Injuries are always a significant drag on projections. 27 or not, if you have been hurt repeatedly, you will probably be hurt again, and it will eventually have an effect on your performance when you are healthy. ZIPS, for example, projected Guzman to 23 innings pitched and a 5.09 ERA. If anyone has any preseason projections on Guzman that showed something significantly better, I'd love to see them. Plus, I wouldn't call 27 a breakout age. It's a prime year in the sense that a player will usually be at their peak, but the ones who will have success in the big leagues have usually broken through at some point before that. With regards to the Cardinals, yes Carpenter is ahead of projection by quite a bit as well. I'm not denying that they've outperformed projections.