Unusual, but not an error.

According to baseball-reference.com, Downs gave up 39 hits in 196 at bats (.199 OAV).  He issued 15 walks in 53 2/3 IP, which means his WHIP is 54/53.666666 = 1.01.

Pauley gave up 38 hits in 190 at bats (.200 OAV).  He issued 16 walks in 54 1/3 IP, so his WHIP is 54/54.333333 = 0.99.

Basically it's two things: rounding of the IP (neither pitched 54 IP exactly) and the fact that the number of at bats varied.  Pauley perhaps gave up more SACs or something, so even though he pitched more IP, he had fewer opponents at bats.

Posted by contrarian23 on 11/9/2011 12:26:00 PM (view original):
Unusual, but not an error.

According to baseball-reference.com, Downs gave up 39 hits in 196 at bats (.199 OAV).  He issued 15 walks in 53 2/3 IP, which means his WHIP is 54/53.666666 = 1.01.

Pauley gave up 38 hits in 190 at bats (.200 OAV).  He issued 16 walks in 54 1/3 IP, so his WHIP is 54/54.333333 = 0.99.

Basically it's two things: rounding of the IP (neither pitched 54 IP exactly) and the fact that the number of at bats varied.  Pauley perhaps gave up more SACs or something, so even though he pitched more IP, he had fewer opponents at bats.

Actually this isn't very unusual.  If you plow though the database you can find many such instances.  Double-plays, sac hits and sac flys can all affect WHIP as you indicate.  It seems that double-plays are probably the biggest factor for higher-whip pitchers.  Similarly I think small-ball plays like sac hits and sac flys affect low-whip guys.