Cardinals analyst Jim Edmonds can’t wrap his mind around basic statistic

St. Louis Cardinals analyst Jim Edmonds has no idea what WHIP is, and we’re here to tell him.

Edmonds was loved by Cards fans as a player, and is loathed by St. Louis baseball supporters as an analyst. He’s the classic example of a player who wasn’t meant for the booth, after all.

Now, Edmonds knows what ERA is — he’s gotten that far in terms of understanding pitchers. In his playing day, stats didn’t go beyond wins, losses and earned-run average. WHIP, along with many other more advanced stats, is tough for a former outfielder to get.

“That means his WHIP is pretty low too, isn’t it?” asked Edmonds. “He’s whippin’ it pretty low. Never could understand that.”

Uh…not so fast, my friend.

WHIP, to put it simply, is the numbers of walks and hits per inning pitched. It helps measure the number of baserunners the pitcher averages per inning on a regular basis.

Cardinals: Jim Edmonds is a member of the old guard

Look, I understand the older generation of players who enjoy the eye-test far more than advanced baseball analytics. However, WHIP has been around for quite some time. It was readily available when Edmonds was playing. The man retired in 2010, for goodness sake.

Shortly after claiming he couldn’t understand WHIP, he clarified his comments, but it did not help his cause.

“I mean I get it,” Edmonds said. “I’m just saying, I think it’s, ya know. I just think sometimes that stat is just kinda thrown out there like, ‘here, look at this.’”

What?

We’re going to walk that one off. You do you, Jim.