2012 Community Projections Results: Michael Young

Michael Young had a terrible 2012. It's been discussed, hashed, re-hashed for months as Young was one of the very worst every day players in baseball. In franchise context, by Baseball-Reference's WAR his -2.4 was the worst in franchise history with Mike Lamb's rookie season in 2000 in second place at -1.2. By FanGraph's WAR, it was a little better coming in second worst in franchise history at -1.4, behind the aforementioned terrible Mike Lamb year at -1.6

Coming off one the best years in his career, expectations were of a solid season with some regression and mild age decline. Even the most pessimistic projections were still well above his actual performance, with no one really seeing this level of poor performance coming.

On a hopeful note, his September OPS was .838 and his BABIP, ISO and slash were all in line with what you'd expect from Michael Young. Only a few weeks away from his 36th birthday age is always a factor, but given the steep level of decline and the rapidity that it set in, it's possible that the issue was partial mechanical or in approach and something that he can improve upon in 2013.

Congratulations to TheGritMaster for having the lowest score* with his projection. Here is a spreadsheet with how everyone did.

*Score is the average number of standard deviations away from the actual 2012 value