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Two decades of Aprils, one graph

Unless it's a chart. I don't know, someone made it for me.

By Grant Brisbee

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Thearon W. Henderson

There are two truths of San Francisco Giants baseball in April over the last two decades:

  1. The Giants are usually good in the first month of the season. They've been .500 or over for 17 out of the last 20 Aprils.

  2. It's almost impossible to tell how the Giants are going to do based on their April.

The first point surprised me. I don't remember this team having so many decent-to-good Aprils. They've been over .500 in 12 of the last 20 years, so it's not like they've been a Yankees/Braves juggernaut the entire time. For whatever reason, they delight in giving you hope for a month before they decide if they're going to ruin your summer (or be hella cool in the fall.)

The second point didn't surprise me, considering Beyond the Boxscore just told us as much. But enough blabbering about the April numbers. Here, look at them.


 April wins April losses April winning % Final wins Final losses Final winning % Finish
1994 12 11 .522 55 60 .478 2
1995 18 16 .529 67 77 .465 4
1996 14 12 .538 68 94 .420 4
1997 17 7 .708 90 72 .556 1
1998 14 13 .519 89 74 .546 2
1999 16 8 .667 86 76 .531 2
2000 10 13 .435 97 65 .599 1
2001 12 12 .500 90 72 .556 2
2002 15 11 .577 95 66 .590 2
2003 19 7 .731 100 61 .621 1
2004 10 14 .417 91 71 .562 2
2005 12 11 .522 75 87 .463 3
2006 13 11 .542 76 85 .472 3
2007 13 11 .542 71 91 .438 5
2008 13 16 .448 72 90 .444 4
2009 10 10 .500 88 74 .543 3
2010 13 9 .591 92 70 .568 1
2011 13 13 .500 86 76 .531 2
2012 12 10 .545 94 68 .580 1
2013 15 12 .556 76 86 .469 3

Note that I added stray March games in the totals. That's a lot of numbers. I was told there would be no math? I was also told there would be no clichéd jokes. Here's a chart from Justin Bopp that will help with the no math. I have no answers for you about the clichéd jokes.

Sf-giants-winning-percentage-april-vs-final__1__medium

Let's see, the bottom left are the teams that stunk unflinchingly all year -- really, just '08, those bastards. The top left are the teams that made you sad before making you happy and eventually making you sad again. The top right are the cool kids, and the bottom right (more like bottom center) are the teams that gave you hope before punching you in the nose.

The Giants are off to their fourth-best start in the last 20 years. Even if that isn't as predictive as you'd like it to be, it's not like they have to give the wins back because they're not super-predictive. Hopefully, they're more '97 than '07.

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