Community Projections: J.D. Drew Lovers In The House

by Randy Booth on Nov 4, 2009 12:21 PM EST in Community Projections Comment 8 comments

Boston Red Sox right fielder J.D. Drew waits to hit during practice in Anaheim, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2009, in preparation for the team's upcoming American League division series baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

More photos » by Chris Carlson - AP

about 1 month ago: Boston Red Sox right fielder J.D. Drew waits to hit during practice in Anaheim, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2009, in preparation for the team's upcoming American League division series baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

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It's that time of the year again: community projections results time!

Gather 'round, kids, as I reveal how the community at Over The Monster was able to predict the season's of some of the Sox's players. We did eight in the preseason, including the whole lineup except David Ortiz (should have ... that would be interesting). I try to get to every player before the season starts, but that's usually unrealistic. Eight, though, is a pretty good number.

Today we start with everyone's favorite right fielder, J.D. Drew.

I asked all that wanted to participate to guess Drew's statistics for the following categories:

AB:
HR:
BA:
OBP:
SLG:

Special category:

Total games played in the regular season:

Here is how Drew actually performed when 2010 was all said and done:

AB: 452
HR: 24
BA: .279
OBP: .392
SLG: .522

Special category:

Total games played in the regular season: 137

A pretty solid year by all accounts (better than Jason Bay? Oh, we've had that fight already. Get over it). But this is how the community predicted Drew's season would go down:

NAME	AB	HR	BA	OBP	SLG	G
0157h7	430	18	.280	.370	.510	130
Schulz	400	18	.285	.390	.500	120
ya_down_with_obp	440	22	.286	.396	.521	--
RSNexile	460	18	.270	.380	.470	132
NJBillsFan	540	26	.279	.401	.566	150
BoSox415	450	23	.280	.395	.500	140
drabidea	435	21	.280	.390	.520	138
badlydrawnjeff	200	5	.260	.340	.400	50
E5	300	7	.280	.375	.435	100
bs.uf15bosox9bears23	500	35	.320	.415	.520	130
DANNDANN	460	16	.283	.374	.533	119
DougieWentDeep	442	17	.278	.391	.480	132

KEY: Everything bolded and italicized represents a guess that was within 5 units of the actual answer. Anything with a background that is RED is a dead-on prediction.

This one is almost too close to call.

As you can see, both BoSox415 and drabidea guessed within five units of five of the six categories. That's impressive. NJBillsFan pulls off the only perfect prediction, correctly guessing Drew's .279 batting average. Some were close (DougieWentDeep on both BA and OBP -- one point off) while others were a little too optimistic (BS?). Everyone -- except badlydrawnjeff, who predicted an injury-plagued season -- had at least one guess that came within five points.

VICTORY AWARDED TO: BoSox415 and drabidea. Good job, gentlemen. You, my friends, are the best of the best of the best, sirs! Your reward? That YouTube video I just linked to. Congrats.

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Comments

Good year for Drew

Easily the most underrated player on the team. Oh you Drew Haters out there! Cower before the fury of his mighty OBP! Cower!

by USG on Nov 4, 2009 12:27 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Drew's a great player to start with.

You can get a strong sense of an individual’s baseball knowledge with the following question: “How good a player is JD Drew?” Most people would not say he’s one of the most valuable members of the team, but if you look at his superb defense and hitting, he surely is.

He’s the classic underrated guy – quiet, had injury problems, loathed by baseball traditionalists, sportswriters and talk radio callers alike.

"It's just a tiny little nick, but it hurts when I get champagne in there."
- Jason Bay, on getting spiked scoring the winning run in ALDS Game Four.

by 0157H7 on Nov 4, 2009 12:51 PM EST reply actions 0 recs