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WHIP Calculator for Baseball

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What is WHIP in baseball?How to use the WHIP calculator?How to calculate WHIP?Why is calculating walks plus hits per inning pitched useful?Terms used in the WHIP calculatorWHIP values of some professional players.

If you're a fan of baseball and want to know everything you can about your favorite player, or if you're a player who wants to keep getting better, you are bound to find this WHIP calculator invaluable! Use it to find the value of Walks plus Hits per Inning Pitched (WHIP) you or your favorite player achieved, and read the article below to learn how to calculate WHIP.

What is WHIP in baseball?

WHIP (Walks plus Hits per Inning Pitched) is a sabermetric statistic, the purpose of which is the measurement of the number of baserunners a pitcher has allowed per inning pitched. The WHIP baseball statistic is one of the most popular ways of assessing a pitcher's skills.

One could compare it to cricket's famous batting average. Although the way these two statistics are calculated differently, they are very similar in terms of how common their usage is in their respective disciplines, and they both are used to estimate the level of an individual player.

💡 When comparing baseball teams against one another, one such helpful tool is their magic number calculator.

How to use the WHIP calculator?

Using the WHIP calculator is very easy. Just follow this short set of instructions:

  • input a player's number of hits,
  • input a player's number of walks,
  • input a player's number of innings,
  • the WHIP calculator will return the value of walks plus hits per inning pitched.

Please note that, although it might seem counter-intuitive, the lower the WHIP value, the better the score.

How to calculate WHIP?

To calculate the the WHIP baseball statistic, all you have to do is use this simple equation:

WHIP = (hits + walks) / innings pitched

Let's go through an example to illustrate the process. If a player has allowed 200 hits and 50 walks over 230 innings pitched, their WHIP will be:

WHIP = (200 + 50) / 230 = 250 / 230 = 1.087

Why is calculating walks plus hits per inning pitched useful?

If you're a sportsperson, knowing exactly how good (or, sometimes, bad - let's not forget that no one is born an expert and there is always room for improvement. No need to worry if your WHIP is not the lowest!) you are is the key to success. Only then you can correctly assess how much you should train to increase your performance and your chances of winning. If you precisely estimate both your Walks plus Hits per Inning Pitched, your Earned Run Average (ERA) and your Slugging Percentage (SLG), you can be quite confident in your skills as a baseball player, as you have solid evidence - numbers - to back you up.

As a fan, it's also always worth having as much information about your idols as possible. Knowing a player's WHIP and SLG can give you a reliable picture of their abilities and of their chances in a tournament, so you can guess whether the odds will be in their favor or not.

💡 Read more about baseball metrics and how to calculate them at the ERA calculator or the slugging percentage calculator.

Terms used in the WHIP calculator

  • Sabermetrics is what we call the area of empirical analysis of baseball (especially various baseball statistics), focused on in-game activity. Coined in 1971 by Bill James, the name comes from the acronym SABR, which stands for the Society for American Baseball Research.

  • Walk, also known as base on balls (BB) - an advance to first base that is awarded to a batter who takes four pitches that are balls.

  • Hit, also known as base hit - a hit by which the batter reaches base safely without incurring an error, fielder's choice, or force play.

  • Inning - one of nine divisions or periods of a regulation game, in which each team has a turn at bat as limited by three outs.

WHIP values of some professional players.

To get an idea of the average values of the WHIP baseball statistic, take a look at a list of the 10 best WHIP's in Major League Baseball:

1. Addie Joss - WHIP: 0.9678

2. Ed Walsh - WHIP: 0.9996

3. Mariano Rivera - WHIP: 1.0003

4. Clayton Kershaw - WHIP: 1.0067

5. Chris Sale - WHIP: 1.0325

6. John Montgomery Ward - WHIP: 1.0438

7. Pedro Martinez - WHIP: 1.0544

8. Christy Mathewson - WHIP: 1.0581

9. Trevor Hoffman - WHIP: 1.0584

10. Walter Johnson - WHIP: 1.0612

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