Jhonny Peralta: 2016 VEB Projections Post-Injury

Editor's Note: Two years ago, Site Manager Ben Humphrey asked readers to provide predictions for Cardinals baseball players. Last year, he renewed that request, and although Ben is in blogger retirement, we at VEB are re-renewing the request to predict how the Cardinals will do.

Back on February 17, Joe Schwarz wrote an article requesting projections for Jhonny Peralta. We got over 150 responses and everything was going well. This is what Joe wrote: ... Today, we shift our focus to Carpenter's left on the infield diamond to Jhonny Peralta. Here is how the 33-year-old shortstop performed last season:

Peralta had a terrific first half of the season, so much so that he was named to his third All-Star team. In the second half, however, he was well below average at the plate, producing a wRC+ of 74 (as compared to 127 in the first half). Also, when looking at his 1.7 fWAR, it is worth noting that his defensive metrics, as volatile and unpredictable as they are on a season-to-season basis, fell from being near league-leading in 2014 to below average last season.

With the acquisition of Jedd Gyorko, who can play shortstop in a pinch, will Peralta see more days of rest in 2016? If manager Mike Matheny wants to prolong Peralta's production throughout the entire season and into the hopeful playoffs, one would hope so. Before submitting your projections, I suggest you check out John Fleming's piece on "which version of Jhonny Peralta should we expect in 2016" as well as Ben Markham's questioning of whether or not Peralta will "bounce back."

Here is Peralta's player page at FanGraphs, and don't cheat, but also the Cardinals 2016 ZiPS projections.

... As the season is still 20 days away, we have decided to give everyone another shot at Peralta. He might be out until the All-Star break, and even when he gets back, it is difficult to say how he will perform. Despite that difficulty, we are asking anyway. How will Jhonny Peralta do this year and would you like another attempt with Jedd Gyorko? We have close the projections for a few players so we can provide results, but many players are still open for projections. Siegrist, Maness, and Broxton could use more results as could many of the recent players near the bottom of the list.

Kevin Siegrist 2016 Projections

Kolten Wong 2016 Projections

Adam Wainwright 2016 Projections

Stephen Piscotty 2016 Projections

Jedd Gyorko 2016 Projections

Seth Maness 2016 Projections

Jonathan Broxton 2016 Projections

Michael Wacha 2016 Projections

Randal Grichuk 2016 Projections

Alex Reyes 2016 Projections

Tommy Pham 2016 Projections

Carlos Martinez 2016 Projections

Brandon Moss 2016 Projections

Matt Adams 2016 Projections

Tim Cooney 2016 Projections

Yadier Molina 2016 Projections

Brayan Pena 2016 Projections

Tyler Lyons 2016 Projections

Jaime Garcia 2016 Projections

Seung Hwan Oh 2016 Projections

Aledmys Diaz 2016 Projections

Marco Gonzales 2016 Projections