so basically, other than being easy to hit he was pretty good? also, he sucked hard in 2002 and 2003. It's not about how many hits you give up. It's about how many runs you give up. ...and runs come from hits and walks (aka whip). Runs are tracked by ERA, not by WHIP. WHIP is a nice little ancillary stat, but ERA is much more important. It's not that different than football. What do you care more about? How many points you gave up or how many yards? One is usually indicative of the other. If you score 30 points but amass 30 yards of offense, you probably can't count on that week in week out. If you have a high whip, you *usually* have a higher ERA. Not always, but it's usually the case. And since ERA isn't predictive at all, I'd look at his WHIP.