2015 ZiPs projections for the San Francisco Giants

Buster and Madison can’t hold in their excitement that the ZiPs projections are in

Dan Szymborski released his San Francisco Giants 2015 ZiPs projections last month as he does every year for every club in the majors. Some surprises, some Dan Uggla, Tony Abreu sightings, but don’t worry.

"Disclaimer: ZiPS projections are computer-based projections of performance. Performances have not been allocated to predicted playing time in the majors — many of the players listed above are unlikely to play in the majors at all in 2014."

Also, remember these are projections. They are to help project what a certain player could do. If projections were perfect then what’s the point of playing?

FanGraphs

Above is the projected depth chart and their projected WAR numbers. As you can see, catcher is the strongest position they have due to the exceptional play of Buster Posey and Andrew Susac‘s strong showing late in 2014 when Hector Sanchez was sidelined with multiple concussions. The club is set at catcher, first base, second base, shortstop, and right field for now. There some rumors that Ben Zobrist could be acquired and play left field next year and you can’t expect much from the injury plagued Angel Pagan and the amazingly average Casey McGehee at third base.

Rates and average for hitters:

FanGraphs

Yes, I see Dan and Abreu, but REMEMBER these are only projections based on the INDIVIDUAL players. ZiP’s purpose is not to project playing time, but to predict their production.

Here are the advanced numbers like zWAR (z stands for Szymborski) and OPS+ (similar to wRC+ where 100 is the league mean), defensive value (def), and RC/27. Each player and projected season have their own comparison. (Spud Davis YEEEAHHH).

FanGraphs

Now for pitchers. These are rates and averages for starters, relievers. Notice that even though Yusmeiro Petit‘s FIP numbers have been good and much less than his ERA, ZiPs assumes that his actual ERA will not regress to his FIP. ZiPs also has Hunter Strickland forgetting about this torturous playoff performance and putting up nearly identical FIP and ERA numbers in the low threes.

FanGraphs

And then here are the pitcher’s advanced numbers like zWAR, ERA+, K/9, BB/9, and HR/9 projections.

FanGraphs

In 2014, the Giants had the third lowest combined WAR among their starters in the majors and it won’t improve much in 2015. Bumgarner is the only bright spot as he is the only above average starter in the rotation even though Petit would be a perfect fit as the fourth or fifth starter.