Stats You Should Know: Pitchers
Some Surprising Pitcher Stats from the Early Weeks of 2026
WHIP+ LEADERS
It’s a bad stat name, I know. But it’s on there now and I’m not changing it! The plus sign at the end of a stat usually denotes that it’s on a scale where 100 is the average. That’s not at all the case in this one.
What it is, is actually TOTAL BASES ALLOWED PER INNING. WHIP is, of course, WALKS PLUS HITS PER INNING PITCHED. But that stat counts homers the same as singles. Not good!
What we do with WHIP+ is count doubles at two, triples as three, homers as four, and we even throw in hit by pitch as one, which standard WHIP doesn’t do.
If you plunk three dudes and then give up a grand slam in an otherwise clean innings, that’s a 1.0 WHIP. But it’s a 5.0 WHIP+. I should call it TBIP, I guess, but again - we’re past the name.
Cam Schlittler 1.02
Tyler Glasnow 1.09
Max Fried 1.09
Jose Soriano 1.17
Parker Messick 1.17
Landen Roupp 1.18
Paul Skenes 1.21
Shohei Ohtani 1.23
Nolan McLean 1.26
Ranger Suarez 1.35
Drew Rasmussen 1.36
Kevin Gausman 1.37
Clay Holmes 1.42
Nick Martinez 1.42
Shota Imanaga 1.42
Pretty studly list, which bodes well for its usefulness.
I really didn’t expect Cam Schlittler to be this good at limiting hard contact. He’s throwing a bunch of four-seamers and cutters. And those pitches are often hit hard in the air when the hitter gets to them. Not so with Schlittler. His xwOBA allowed by pitch is ridiculous:
FF .231
FC .194
SI .294
CU .319
That gives him a bit of a safety net if some of the K% and BB% goes the wrong way. All signs point to Schlittler being a legit SP1 in fantasy leagues.
Parker Messick and Landen Roupp are the next most interesting names here. Smart prospect bro’s like we have here at MLB DW kinda knew that Messick would do this in the Majors. Not to this extent, maybe, but he has a long history of being one of the toughest pitchers in pro ball to hit out of the yard. And that’s continued this year. He’s given up a .261 xwOBA this year with just one homer allowed. It’s a 53.5% GB%, a .218 xBA, and a 27% hard hit rate. It all looks extremely, extremely good for Messick’s ability to keep the ball going into his fielder’s gloves.
As for Roupp, there’s a walk (10% BB%) and whiff (10.4% SwStr%) concern. I don’t think he’s likely to keep the 17% K-BB% humming like he has. But the good news is that nobody has been able to square him up. He’s at a 24.4% hard hit rate. That’s the best in the league, just ahead of Messick.
I’d rather have a high K% and a low BB% over a low hard hit rate. Hard hit rate isn’t the stickiest stat, but it’s a good sign for both of these guys.
KYLE HARRISON’S JA ERA
JA ERA measures SwStr%, Ball%, and FB% into one ERA-like stat. The league leader is Jacob Misiorowski at 2.67. The rest of the names immediately following him are studu pitches, but you don’t go too far down the list until you find Kyle Harrison at 3.35.
→ 15.0% SwStr%
→ 34.0% Ball%
→ 31% K%
→ 8.3% BB%
→ 38.2% GB%
His four-seamer has been mowing guys down with a 17.3% SwStr% and a 29% Ball%.
It’s one of these velo-beater fastballs, I think. The release and the characteristics it has have made it really tough on hitters.
I guess there’s a reason to worry about the slurve and changeup behind it. Nothing special coming out of those pitches. That 59% fastball usage and lack of other options will probably limit his consistency and upside, but this guy is widely available and was hardly drafted this year. And he looks very competent, if nothing else.
CRIS, CADE & KYLE’S BABIP
The bottom three in BABIP allowed (through 4/29):
Cristopher Sanchez .423
Cade Cavalli .419
Kyle Bradish .388
They’re all ground ball pitchers, which does make you a bit more susceptible to BABIP swings. But these marks are obviously coming way down as we move forward.
We can break this down by batted ball type.
The league average batting average on Topped batted ball types (ground balls, more or less) is .168. Cade Cavalli has given up a .267 average on his 30 balls in play allowed in that category.
That’s ninth-highest in the league.
Cristopher Sanchez generates those ground balls with the best of them, but they aren’t finding the infielders glover super often with a .234 average against them.
So all three of these guys will give him lower BABIPs moving forward, and that is good news.
Cease & Shohei’s HR/FB Rate
There are only three pitchers with 5+ GS that haven’t allowed a homer on a fly ball yet. It’s Dylan Cease, Shohei Ohtani, and Carmen Mlodzinski.
But we don’t really care about Mlodzinskif for fantasy reasons.
You could certainly say that Cease and Shohei are “running hot”. At the same time, neither of them are giving up many fly balls in the first place:
Cease: 35.5% K%, 53% GB%
Ohtani: 29% K%, 55% GB%
They’ll end up at 10-12% HR/FB, and that will mean these ERAs are heading north from where they’re at, but it’s not a big deal for a high strikeout pitcher who doesn’t give up a ton of fly balls when allowing balls in play.
Mike Burrows Bad Luck
I keep banging the drum on Burrows, but it’s just true that he’s had a bad luck beginning to the season. A .378 BABIP, a .315 AVG allowed despite a .241 expected, a. 391 wOBA allowed despite a. 310 expected.
I don’t think he has upside to be a stud, but I still do think he can pitch into the SP4-SP5 discussion for fantasy leagues moving forward.
Now you know!