Buccoben absolutely nailed this one, guessing that Sanchez would hit .302/.345/.440. (Memo to self: Do not play fantasy baseball with Buccoben.) WTM and Bolton came pretty close too, and the community as a whole was close, though again too optimistic. ZiPS did well, here, too.

All this makes it sound as if Sanchez's season was inevitable, but it hardly seemed that way when it was happening. Sanchez missed time in April with a knee problem and played poorly at the beginning of the season, both on offense and defense. Few questioned his hitting ability at the time, but many felt the Pirates had made a mistake in moving Sanchez from third base - where he'd provided Gold Glove-caliber defense - to second.

As the season went on, though - and as, presumably, his knee improved - his defense at second went from bad to downright terrific, and he started hitting, too. He hit all of his eleven home runs between June 7 and August 28.

Sanchez tailed off in September, when his shoulder may have started bothering him. He only had three extra-base hits (two doubles and a triple) after September 3, and the Pirates shut him down near the end of September and had him undergo shoulder surgery on the 28th of that month. The surgery went well, and he should easily be back for Spring Training.