Baseball Prospectus projects the San Francisco Giants

When projections are posted it one of my favorite times of the off-season, it allows for some fun conversations and dreaming of the baseball that is just around the corner. Well today Baseball Prospectus released their projections, known as PECOTA and it is surprisingly optimistic about the Giants heading into 2014.

I took a look at what it all means for Bay Area Sports Guy:

Here are some of the highlights:

• The Giants best player is projected to be Buster Posey. His 4.3 WARP (a description of this metric can be found here) is projected to be the 8th best in all of the National League.
• Six of the Giants’ eight starting position players have a projected WARP of at least 2.0.
• Continuing on that note, five of the eight starting spots have a league average projection for their respective position. The only spots that miss the cut were second base, shortstop and left field.
• Four out of the five starting pitchers project to at least a 2.0 WARP. They are the only team in the NL with that distinction (the Nationals just missed out with Doug Fister projecting to 1.9).
• The Giants have the third best offense in the National League according to Baseball Prospectus’ True Average measure, which adjusts for park effects.
• The Giants are projected to have the fourth best run differential in the National League.

Read the whole thing.