baseball statistics Baseball statistics play an important role in evaluating the progress of a player or team. Since the flow of a baseball game has natural breaks to it, and normally players act individually rather than performing in clusters, the sport lends itsel ...

, strikeout-to-walk ratio (K/BB) is a measure of a

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, who attempts to e ...

's ability to control pitches, calculated as strikeouts divided by

bases on balls A base on balls (BB), also known as a walk, occurs in baseball when a batter receives four pitches that the umpire calls '' balls'', and is in turn awarded first base without the possibility of being called out. The base on balls is defined in Sec ...

. A hit by pitch is not counted statistically as a walk, and therefore not counted in the strikeout-to-walk ratio. The

inverse Inverse or invert may refer to: Science and mathematics * Inverse (logic), a type of conditional sentence which is an immediate inference made from another conditional sentence * Additive inverse (negation), the inverse of a number that, when ad ...

of this calculation is the related statistic for hitters, walk-to-strikeout ratio (BB/K).

Leaders

Through 2022, the all-time career leaders among starting pitchers were Chris Sale (5.3333),

Jacob de Grom Jacob Anthony deGrom (born June 19, 1988), is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the New York Mets. Prior to playing professionally, deGrom at ...

(5.3036), and

Tommy Bond Thomas Ross Bond (September 16, 1926 – September 24, 2005) was an American actor, director, producer and writer. He was best known for his work as a child actor for two nonconsecutive periods on ''Our Gang'' (''Little Rascals'') comedies (fir ...

(5.0363). Through May 22, 2019, the all-time career leaders among relievers were Koji Uehara (7.94), Sean Doolittle (6.41), and Roberto Osuna (6.33). Phil Hughes at Camden Yards 9-12-13

The player with the highest single regular season K/BB ratio through 2022 was

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area ...

pitcher

Phil Hughes Philip Joseph Hughes (born June 24, 1986) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees, Minnesota Twins, and San Diego Padres from 2007 through 2018. He stands ...

in 2014, with a ratio of 11.625 (186 strikeouts and 16 walks). He is followed by Bret Saberhagen (11.00 in 1994) and Cliff Lee (10.28 in 2010). In 2016, Clayton Kershaw struck out 172 batters while walking only 11 for a ratio of 15.6; however he pitched only 149 innings, not enough to qualify for the record. A pitcher who possesses a great K/BB ratio is usually a dominant power pitcher, such as

Randy Johnson Randall David Johnson (born September 10, 1963), nicknamed "The Big Unit", is an American photographer and former professional baseball pitcher who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (1988–2009) for six teams, primarily the Seattle M ...

, Pedro Martínez,

Curt Schilling Curtis Montague Schilling (born November 14, 1966) is an American former Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher who is a commentator for conservative media outlet BlazeTV. He helped lead the Philadelphia Phillies to a World Series appearance ...

, or

Mariano Rivera Mariano Rivera (born November 29, 1969) is a Panamanian Americans, Panamanian-American former professional baseball pitcher who played 19 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees, from 1995 to 2013. Nicknamed "Mo" and "San ...

. However, in 2005,

starting pitcher In baseball (hardball or softball), a starting pitcher or starter is the first pitcher in the game for each team. A pitcher is credited with a game started if they throw the first pitch to the opponent's first batter of a game. Starting pitc ...

Carlos Silva easily led the major leagues in K/BB ratio with 7.89:1, despite striking out only 71 batters over 188⅓ innings pitched; he walked only nine batters.

References

Pitching statistics Statistical ratios {{Baseball-stub