How to Calculate Major Pitching Statistics in Baseball
from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can EditERA, WHIP, DICE are all acronyms that make some people nervous, but true baseball fans should know them. They often seem difficult to calculate as well, but this article will prove that it's not necessarily difficult, provided you've got the background understanding.
Contents
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ERA (Earned Run Average) ERA[1] is one of the basic stats to determine the talent of a pitcher, and it is often very good to use. Lower ERA's are considered better, and the current average ERA in Major League Baseball is around 4.50.- Take any pitcher and calculate how many earned runs (ER) the pitcher gave up (these can be different from regular runs given up; most places with pitching statistics will show both) and how many innings he has pitched.
- Divide his earned runs by his innings pitched.
- Multiply the resulting number by nine to find the pitcher's ERA.
- Make sure that the pitcher was the last pitcher in a game in which his team won.
- Make sure that he is not the pitcher who recorded the win in the game.
- Make sure that he pitched at least 1/3 of an inning (got at least one batter out).
- Make sure that the pitcher fulfills one of the following three conditions:
- He enters the game with a lead of no more than three runs and pitches for at least one inning.
- He enters the game with the game-tying run in the on-deck circle and finishes the game.
- He pitches for at least three innings.
- Calculate the pitcher's home runs allowed, strikeouts (K), innings pitched (IP), walks allowed (BB), and hit batters (HB, HBP, the abbreviations vary).
- Use the slightly complicated formula following to determine a pitcher's DICE:
- Find the pitcher's walks allowed (BB), hits allowed (H, not to be confused with Holds, also abbreviated H), and innings pitched (IP).
- Add walks and hits together.
- Divide the result of the previous step by the pitcher's innings pitched.
Tips
- There are tons of other pitching statistics, such as Wins, Losses, Holds, Strikeouts per Nine Innings Pitcher (K/9), and Complete Games, to name a few. You might like to experiment with a few to settle on which ones you enjoy using and following most.
- Dabble in with sabermetric stats and regular stats. It will help back up stat-based arguments.
- If you are really into baseball stats, consider joining SABR[5], the Society for American Baseball Research.
- This can be a great way to get sports-loving children interested in statistics.
- ERA is best used as a performance measure for starting pitchers, as a reliever who pitches 80 innings a season with one bad outing can push his ERA up more than a half run for the entire year. WHIP is a fair measure of all pitchers.
Warnings
- There can never be a single stat that can perfectly judge every pitcher, so don't ever claim that a certain stat is perfect.
Related wikiHows
- How to Calculate Statistical Power
- How to Read Baseball Statistics
- How to Determine the Usefulness of a Baseball Statistic
- How to Learn About Baseball
- How to Enjoy Watching Baseball Games
- How to Be a Knowledgable Baseball Fan
- How to Argue That Baseball Is Better Than Football
Sources and Citations
- ↑ Wikipedia, ERA, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earned_run_average
- ↑ MLB.com Official Rules (Save Rule is Rule 10.19)
- ↑ Clay Dreslough - creator of DICE, http://sportmogul.com/content/dice.htm
- ↑ Wikpedia, WHIP, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WHIP
- ↑ Official Website of SABR, http://www.sabr.org/
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