Baseball WHIP

What is WHIP in Baseball?
by RotoPicks.com Staff

Ever been reading a baseball pitcher's stats and came across a statistic abbreviated as WHIP and wondered what it was? Don't be embarrassed! We couldn't figure it out either until we did a Google search.

The definition of and formula to calculate W.H.I.P. is walks + hits divided by innings pitched. The abbreviation is a little misleading because it doesnt include any plus signs or division signs.

What's not misleading is the power of this statistic in telling the effectivness of a pitcher. Many MLB purists and fantasy fanatics believe that it should be weighted heavier than the almight stat of earned run average (ERA). Now that we've explained what WHIP is, let's take a look at how it's measured and how you can use it to better handicap baseball pitchers or value a pitcher that you're considering drafting for your fantasy baseball team:

The average MLB player's WHIP is somewhere between 1.35 and 1.39. This essentially means that the average professional baseball player give's up 1.35 to 1.39 walks and hits (combined) per inning, Most fantasy baseball team owners would scoff at this stat because most fantasy teams score somewhere around 1.25-1.29. The reason fantasy teams have lower whip's than the MLB average is because most fantasy teams only carry the top pitchers in the league. If you figure that the average fantasy team consists of around 7 starters and 2 closers and the league has 12 teams, your league will have 108 active pitchers.

Major League Baseball consists of 30 teams and each team has an average of 11-12 pitchers which means there's 330-360 pitchers in the league at any given time. In summary, only the top third of all MLB pitchers are on active fantasy rosters, hence the difference between the average fantasy team whip and the avg. MLB whip.

Let's take a look at a breakdown of excellent, good, average and bad pitchers:

0.99 and Below: Sub-1.00 whip type of pitchers are rare to say the least. With that being said, when it does happen it's usually only for a year or two of a pitcher's career. These pitchers are likely in their prime, having a career year. It's very likely that a the sub 1.00 WHIP pitcher has nasty stuff, strikes out a ton of hitters and has superior control walking very few. At time of print (2012), fireballing Cincinnati Reds Closer Aroldis Chapman has a 0.71 WHIP through 50 innings. This is absolutely as sick as it gets. It's highly unlikely that he'll average those figures over the course of his career. The guy is nearing his prime and has been clocked at 105mph and isn't walking many. Sick!

1.00-1.19: These are guys that have command of the strike zone, probably change speeds well and have a plus fastball.

1.20-1.29 These are pitchers that could be considered slightly above average, probably in the top third of the league.

1.30-1.39: These are guys who likely struggle with control at times and are hanging around the middle of the plate a bit too much. There are many pitchers who make a living in MLB putting up these type of numbers, but nobody that you want to bet on or have on your fantasy team.

1.40-1.49: These are the pitchers that have average stuff, are likely journeymen and catching way too much of the plate. These pitchers can still be effective enough to get hitters out, but are susceptible to "the big inning". You know, the one where where they pitcher 2 innings, give up 8 hits, 3 walks and 8 earned runs.

1.50 and up: We like to refer to these guys as gascans. MLB teams don't generally keep these guys on the roster for long should they hit these type of numbers. Often times, they're sent down within 4-5 starts (if not sooner) or given their walking papers. It's very common for young pitchers to come up from the minors and get shelled in their first few starts and then settle down later on after the butterflies are gone. In fact, it happens to most young pitchers. The Arizona Diamondbacks brought up a young righty by the name of Trevor Bauer in 2012 and he got beat up pretty bad. He had breezed through the minors though. Consequently, they sent him down but I'd bet everything in my bank account that he'll be back and dominate MLB hitters some day.

Now that you know what WHIP is and how it works, use these stats to dominate some daily fantasy baseball at the best daily fantasy site on the web: Fanduel.

Feel free to drop us a line if you've got any further questions regarding the walks plus hits divided by innings pitched stat. We'd be more than happy to help you! - RotoPicks@hotmail.com

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