If you are a regular reader of this site, you know that I am a person who loves high K/9 pitchers. I would rather have a decent start (as it relates to ERA) with 5-7 strikeouts then a shutout mixed with 1-3 strikeouts. That is why you will never see me draft a Chin-Ming Wang or Jake Westbrook. Last season I talked about component ERA (ERC) and Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP), and how those stats are better gauges of a pitchers performance. If you missed those articles, Don’t worry, I will be revisiting those stats in the spring.

So how can you determine the effectiveness of a pitcher striking out batters? Most people would just look at a pitchers K/9 rate, and that will give a pretty good idea. But there is one element missing. K/9 is based off of how many innings are pitched as this formula shows:

Strikeouts per Nine Innings = (number of strikeouts) / (Innings Pitched) X 9

All pitchers who strikeout 6 batters in 7 innings will get the same K/9 rate of 7.71. But how effective were they during those seven innings? I never really gave the concept a thought until I read this article by Rich Lederer. A pitcher who strikeouts 6 batters in 93 pitches is more efficient then a pitcher who strikes out 6 batters in 120 pitches. The stat that Rich was referencing is K/100 pitches, and this give the efficiency of the pitcher’s start measured in strikeouts.

Please read the article to get the full impact of his research. Since the usual suspects are at the top of the list, I would like to take a closer look at some pitchers that may be available in later rounds.

Javier Vazquez (CHW) - Vazquez finally started to show the consistency from start to start that he has been lacking over the past two seasons. He ranked in the top 10 in K/100, and I personally think it is that he was more efficient with his pitches. Here are his last three years in K/100:

2005 - 5.78, 2006 - 5.54, 2007 - 6.15

All three years have been above league average, but last year was a step up. The comment most people would say at this point is; “sure, he walked less people so that only means he would strike out more batters.” I would tend to agree, but Vazquez’s BB/9 in 2007 (2.08) was higher then the 1.92 he posted in 2005. This is one pitcher that no one is strongly considering as a staff ace, but getting him as a third starter will add significant overall value.

James Shields (TB) - Shields has an outstanding change-up that he uses as his strike out pitch. He ranked 13th last year in K/100, and will most likely drop to the middle rounds in Fantasy Baseball drafts. The knock against having shields was the defense behind him. I think with moving Upton to the outfield, getting Bartlett from the Twins, and moving Iwamura to 2nd base, the Ray’s defense will be more consistent, if not improved. There is a lot of value with shields late in the draft.

Dustin McGowen (TOR) - D-Mac gets a lot of lovin from Matthew Berry at ESPN, and for good reasons. McGowen has great stuff and has a ton of promise. The largest issue with D-Mac is his walk rate of 3.24 BB/9. McGowen was ranked 23rd in K/100 with a 5.33, and he posted a batting average against of .234. That means he was trying to be too fine with his pitches. McGowen would have solid value as a 4th or 5th starter in 2008.

Rich Hill (CHC) - I was an owner of Hill last year in my Fantasy Baseball Mafia league, and I felt the pain when he allowed 3-4 runs over 6 innings. Sure the strikeouts were decent each start, but the Cubs kept his pitch counts down. As a result, he would never pitch deep enough into games to allow those three runs to be spread over 7-8 innings. Even though he had a limited pitch count, he did rank 11th overall in K/100. I would expect the Cubs to allow him to pitch a bit deeper into games this year, and that is good news for fantasy owners. Now, if he would just get his HR/9 below 1.00, we would have a potential ace on our hands.

Those are a couple of the pitchers that have solid fantasy value in my eyes. Remember, an efficient strike out pitcher is gold on Fantasy Baseball pitching staffs.