K/BB,K,or K/9 with WHIP

[GreenFish]

In a Head to Head league that already has WHIP as a category, does it still make sense to use K/BB or should I just go with K or even K/9. It seems like if I use WHIP & K/BB, walks hurt you twice.

I prefer K/BB over K since it seems to reward quality over quantity but I did not know if it makes sense with WHIP.

I also have never been in a league that used K/9 so I am not sure if that is a good option.

[krysoul]

I recommend K/9, we had it for the first time last year and it was fun .. everyone liked it and we are putting it in again this year. Never done K/BB, but with WHIP I dont think it would be that necessary.

[GreenFish]

Thanks. Anyone else what to chime in here?

[tms298]

Did k/9 in h2h last year. It worked to prevent tons of pitcher pickups, however, it wasn't easy to figure out how many strikeouts you need to pull out the win. k/9 is a better category, but k's is an easier one to follow.

[bigh0rt]

K/BB dominates K's and K/9.

[GreenFish]

K/BB dominates K's and K/9.

Even used in conjunction with WHIP?

[Cooner]

In order of personal preference:

K/BB
K/9
K


K/BB is a great stat- if you get a chance, pull up a list of all pitchers last year, then rank them by K/BB. If that doesn't open your eyes, nothing will. It slightly favors older, tenured pitchers who simply know how to get people out over the guys who blow people away but have no control. Guys who both blow people away and get people out lead the league in it. It's a fantastic cat.

However, I also understand the argument that WHIP and K/BB are closely correlated. Frankly, I'm ok with that- what's wrong with counting guys who are good pitchers twice over guys who are on good teams (and therefore get Ws)? But I can understand why you would not be.

Either K/BB or K/9 are solid cats- simply using Ks encourages pitcher churning in H2H and is no good.

[GreenFish]

Thanks

[Matthias]

i'm going to slightly disagree with everyone here.

k/bb is a great statistic, but so is whip. if you're already using whip, then just k's makes more sense.

here's my logic: it's good to have a mix of cumulative, average, and sometimes negative statistics to balance everything out and make no particular strategy great other than simply taking great players.

if you have k/bb and whip, you're using two statistics that reward relievers that will have high k's, low walks, and low hits. if you use only k's, you're encouraging pitcher churning and plugging in long starters who may be wild, but manage to get some k's along the way.

if you use k's and whip together, you're rewarding top-of-the-line starters, moderately rewarding quality closers, and hurting/helping mediocre starters, which in my mind is how baseball (real and fantasy) should be set up.

so... long story short, the key is not only in selecting good statistics, but in selecting statistics that work together to encourage quality players instead of just a particular fantasy baseball strategy.

[teddy ballgame]

I prefer K with WHIP. I've been in leagues with K/9 and I didn't really like it too much.