Not that many years ago, teams and fans judged pitchers by straightforward measures instead of pitching stats. Wins and losses. Earned Run Average. Maybe total number of strikeouts.

Of course, simulation game players and those in some Major League front offices knew better. And now, with every team staffing entire departments with data analysts, everyone knows.

Pitching Stats At Work

Evaluation of pitchers has evolved. Now, a combination of newer and proven older statistical measures gives teams (and simulation game players) a better idea of which pitcher will work best in certain situations.

No one statistic can tell the complete story of a pitcher. But some numbers seem better indicators of real-world performance. Here are some of the ways pitchers today are judged.

WHIP

This stands for walks plus hits per inning pitched. This statistic is one that’s been around for many years, but deeper statistical analysis has shown how important it can be over the course of a season. WHIP gives a snapshot of how a pitcher performs. It doesn’t matter if they are getting out batters with strikeouts, fly balls or ground balls – if they aren’t giving up hits or walking many batters, that’s the bottom line.

K/BB

This measure the ratio between the number of strikeouts per walk a pitcher issues. It’s another long-time statistic that continues to prove it’s worth. Again, this is more a snapshot, but it offers a quick way to determine a pitcher’s ability to get a strikeout through either great stuff or deception, as well as how often they walk batters.

Z Contact Percentage

This measures the number of times a hitter makes contact on a ball within the strike zone. This proves important because pitchers, at some point in every game, cannot get a batter to swing at a deceptive pitch outside of the strike zone. They must throw strikes. If they have a low Z Contact Percentage, they have demonstrated an ability over time to get a “swing and miss” even at pitches in the zone.

Quality Start

A pitcher gets a Quality Start if they go at least six innings and give up less than three earned runs. Over an extended period, this can provide a much better indication of how good a pitcher is at keeping his team in games. Unlike ERA, it cannot get skewed by one bad or outstanding game.

K/9

This measures the number of strikeouts per 9 innings. Obviously, it’s another statistic that focuses on strikeouts, because a high number of strikeouts indicates either great stuff or an ability to deceive batters. That’s a very, very good thing for pitchers. A pitcher with a high K/9 is a pitcher who, at the very least, keeps his team in games.

Do any one of these pitching stats provide a complete picture? No. But they all have proven to be better measures of long-term success. In the short term, in one game with everything on the line, there are many other factors. That’s what makes the game great – it’s played by people, not statistics.