Yeah, I didn't really take a good look at his minor league walk rate. It's ugly. I just remember reading that it wasn't good and thought major league factors could improve it.
Just another (potentially stupid) question. Couldn't two pitchers have the same WHIP yet one could be much more effective? For example, one pitcher could give up on average a home run and walk an inning, giving him a WHIP of 2. Another pitcher could average a single and a walk per inning, giving him a WHIP of 2 as well. So an extreme ground ball pitcher who may be great at limiting runs may be viewed as comparable to an extreme fly ball who's more likely to give up runs. Wouldn't a better stat be something like "total bases given up per inning"? It would seem to do a better job of evaluating the effectiveness of a pitcher. Is there a reason why they stick with WHIP?