San Francisco Giants: Breaking down the 2018 PECOTA Projections

By Taylor Wirth

Feb 8, 2018

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - SEPTEMBER 15: Joe Panik #12 of the San Francisco Giants is congratulated by Buster Posey #28 after scoring a run against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the first inning at AT&T Park on September 15, 2017 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Jason O. Watson/Getty Images) /

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SAN FRANCISCO, CA – APRIL 14: Brandon Belt #9 of the San Francisco Giants slides into home plate to score in the seventh inning against the Colorado Rockies at AT&T Park on April 14, 2017 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images) /

Following a busy off-season for the Giants, they are projected to tack on twenty more wins following their horrendous 2017 campaign. Although these projections should be taken with a grain of salt, we’re going to take a look and see how the Giants fared with this years projections.

The PECOTA projections or known as the “Player Empirical Comparison and Optimization Test Algorithm” is calculated every year before the off-season comes to an end. For the 2018 season, the Giants are projected to finish 84-78 and in third place in the NL West, behind the Dodgers and D-Backs.

At first glance, the Giants winning 84 games sounds like a huge improvement from 64 last year, and it absolutely is. The additions of Andrew McCutchen, Evan Longoria, Austin Jackson and the return of some key arms have the Giants fighting for a second wild-card spot.

The Giants are projected to score an even 700 runs on the season (61 more than last year), while giving up 669 (107 fewer runs than last year). In total, that’s a run differential of +31, which is light-years better than their -137 run differential from last year. Of course theres no way this will be exactly accurate, but its showing just how much better the Giants could possibly be this year.