The commissioner of my league announced that he is going to a 6X6 format next season and will replace the Wins category with QS and K/9. I am going to assume that ERA and WHIP correlate fairly well with QS, although there may be exceptions. For instance, a pitcher who throws 8 QS but gets blown out in 2 disaster starts may have an inflated ERA relative to his QS's. What QS's will do is give credit to the pitcher who has a good start, but fails to get a W because of low run support or a Blown Save. QS may be less of a crapshoot than W's, but using Dominant Starts or some sort of Game Score metric would probably do a better job or rewarding very good starts and penalizing bad ones. Here is a list of all 2016 SP's with 100+ IP in order of K/9 with their ERA. If you can find a correlation between K/9 and ERA, you have a better eye for pattern recognition that I.
1. Jose Fernandez(RIP), Marlins- 12.49, 2.86.
2. Yu Darvish, Rangers- 11.84, 3.41.
3. Robbie Ray, D'Backs- 11.25, 4.90.
4. Max Scherzer, Nationals- 11.19, 2.96.
5. Stephen Strasburg, Nationals- 11.15, 3.60.
6. Noah Syndergaard, Mets- 10.64, 2.61.
7. Michael Pineda, Yankees- 10.61, 4.82.
8. Danny Salazar, Indians- 10.55, 3.87.
9. Rich Hill, Dodgers- 10.52, 2.12.
10. Vince Velazquez, Phillies- 10.44, 4.12.
11. Chris Archer, Rays- 10.42, 4.02.
12. Clayton Kershaw, Dodgers- 10.39, 1.69.
13. Justin Verlander, Tigers- 10.04, 3.04.
14. Madison Bumgarner, Giants- 9.97, 2.74.
15. Jonathan Gray, Rockies- 9.91, 4.61.
16. Aaron Nola, Phillies- 9.81, 4.78.
17. Drew Pomeranz, Red Sox- 9.78, 3.35.
18. Corey Kluber, Indians- 9.50, 3.14.
19. Danny Duffy, Royals- 9.30, 3.56.
20. Chris Sale, White Sox- 9.25, 3.34.
21. Carlos Carrasco, Indians- 9.23, 3.32.
22. Francisco Liriano, Blue Jays- 9.22, 4.64.
23. Kenta Maeda, Dodgers- 9.17, 3.48.
24. Carlos Rodon, White Sox- 9.16, 4.04.
25. Archie Bradley, D'Backs- 9.08, 5.02.
26. Cole Hamels, Rangers- 8.97, 3.32.
27. David Price, Red Sox- 8.92, 3.99.
28. Scott Kazmir, Dodgers- 8.85, 4.56.
29. Steven Matz, Mets- 8.77, 3.40.
30. Jon Lester, Cubs- 8.75, 2.44.
31. Kevin Gausman, Orioles- 8.72, 3.61.
32. James Paxton, Mariners- 8.70, 3.79.
33. Jake deGrom, Mets- 8.70, 3.04.
34. Gio Gonzalez, Nationals- 8.68, 4.51.
35. Jake Arrieta, Cubs- 8.67, 3.10.
36. Colin McHugh, Astros- 8.63, 4.34.
37. John Lackey, Cubs- 8.60, 3.35.
38. Drew Smyly, Rays- 8.51, 4.88.
39. Ian Kennedy, Royals- 8.46, 3.68.
40. Marco Estrada, Blue Jays- 8.44, 3.48.
41. Eduardo Rodriguez, Red Sox- 8.41, 4.71.
42. Adam Conley, Marlins- 8.37, 3.55.
43. Johnny Cueto, Giants- 8.11, 2.79.
44. Mike Foltynewicz, Braves- 8.10, 4.31.
45. AJ Griffin, Rangers- 8.09, 5.07.
46. Kyle Hendricks, Cubs- 8.09, 2.15.
47. Matt Moore, Giants- 8.08, 4.08.
48. Anibel Sanchez, Tigers- 8.05, 6.04.
49. Matt Shoemaker, Angels- 8.64, 3.88.
50. Carlos Martinez, Cardinals- 8.02, 3.04.
Like I said, if you can see a pattern here, you are much better at pattern recognition than I. So, what drafting strategy will I employ in my league's new 6X6 format? I believe that WHIP correlates better with ERA than K/9. I also believe WHIP is more stable over time than ERA. So, if I continue to load up my bench with SP's who have a low WHIP and rotate them into the starting rotation with daily lineup resets, I can rack up QS's and K's while still winning a majority of WHIP's and ERA's. In a 6X6 League, you can better afford to punt one category, so fill RP slots with relievers with high K/9 regardless of Saves. The other strategy would be to punt W's and K's, spend all your allotted pitching dollars on a few ace SP's and then load up on relievers which would give you K/9, ERA, WHIP and Saves.
