Giants Pitching Report

Before the start of the season many believed that the Giants would have one of the best staffs in the National League. 43 games into the season is that really the case?

Here's how the Giants compare to the rest of the National League in some important pitching metrics (click on the links to see a definition of the metric):

• 4.14 FIP (5th)
• 7.87 K/9 (3rd)
• 4.09 BB/9 (14th)
• 1.42 WHIP (11th)

A 4.14 FIP is nothing to sneeze at, especially considering that's more than a run better than the defending world champion Philadelphia Phillies FIP of 5.34.

But San Francisco ranks in the bottom half of the National League in WHIP, well off the 1.29 pace set by the league leading Dodgers. ::yuck:: This means that the Giants have had a lot of extra base runners and have had to pitch out of some tight spots to avoid giving up runs.

The G-men are in fact leading the league by stranding 75% of the base runners they allow. This ability to strand runners stems from their high strikeout rate (7.87 K/9).

Part of the problem with having a lot of strikeout pitchers on the staff is that they tend to walk a lot of batters, and that is exactly what has happened this year. San Francisco's 4.09 BB/9 is not very good at all and it is certainly not an improvement on last year's 4.07 mark.

So how are the Giants able to get by while allowing so many base runners? Are they just lucky? Not really, their staff is actually set up to function this way. The majority of the pitchers on this staff are fly ball/strikeout pitchers, as evidenced by San Francisco's league leading 39.2% fly ball rate.

I expect the Giants to continue walking people and allowing extra base runners, but they should still finish near the top of the league in runs allowed and that's all that really matters right?