GBB's 2011 Giants Pitching Projections

It's that time of the year, with Spring Training games just around the corner and baseball's opening day just about 6 weeks out, that everybody is putting out their projections for just about everything and everyone in baseball for the upcoming season. With our annual division-by-division preview set to start in mid-March, I wanted to be sure to get out my giants team statistical projections as best as see it. This won't be taking into account any happening from exhibition play, which is another reason why I wanted to do this as early in camp as possible. In this post, we'll go through each of the projected Giants 12-man pitching staff and provide our own projections for the guys we expect to be on the opening day roster. So, without wasting any more of your guys valuable time, let's get into it:

Starting Rotation:

1. Tim Lincecum RHP: 18-6, 2.86 era, 214 IP, 241 K's, 1.10 WHIP, .213 BAA

2. Matt Cain RHP: 16-11, 3.41 era, 237 IP, 199 K's, 1.18 WHIP, .228 BAA

3. Jonathan Sanchez LHP: 13-10, 3.59 era, 201 IP, 227 K's, 1.20 WHIP, .215 BAA

4. Barry Zito LHP: 8-10, 4.32 era, 179 IP, 129 K's, 1.37 WHIP, .261 BAA

5. Madison Bumgarner LHP: 13-7, 3.57 era, 198 IP, 172 K's, 1.22 WHIP, .243 BAA

Bullpen:

Brian Wilson RHP: 2-2, 49 saves, 2.13 era, 81 IP, 98 K's, 1.12 WHIP

Javier Lopez LHP: 2-1, 66 games, 2.56 era, 60 IP, 52 K's, 1.01 WHIP

Santiago Casilla RHP: 2-4, 79 games, 2.98 era, 78 IP, 71 K's, 1.15 WHIP

Ramon Ramirez RHP: 1-2, 80 games, 3.51 era, 74 IP, 64 K's, 1.24 WHIP

Sergio Romo RHP: 3-3, 77 games, 3.12 era, 74 IP, 79 K's, 1.08 WHIP

Jeremy Affeldt LHP: 2-4, 69 games, 3.23 era, 69 IP, 55 K's, 1.28 WHIP

Jeff Suppan RHP: 4-6. 26 games (11 GS), 4.67 era, 85 IP, 52 K's, 1.41 WHIP

Other likely first half call-ups at some point:

*Dan Runzler LHP: 2-3, 32 games, 3.44 era, 43 IP, 46 K's, 1.38 WHIP

*Guillermo Mota RHP: 1-2, 49 games, 4.49 era, 50 IP, 42 K's, 1.31 WHIP

KEY- *marks player on the bubble of making team and could be called up early in season
NOTE: predictions are subject to change before 3/31/11.

Again, it's only mid-February, and many things can change between now and opening day, but at this point, I'd say these 12 pitchers are the favorites to make the opening day roster, and the numbers I projected were rough estimates, taking into account their past numbers, age and potential for improvement/decline with this particular baseball team. Again, since it's very likely that these won't be the exact 12 guys that make the opening day roster (with injuries and what not), so we will re-post this along with our upcoming hitting projection version, as well as various other Giants team preview agendas, after the Opening Day roster has been sent in.

Notes: Arguably the two most important arms on the Giants staff sat out of Thursday's workouts, but only for precautionary reasons. Tim Lincecum complained of a stiff neck early in the day and closer Brian Wilson had the same problem with his back. Neither player said the injury was serious and both are expected back in camp on Friday.... They'll also be joined by most of the positional players as well, as all players are expected in camp by the end of the day Friday with the first full-squad workout scheduled for Saturday. Most of the core players like Aubrey Huff, Pat Burrell, Pablo Sandoval, Cody Ross and Mark DeRosa are already there as they can't wait to get back on the field. 2nd basemen Freddy Sanchez, who was initially expected to miss a portion of the Cactus League games said Thursday he expects to be 100% and ready by the start of Cactus League play on February 25th vs. the Diamondbacks. I think the Giants should play it safe with Sanchez and even if he is indeed ready, they should limit his playing time early. Mark DeRosa and Mike Fontenot are both more than capable of handling the position, and I'd much rather have Sanchez 100% healthy on opening day than try and push him early on in spring.