There are so many things about baseball that we need to learn properly in order to have a very good grip on the game. I’ve seen that most of the coaches often put more importance to all the technicalities and the physical preparations, these are important of course, but very fewer efforts are put to the theory part of the game. Calculate earned run average (ERA) is one of the very important things that should be in the to-know list of the baseball players.
Why calculate earned run average (ERA) is important
If you ask me what is the criterion to judge a baseball pitcher I would say that one of the best thing to justify the performance of a pitcher is to know the ERA (earned run average). Most of the major league pitchers are judged on the basis of this. It simply explains the average numbers of earned runs that are given up by the pitcher per innings.
In the baseball statistics it is one of the most important and well-known pitching statistics. This is also important because it shows the overall effectiveness of the pitcher. There is an easy process to calculate the number that will let any young baseball player to calculate the average and try to improve that.
Some more insight about the ERA
ERA is the number that depicts the man from the opposing scores runs because of the fault of the pitcher. There could be two following reasons for that and those are as follows:
- When the batter hits the pitch, despite the pitcher threw the strike, it counts against the pitcher when calculate ERA.
- When the pitcher walked the batter. This could be because of the pitcher throwing four balls or hitting the batter with the pitch.
Understanding the rules of calculation
In order to calculate the ERA perfectly, you need to have accurate figures that are necessary for the calculation. Knowing the earned runs is important but to keep this exactly, you need to look at when the pitcher is being pulled out of the game. If the pitcher has played three innings and in the fourth inning he allows a man on every base and then was pulled out then all the three men would be counted against his ERA. They would not be transferred to the next pitcher since he was pitching at the time of making it across to the home plate by the three men.
It is also important not to count the unearned runs during the calculations. Earned runs are generally caused by the hits or by the faults of the pitchers, the unearned runs are caused by errors or passes balls that are not the fault of the pitchers.
The required figures to calculate the ERA
Basically, three parts are important to take note of –
The earned runs: This is the number of times a pitcher lets the batter get on the base. Count the total numbers for a whole inning.
The innings pitched: This is the total number of the innings the pitcher has pitched. This will end in thirds because only three strikes can be made in every inning.
The total number of innings: This is the total number of innings in the whole game. This would be either 7 or 9
The formula
The simple formula to calculate the ERA is – [(earned runs x total innings)/innings pitched]. Let me make it clear with an example.
Suppose Tim Robert has charged with 18 earned runs in his first 86 innings then his ERA would be
[(18 x 9)/86] = [162/86] = 1.88
Now, keep your own Earned Run Average calculated all the time just to improve your performance.
