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When handicapping a baseball game, sports bettors can look through a variety of statistics. The first thing that jumps out at a sports bettor is either a player’s batting average or a pitcher’s earned run average.
Measuring a pitcher’s earned run average, or ERA, is a way of determining how effective the pitcher is without taking other players’ errors into account. The ERA represents how many runs a pitcher gives up during an entire game (nine innings), so the lower the number the better. ERA standards have varied throughout the years; as of 2011, an ERA in the low 2.00s is considered excellent, with the average typically running over 4.00.
An earned run is any run that the opponent scores off a particular pitcher, except for the runs scored as a result of errors. For instance, if CC Sabathia gives up three solo home runs, and then an error causes another run to score, he is only credited with those first three runs because they were “his fault.”
You can use the following formula to calculate the earned run average:
(Earned Runs/Innings Pitched) x 9
Therefore, if Cliff Lee is charged with 19 earned runs in his first 90 innings pitched, his ERA would be 19 divided by 90, which is 0.21, times 9, which is 1.89, a very good number.
(19 runs / 90 innings) x 9 = 1.89
Don’t forget the 9 at the end. By calculating runs/innings you have only figured out earned runs per inning, but keep in mind that an ERA is actually earned runs per nine innings, since a baseball games lasts 9 innings. The number, usually represented with two places after the decimal, shows how many runs the pitcher gives up in an average complete game.
Here’s another example: Tim Hudson yielded 77 earned runs over 215 innings last season. What is his ERA? Simple — divide 77 runs by 215 innings and multiply by 9. The correct answer is 3.22.
When it comes to Sports Betting Handicapping, keep in mind that in baseball, the earned run average should not be the only measure of a pitcher’s effectiveness that you use because it does not take into account the factor that defense plays, a pitcher’s ability to throw a lot of innings or any ballpark factors. However, it is simple and straightforward, and it’s still the most frequently used statistic for a pitcher’s effectiveness. The ERA is best used when examined alongside strikeout rates, walk rates, groundball to flyball ratios and innings totals.

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