Early statistical trends for the 2014 Giants

Good afternoon. I suppose you're wondering why I called you all here. There's no game tonight, so I thought I would investigate some more STATS. It's still early, but what I found might shock you. As of Thursday morning, three weeks into the season, the Giants are ...

• #1 in the National League in walks taken
• #1 the National League in walks allowed

The San Francisco Giants also are ...

• #3 in the National League in home runs hit
• #2 in the National League in home runs allowed

You might also want to know that the Giants are ...

• #3 in double plays hit into
• #3 in double plays induced

The Giants also ...

• have a .227 batting average with runners in scoring position
• allowed a .216 batting average with runners in scoring position

The Giants also have the oldest pitching staff in baseball, with an average age of 31. I looked into this, and I have to tell you, the trend is pretty scary:

That just goes straight up. You can almost predict their ages next year.

But back to the main point: The Giants are a team that hits/gives up a lot of home runs. They take walks without allowing them. They hit into double plays, but they also induce double plays. They are, yet again, the give-a-penny/take-a-penny tray of the National League.

Taking these one at a time ...

1. The Giants will allow more walks
2. The Giants will take fewer walks
3. The Giants will hit fewer home runs
4. The Giants will allow fewer home runs
5. Double plays are kind of hard to predict, so no idea
6. The Giants will get more hits with runners in scoring position
7. The Giants will allow more hits with runners in scoring position

The final result? Probably the same danged team we're watching now, more or less. They'll just be sequenced differently. They'll allow fewer homers, but they'll walk more and allow more hits with RISP. They'll hit fewer homers and walk less, but they'll get more hits with RISP. I don't know the exact calculus of all this, but I'll wager the Giants are right where they are now: above average when it comes to park-adjusted hitting metrics, below average when it comes to park-adjusted pitching methods, and hoping the former will make up for the latter.

They are who we thought they were. If you want to crown ...

An aside: Brandon Hicks has more than doubled his career walk total this season. He had played in 55 games before 2014. He's played in 15 this year. He's probably Robin Yount now.

You can go now. Just found this all interesting, thought I would share. I wasn't expecting the BB stats, that's for sure. It's like the sight of Barry Bonds reminded Sabean to tell an intern to write a cost/benefit analysis on walks.