the entire MLB last year (Ryan Howard, 149). A-Rod had a good year, but it wasn't an MVP year and so it was drastically different from what was projected.

Individuals Dead On: Nobody.

Hideki Matsui

            AB   R HR RBI SB  AVG  OBA  SLG  OPS
Projected: 611 104 25 116  3 .304 .373 .484 .857
Actual:    172  32  8  29  1 .302 .393 .494 .887
We had pretty high goals in mind in 2006 for Godzilla and, although some of these are pretty close, the moment that he hurt his wrist was the moment that they went to pot.

Individuals Dead On: Nobody.

Johnny Damon

            AB   R HR RBI SB  AVG  OBA  SLG  OPS
Projected: 620 122 13  71 19 .303 .364 .432 .797
Actual:    593 115 24  80 25 .285 .359 .482 .841
For the contract that he signed, we had pretty reasonable expectations in mind and the projections were pretty much in the ballpark with what he actually did, with the exception of his power numbers which proved to be a surprise.

Individuals Dead On: Seamus for OBA.

Gary Sheffield

            AB   R HR RBI SB  AVG  OBA  SLG  OPS
Projected: 567 106 32 115  5 .291 .383 .505 .888
Actual:    151  22  6  25  5 .298 .355 .450 .806
Like Matsui, Sheffield's injury pretty much shot this projection right out of the water, although we did somehow manage to nail stolen bases.

Individuals Dead On: James for stolen bases.

Andy Phillips

            AB  R HR RBI SB  AVG  OBA  SLG  OPS
Projected: 274 46 14  50  2 .267 .336 .449 .785
Actual:    246 30  7  29  3 .240 .281 .394 .676
Even though we came close on ABs and our projection was fairly modest, it wasn't even close because of Andy's struggles. The OPS was off by 99. Let's just leave it at that.

Individuals Dead On: Richard A. Holland for stolen bases.

Bernie Williams

            AB  R HR RBI SB  AVG  OBA  SLG  OPS
Projected: 345 52 14  58  3 .258 .331 .423 .753
Actual:	   420 65 12  61  2 .281 .332 .436 .768
I want to say that our project reflected "guarded optimism" on our part. But, in any case, Bernie played more than we thought he would and he played better than we thought he would, especially in the batting average department. Besides that, though, the projection was pretty good.

Individuals Dead On: Me for home runs.