WHIP as cat. & how many teams ideal???

[RiverRat]

Anybody believe like me that WHIP is overrated?? Generally speaking, a low whip means a good ERA, and thusly more wins. Its just a duplicated stat cat. I'd rather use blown saves/holds for pitching cats. Any other pitching stats usefull that we dont usually see?
I'm in a 10, 12 and 20 team leagues. Forget 20 teams. There is absolutely NOBODY left on the WW. Withe 10-12 there is room to work the wire. I'd say a max of 12 teams is ideal.

[Riverrat]

And 1 more thing... I think losses as a cat. would be more realistic than WHIP is.

[Madison]

I think you need both era and whip as a catagory. Ishii is the perfect example: 2.91 era (good) but a 1.41 whip (bad) coming into today's game. Moss was that way in the beginning of the season. Low era, but a high whip. Gotta have both catagories.

[jdh]

I would leave WHIP as a category. Personally, I think WHIP is the best possible pitching category, and is a far better measure of pitching performance than ERA. Pitchers with a decent ERA and high WHIP (Russ Ortiz, Kaz Ischii) should be punished in a scoring system because they just aren't as good of pitchers as guys like Mussina or Schilling who may have higher ERAs due to more homers allowed but are far more dominating. ERA can be almost as lucky as the wins category; for example, you can pitch a 5 hitter and get a complete game shutout, but if those 5 hits happen to be all in one inning, you can give up 4 runs. WHIP awards those who are successful because of good pitching over those who are successful because of good luck.

[DGroundhog]

WHIP is also used to see if a pitcher is 'expected' to improve. For example, if a SP has a ERA of 4.50 but a WHIP around 1.2, that pitcher will frequently lower his ERA to a more respectable level.

On to other matters, I think 10-12 teams is ideal, with 23-25 man rosters, 1 DL spot. I think 2 DL spots allows for too much stashing. If you get a rash injuries, you need to make a move or take the pain.

There is nothing wrong with adding stats. Most prefer an equal amount of categories for hitters and pitchers. Don't go nuts and add everything, but adding holds and other categories is a decent option. I don't like negative stats like losses or errors. I'd try to use W/L ratio and fielding percentage instead.