The ERA value displayed by a pitcher is one of the more mysterious and difficult aspects of that player’s performance. It can be extremely difficult to quantify pitching, but it is even harder to understand what the numbers mean in any particular case. The earned run average, or ERA as it is often abbreviated, is a statistic used widely in baseball and shows just how much a pitcher has helped his team’s cause over the course of a game.
The ERA takes into account the number of innings pitched by a pitcher and divides them by their number of starts for example. If you have never heard about the earned run average before, you may be wondering what it is and why you should care about it – so this guide will help explain everything there is to know about this mysterious metric.
What Is The Earned Run Average?
To understand how the earned run average is calculated, it is important to know what exactly constitutes a “run’. A run is scored when the team gets one or more runners into scoring position without being forced out at first. A run is scored when the batter hits a single, a double, or a triple. A run is scored when the pitcher hits a batter or commits a fielding error and the runner is able to advance another base.
Similarly, a runner is charged with an earned run when he crosses the plate and the team gets to put one point on the board. If the offense has runners on all four bases, the runner from first is charged with a run and then another runner is charged with a run because he is able to score. As you can see, runs are scored in many different ways and are not always equivalent to the number of base hits.
How Is The Earned Run Average Calculated?
To calculate the earned run average, the statistician takes the amount of runs scored by the team and subtracts the amount of runs the pitcher gives up. They then divide that number by the number of innings pitched. Let’s say, for example, that the pitcher allowed five runs while only allowing one of their own.
The earned run average would be 5/1 = 5. The earned run average is a very important statistic because, in terms of how it pertains to a pitcher’s performance, it shows how well the pitcher is controlling the run scoring of the team. If a team has a pitcher who gives up a lot of runs, but is also incredibly ineffective at keeping the team from scoring runs, the team will have very little chance of winning.
It is a lot like batting average in that it shows average performance over the course of a game. A pitcher’s ERA can be compared to a team’s batting average, but it also gives a good idea of how well the pitcher is controlling the run scoring of the team.
Why Should You Care About ERA?
The earned run average is usually used as a metric to determine the effectiveness of a pitcher and is often displayed together with their earned run average. The earned run average is one of the most important numbers to look at if you are interested in understanding how well a pitcher is doing. It shows just how much damage they are causing.
This is extremely important because there are other pitching statistics that are often used to compare one pitcher to another. What many statistics do not take into account is just how much damage the pitcher is causing. For example, if one pitcher has a 4.00 ERA but is striking out 25 batters on a team with a 0.00 batting average and another pitcher has an 8.00 ERA but is only striking out 10 batters on a team with a 0.20 batting average, both pitchers’ statistics are completely different.
Not Just For Starting Pitchers
While the earned run average is most often used to determine a pitcher’s effectiveness over the course of a game, it can also be used to compare players’ performance in a season. This is an extremely important aspect of the earned run average. The earned run average will tell you how well a player performed during the entire season. In the same way that batting average shows how well the player did over a certain period of time, the earned run average measures the quality of the entire season.
If you compare a pitcher who has a 4.00 ERA in one season with a pitcher who has a 3.00 ERA in another season, you are actually comparing completely different pitchers. You cannot make any meaningful comparisons between the two pitchers, because they have different amounts of innings pitched, and they have different batting averages.
How to Improve Your ERA
The earned run average will show you some things you can do to improve it. The first thing that should be obvious is to try and keep the team from scoring runs. If the team has a lower batting average than the pitcher, they will have a lower earned run average. By simply pitching to limit the amount of runs scored and not allowing more than one run, the pitcher has helped their team.
Another thing that can be done to reduce the earned run average is to strike out fewer batters. This is especially important for pitchers who pitch in the middle of the game. By striking out fewer batters in the middle of the game, your earned run average will be reduced because there will be fewer runners on base.
Conclusion
As you can see, the earned run average is a very important statistic that shows just how much damage a pitcher causes in the run scoring of the team. It can be used to compare different pitchers, and it can also be used to compare a pitcher’s season-long performance. The earned run average is a very important metric that shows just how well a pitcher is doing, and it is something all pitchers should keep an eye on.
