By Baron Kuhn
I-5 Sports
WHS or (Walks + Hits)/Strikeouts is a way that I developed to find pitchers who may outperform last years numbers and which ones will fall on their faces. What WHS essentially does is describe how many walks or hits the pitcher gives up per strikeout. Critics of this method will argue that the stat gives an unfair bias toward strikeout pitchers and leaves at a disadvantage those who pitch to contact. Yes, it absolutely does and for good reason. When a pitcher has the ability to strikeout a lot of batters it allows him to reduce his risk. It takes factors beyond the pitchers control out of the equation. He no longer needs to rely on his team’s defense, the ballpark factor, the elements, the game is in his hands and his ability to come up with strikeouts allows risk to be lessened. Now I’m not saying that with 2 outs and the bases loaded Jered Weaver (Ks leader last season, 1.03 WHS) strikes out Batter A since his WHS was low but I am saying that it is more of a possibility than Mark Buehrle (2.98 WHS last season). In a sense WHS is a risk limiter, putting more control in the game in the pitchers hands. If a pitcher has a high chance of striking out a batter it often means he has pretty good stuff. There’s a reason the Cy Young award winners almost every year goes to a dominate strikeout machine.
Another reason for using WHS is because in our beloved game of fantasy baseball one of the more forgotten categories (along with runs on the offensive side) is strikeouts. A lot of fantasy managers (to their own demise) tend to focus on wins and era which for the most part fluctuate from year to year. This is due to the fact that pitchers aren’t really in control of either of those stats. Take Felix Hernandez (1.14 WHS) for example, he was the Cy Young winner in the AL
(Red Triangle: Carl Pavano, Red Square: Brett Anderson)
