After a week of looking at the spring boxscores of the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals, I decided to line-up both teams starting eight and pulling-in Baseball Prospectus' PECOTA projections to see which one is truly worse. The Cardinals clearly look better.
Looking at the projections for the Giants, I can't help guessing the players involved are not expected to get a lot of playing time for whatever reason - age, injury, etc. Outside of 1B Dan Ortmeier, every Giant has projected numbers worse than those they produced in the prior season. Is this a reasonable expectation?
| STL | HR | SB | RBI | R | AVG | SF | HR | SB | RBI | R | AVG |
| Adam Kennedy | 3 | 7 | 22 | 28 | 0.254 | Dave Roberts | 3 | 21 | 27 | 52 | 0.279 |
| Rick Ankiel | 30 | 5 | 97 | 74 | 0.257 | Kevin Frandsen | 4 | 8 | 32 | 41 | 0.28 |
| Albert Pujols | 32 | 8 | 110 | 119 | 0.327 | Randy Winn | 10 | 9 | 60 | 67 | 0.293 |
| Troy Glaus | 21 | 3 | 68 | 65 | 0.258 | Benji Molina | 12 | 2 | 56 | 39 | 0.277 |
| Chris Duncan | 21 | 3 | 66 | 59 | 0.261 | Aaron Rowand | 15 | 8 | 68 | 67 | 0.279 |
| Brian Barton | 11 | 19 | 52 | 68 | 0.256 | Ray Durham | 7 | 5 | 35 | 35 | 0.250 |
| Yadier Molina | 5 | 2 | 35 | 29 | 0.263 | Dan Ortmeier | 11 | 16 | 51 | 56 | 0.251 |
| Cesar Izturis | 0 | 3 | 20 | 23 | 0.251 | Rich Aurilia | 6 | 2 | 32 | 29 | 0.266 |