A Look at WHIP- Walks and Hits Allowed Per Innings Pitched

One of the more recent statistical categories devised in Major League Baseball to determine a pitcher's effectiveness is called WHIP. This measure a pitcher's Walks and Hits allowed per Innings Pitched, thus the name. A pitcher with a WHIP around 1.00 is going to do very well under normal circumstances, while a WHIP that exceeds 1.75 means that a pitcher is dealing with lots of base runners during the course of the game. While earned run average, or ERA, can determine a hurler's ability, this number does not factor in what happens after an error is made behind him. For instance, a pitcher can get two batters out and then an error is made, meaning that everything that happens after that will be unearned. But WHIP will show just how the pitcher fared after the miscue.

The all-time leader in WHIP is a pitcher rarely spoken of, Addie Joss, who pitched for Cleveland around the turn of the twentieth century. Joss had a WHIP of 0.968, one of only two pitchers that have thrown at least 1,000 innings and had no less than 100 career decisions that posted a WHIP under 1.000; the other was Ed Walsh, who threw for the White Sox from 1904 until 1916. Walsh had a WHIP of 0.9996, just sneaking under the 1.000 mark. Third on the all-time WHIP list is the still active Pedro Martinez, who owns one that translates to 1.0276 walks and hits per innings pitched. Pedro has toiled for over 2,655 frames, and possesses a lifetime record of 208-92, which will one day earn him enshrinement in Cooperstown.

Pedro's superior stuff and wonderful control helped him to achieve the greatest WHIP ever for a single season, when he had one of 0.7373 in 2000. Not surprisingly, Martinez went 18-6 for Boston that year, with an earned run average of 1.74. As a matter of fact, Pedro owns four of the top sixty single season best WHIPs, with another future Hall of Famer, Greg Maddux, now of the Padres, the next best active player in that regard with a pair of years like that. Maddux had a WHIP of 0.8108 in 1995, then as an Atlanta Brave, which helped him to the last of his four Cy Young Awards. Maddux went 19-2 that year with a 1.63 ERA, walking only 23 men in 210 innings.

Obviously, among active pitchers, Martinez is first in career WHIP. In second place is the Twins Johan Santana, soon to be a free-agent and certain to be the most sought after pitcher to hit the market in a long, long time. Santana's WHIP of 1.0925 has been integral in his winning a couple of Cy Youngs for Minnesota and having a lifetime standard of 93-42. Forty year old Curt Schilling has never walked more than 61 men in one campaign, so it figures he would have a low WHIP. He does, as his WHIP of 1.1385 has him standing at third for those pitchers still at it. In fourth for the active pitchers is Maddux, just a smidgen behind Schilling at 1.1386, while Randy Johnson's 1.1638 has him all alone in fifth. It remains to be seen if his balky back allows him to ever throw again.

A look at some of the pitchers in Cy Young contention for 2007 shows Boston's Josh Beckett with a WHIP of 1.145, while New York's Chien-Ming Wang stands at 1.27 and the Indians' C.C. Sabathia is at 1.15. In the National League, San Diego's Jake Peavy leads all of baseball with a WHIP of 1.06; that along with his strikeout totals and 2.44 earned run average has made him a sure thing for his initial Cy Young.