WHIP as a Function of OBP

by Kevin Harlow
July 21, 2003

One common "fantasy" baseball statistic for pitchers is WHIP, which is the number of walks and hits per inning pitched. Clearly this is simply a function of OBP. The following algebraic derivation ends with an expression for WHIP as a function of OBP. It's probably not really useful, but I suppose it could modify your views of WHIP or opponents' OBP if you were extremely positive for one and negative for the other.

WHIP = 3*(H+BB)/Outs

Let: TOB = H + BB

WHIP = 3 * TOB/Outs

WHIP = 3 * (TOB/PA) * (PA/Outs)

WHIP = 3 * (OBP) * [PA/(PA-TOB)]

WHIP = 3 * OBP / [(PA - TOB)/PA]

WHIP = 3*OBP/(1-OBP)

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