ERA Question

[WagonPuller]

Thanks for the responses. This was my kiddo's first varsity game and when I saw the online stats (that everyone in this area looks at) I was a little stunned at the 7.0 ERA. That's more than twice the number of runs the other team scored! I realized the formula for calculating ERA but it seems like pitchers almost get punished for run-ruled games (or for getting taken out for whatever reason) -- we only played 3 innings, she pitched 2, but is calculated like we played 7. I wish they published WHIPs instead. First game was 1.5, second 1.83. Much easier to digest than 7.00.

 

[LEsoftballdad]

Thanks for the responses. This was my kiddo's first varsity game and when I saw the online stats (that everyone in this area looks at) I was a little stunned at the 7.0 ERA. That's more than twice the number of runs the other team scored! I realized the formula for calculating ERA but it seems like pitchers almost get punished for run-ruled games (or for getting taken out for whatever reason) -- we only played 3 innings, she pitched 2, but is calculated like we played 7. I wish they published WHIPs instead. First game was 1.5, second 1.83. Much easier to digest than 7.00.

If they keep Game Changer, it shows you all of those stats.

 

[CoachJD]

I generally agree, but depends on skill level and sample size. Top skill level whip is a good stat because the # of extra batters faced from errors is low. Lower levels that can be high.
On a large enough sample size (like a year) I prefer ERA. The “luck” factor in era should be reduced. Some pitchers just better with runners on and have higher gb rates.

I still value the win loss as well.

Errors have no bearing on WHIP. Unless the implication is that more errors lead to longer innings which can lead to more walks and hits. That is true, however, the response to that is that the best pitchers overcome the bad defense with more strikeouts.

I just recently learned about FIP. That could also have application for the error prone team.

There's no real way to calculate FIP for any level of softball outside of (maybe) NCAA. You don't have the FIP constant, but I also am not sure some of the numbers in the calculation would apply to any level of softball since they were engineered for Major League pitching.

 

[CoachJD]

Thanks for the responses. This was my kiddo's first varsity game and when I saw the online stats (that everyone in this area looks at) I was a little stunned at the 7.0 ERA. That's more than twice the number of runs the other team scored! I realized the formula for calculating ERA but it seems like pitchers almost get punished for run-ruled games (or for getting taken out for whatever reason) -- we only played 3 innings, she pitched 2, but is calculated like we played 7. I wish they published WHIPs instead. First game was 1.5, second 1.83. Much easier to digest than 7.00.

There's no "punishing" involved. The team gave up 1 earned run per inning. That's an ERA of 7. Would it make more sense to you if there was no run rule and the team played a full 7 inning game and won 45-7?

If a baseball starting pitcher gives up 4 runs in 6 innings, he'll have an ERA of 6.00 even though he only gave up 4 runs. That's just how the stat works.

You can very easily calculate WHIP on your own. It's just (BB + H) / IP.

 

[CoachCeetar]

There's no real way to calculate FIP for any level of softball outside of (maybe) NCAA. You don't have the FIP constant, but I also am not sure some of the numbers in the calculation would apply to any level of softball since they were engineered for Major League pitching.

The constants just to make it "look" like ERA so you can sorta eyeball what good values are. That part would be easy enough.

The trickier part is the value of the other events. The given FIP formula is based on the value of the pitcher-controlled event on run scoring, gotten by looking at mountains of MLB data on the run-value of those events, which definitely wouldn't translate 1:1 to softball. (I doubt it's even that translatable to the low MLB minors, tbh)

But that doesn't mean someone couldn't do some calculations and figure out how much more or less valuable a HR/K/BB/HBP is in softball vs baseball, get some run expectancy matrices and adjust the numbers in the formula to come up with something useful.

Probably better off just using K%/BB%/HR% (percentage of batters faced that a pitcher strikes out) coupled with everything else. FIP is just meant to be a pretty number to easily understand those three anyway.

 

[_MIA_]

Who cares..You as a parent should be able figure out whether your kid is throwing well or not without stats and really that (the throwing well part) is all that matters. College coaches don't give a rat's as* about a kid's stats for the most part since they have no way of knowing the competition level and what Joe Jughead from down the road thinks doesn't matter...

 

[CoachCeetar]

Some of us just like numbers? And also it's helpful to look back if you miss a game or are focused on another aspect of the game, etc. It's like the difference between pass/fail and number grades. Sure, you can look at a kid and know she's throwing well, but you probably can't instantly differentiate 85 from 90 without looking closer. Does that matter? not really.

 

[_MIA_]

Some of us just like numbers?

Yeah..I hate numbers

 

[_MIA_]

The biggest issue you are going to run into in youth sports and statistics is not the proper ones to use but the idiots that often run the GC account...

 

[CoachCeetar]

even better to just use K/BB/HR percentages. Those are the hardest to screw up. This is where WHIP would fail, if your gamechanger dude is very inconsistent on Hit versus Error.