Fielding independent pitching

In baseball, fielding independent pitching (FIP) is intended to measure a pitcher’s effectiveness based only on statistics that do not involve fielders. These include home runs allowed, strikeouts, hit batters, walks, and, more recently, fly ball percentage, ground ball percentage, and line drive percentage. By focusing on these statistics and ignoring what happens once a ball is put in play, which – on most plays – the pitcher has little control over, FIP claims to offer a clearer picture of the pitcher’s true ability.