What is a Good ERA in Baseball?

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An ERA for a pitcher is a report card for their overall pitching effectiveness.

If you think about the primary objective for pitchers, the main goal is to get the other team’s hitters out and prevent them from scoring runs.

An ERA is a baseball statistic that stands for Earned Run Average, and the objective of this stat is to assign the responsibility of earned runs scored to either starting or relief pitchers.

While there are plenty of other popular pitching statistics like WHIP, Wins and Losses, Saves, and K/9 innings, an ERA is still the gold standard of how pitchers are judged.

ERA Explained

It can be a little confusing to determine what counts toward a pitcher’s ERA in baseball if you are a casual fan and aren’t familiar with calculating ERA.

In short, it all comes down to earned and unearned runs scored. Earned runs count toward a pitcher’s ERA, while unearned runs don’t count.

A high ERA is worse than a low ERA. The objective is to keep your ERA as low as possible. 

Earned Runs

Earned runs are runs that are scored that fall under the responsibility of the pitcher due to a hit or walk that result in a run being scored without errors from the fielders.

For instance, if the leadoff hitter hits a double and the next batter hits a double, and the runner on second scores, that would be considered an earned run. 

If a pitcher walks four batters in a row, the runner forced home by the walk would also be an example of an earned run.

There are some exceptions to earned runs that don’t necessarily fall under the pitchers’ responsibility but aren’t technically errors that can count as earned runs.

If a fielder misjudges the angle on fly balls, or if they lose a ball in the sun these may appear to be errors but are actually not and counted as earned runs against the pitcher because there wasn’t technically a fielding error.

These types of plays are rare but can be very frustrating for pitchers, especially if there are 2 outs or men on base and the runners end up scoring because of some unnatural play.

Unearned Runs

Unearned runs are runs that are scored by runners that were put on base because of an error. For instance, if a player hits a ground ball to third base and the third baseman throws the ball over the first baseman’s head and into left field and an E-5 (Error Third baseman). 

If the next batter hits a double into the gap and that runner on base scores, that would be an unearned run for the pitcher since it wasn’t his fault that the runner was on base.

One other interesting fact about unearned runs is that if there is 2 outs and a fielder makes an error, the opposing team could go on to score endless amounts of runs that wouldn’t count as earned runs against the pitcher until he gets taken out of the game.

 I once was in a game where a reliever faced this exact situation and gave up 8 unearned runs that didn’t count toward his ERA. 

He gave up 5 unearned runs on his own, and then the second reliever that came in after him gave up a triple which resulted in 3 additional unearned runs scored assigned to the first reliever for a goal of 8.

ERA formula

The formula for calculating ERA in baseball is pretty straightforward:

9 x Earned Runs/ Innings pitched

So if a pitcher pitched a complete game of 9 innings pitched and only gave up 2 earned runs, his ERA for the game would be:

9 x 2= 18/9= 2.00 ERA

If a pitcher threw only 4 innings and gave up 4 runs the ERA calculation would be:

9 x 4=36/4=9.00 ERA

The number of innings pitched can have a significant impact on an ERA and for relievers or closers, an ERA can be a little misleading if they haven’t pitched enough innings. 

For instance, if a closer has a bad night and gives up a grand slam (4 earned runs) in one inning but then precedes to throw eight shutout innings over his next eight innings, his ERA would be 4.0, but 9 innings isn’t a large enough sample size to get a good gauge of what his ERA actually would be over the course of a season.

Here is a great breakdown of how to calculate Earned Runs at different levels: 

What is a good ERA?

When someone says that a pitcher has a “good era,” you need to think about which level of baseball the pitcher is playing in. 

A good ERA in high school will be slightly different than a good ERA in major league baseball.

Let’s take a look at some of the lowest career ERA leaders in major league baseball history

MLB BEST ERA of All time

Let’s take a look at some of the best ERA leaders from a career and season perspective:

MLB Career ERA Leaders:

Player

Career ERA

Innings Pitched

Ed Walsh

1.86

2964

Addie Joss

1.87

2327

Jim Devlin

1.89

1405

Jack Pfiester

2.02

1067

Smoky Joe Wood

2.03

1434

A quick glance at the all-time leaders may leave the casual fan confused not to see any recognizable names atop the all-time-era leader board.

Dead ball era

One thing to realize is that most of the pitchers atop the all-time career ERA leaderboard were played during the dead ball era. 

This era was from around 1900 until 1920, when Babe Ruth came on the scene. 

During the dead ball era, most of the ballparks were much larger than today’s parks, and the ball itself was overused and not with no rules against pitchers using substances on the ball. Just a few batters had the ability to hit home runs, with most games only having around three runs per game.

Modern ERA Career ERA Leaders:

Player

Career ERA

Innings Pitched

Randy Johnson

3.29

4135

Steve Carlton

3.22

5217

Sandy Koufax

2.76

2324

Greg Maddux

3.16

5008

Roger Clemens

3.12

4916

Tom Seaver

2.86

4783

Bob Gibson

2.91

3884

Pedro Martinez

2.93

2827

Above is a list of some of the best all-time pitcher ERAs of the modern era. What stands out above the above list is each of these starting pitchers had incredible longevity and consistency. 

Randy Johnson-known as the big unit, physically dominated hitters with his three-quarter delivery and wipeout slider. 

While others on the list each had their own unique style of pitching that contributed to a successful career ERA over multiple years. 

Despite the dominance this list displayed throughout their career, they all still gave up nearly three runs per game which is an example of how hitters progressed over time.

Despite the dominance this list displayed throughout their career, they all still gave up nearly three runs per game which is an example of how hitters progressed over time.

Best Individual Season ERA in Live Ball ERA

Player

Single Season ERA

Year

Bob Gibson

1.12

1968

Dwight Gooden

1.53

1985

Greg Maddux

1.56

1994

Luis Tiant

1.60

1968

Greg Maddux

1.63

1995

Jacob Degrom

1.70

2018

Pedro Martinez

1.74

2000

Justin Verlander

1.75

2022

Clayton Kershaw

1.77

2014

Roger Clemens

1.87

2005

Above are some of the best single-season pitching seasons in the modern baseball era over the last 50 years. 

The game has changed over time as players have gotten bigger, stronger, and faster, and it’s important to view pitching ERA statistics through a lens of which baseball era the players played in. 

Jacob DeGrom, Roger Clemens, Clayton Kershaw, and Zack Greinke were the only American League ERA leaders with sub 2 ERA’s since 2000, while Justin Verlander, Blake Snell, and Pedro Martinez have done the same from the National League.

ERA by Baseball era

Baseball era

Years

Average ERA

Dead Ball era

1901-1919

2.89

Live Ball era

1920-1941

4.20

Integration Era

1942-1960

4.07

Expansion Era

1961-1976

3.61

Free Agency era

1977-1993

3.46

Steroid era

1994-2005

3.72

Post Steroid era

2006-Present

4.17

It’s interesting to take a look at ERAs over time and what you notice is the average MLB era over the last 100 years or so is around 3.5. MLB monitors runs scored per game closely and have implemented rule changes over the years. 

For instance, a few years ago, pitchers started to get too much of an edge on hitters and MLB started enforcing rules by checking pitchers for sticky substances on their hands. 

Pine tar and other tacky substances can help a pitcher grip the baseball or gain a small amount of additional spin on breaking pitches. 

While these substances have been against the rules for decades, MLB started having umpires check pitchers’ hands and actually enforcing the rule by ejecting players in violation. 

The motive behind this rule enforcement is all about having a competitive balance and keeping the game entertaining for fans. Fans love the long ball, and I suspect we will see ERAs continue to creep higher in the coming years.

Top Reliever’s ERA

It’s important to realize the difference between starting pitching ERA vs. relievers ERA and almost group them into two separate categories. 

Relievers and Closers often come in to pitch only 1-2 innings at a time and don’t throw nearly as many innings as starting pitchers do throughout the course of a season. 

A reliever may have a great season with tons of saves or holds but may have 1 or 2 bad innings that bloat their ERA higher than other relievers, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t a great closer. 

Starting pitchers will throw between 100-200 innings on average per year, while relievers and closers throw anywhere between 10-100 innings per year. 

So for relievers, you have a much smaller sample size of innings which means ERAs can swing much higher after a couple of bad outings.

Here’s a look at some of the career ERA’s for some of the best reliever’s of all time that are in the hall of fame:

Pitcher

Career ERA

Goose Gossage

3.02

Hoyt Wilhelm

2.53

Rollie Fingers

2.91

Bruce Sutter

2.85

Dennis Eckersley

3.51

Lee Smith

3.05

Trevor Hoffman

2.88

Mariano Rivera

2.22

College ERAs over the years

College baseball has gone through numerous bat changes throughout its history, which is why its important to consider the ERAs to the type of bat that was being used. In the late ’90s to early 2000s, the aluminum bats had much more pop, and successful pitchers had ERAs in the 4.0-5.0 range. 

High School ERA

High school ERAs for pitchers need to be taken with a grain of salt because of all the different variables at play. The talent level in high school baseball changes significantly from state to state and level to level. 

College Baseball coaches and professional scouts will almost always want to see a high school player play in person before offering them a scholarship or signing them to a professional contract. 

A high school player that plays in a small school in North Dakota with a 1.00 ERA probably isn’t the same type of player that you would find with a 1.00 ERA in a warm weather state like Texas or Florida.

4 Scenarios that Impact ERA

There are a few additional scenarios to consider when measuring a Pitcher’s ERA. While these scenarios are less likely at the 

1.The following pitcher’s performance

One frustrating part of pitching is that your ERA can be affected negatively by the pitcher that enters after you during a game. If you get taken out of the game with runners on base that are there because of a hit or a walk, the next pitcher can come in and give up a base hit, walk, or HBP and the runs that come in from those left on base would be assigned to your ERA. 

If you look closely, pitchers sometimes will express frustration when getting taken out of the game with runners left on base because many want to finish the job that they started. 

Other position players will also occasionally demonstrate bad body language when coaches put in unreliable relievers into games. 

Here is a funny video from when the Phillies brought in a reliever that catcher JT Realmuto wasn’t thrilled to see coming in the game:

2.Bad fielders

As mentioned earlier, having a solid defense behind you is another thing that is big factor in helping your ERA. 

If you play on a team that doesn’t have good baseball IQ there can be many plays made that affect your ERA negatively that aren’t necessarily errors. 

If an infielder doesn’t take advantage of a force out, or an outfielder does throw a ball on a line from the outfield to the infield on a line, runners may score and count against your ERA while those plays wouldn’t ever happen on a good team. 

In the major leagues, almost all of the players are exceptional athletes and bad baseball IQ plays rarely happen. 

You will see more of these types of plays in Travel, High School, and College Baseball, but there have been some noteworthy bonehead earned run plays in baseball history like the homerun that bounced off of Jose Canseco’s head:

3.Wild Pitch

A wild pitch counts as an earned run since it’s technically the pitcher’s fault, according to baseball rules. 

A wild pitch is seen sort of like a base on balls and is deemed the pitcher’s responsibility and not considered an error.

The line between a wild pitch and a passed ball is close; you may see pitches classified as “wild pitches” but are really due to having a bad catcher with slow hands.

4.Passed Ball

A passed ball is a pitch that the official scorekeeper deems as one that should have been caught. Passed balls are unique in that they are not considered as an error, but they also don’t count toward a pitcher as an earned run toward the pitcher in the event the runner eventually scores.

Final Word

A good ERA in baseball is different for a starting pitcher than a reliever and also depends on the level of competition you are playing. 

Major league ERA average right over 4 runs per game during the current baseball era, while college and high school ERAs may be an entire run or two higher on average. It’s important to take a holistic approach when evaluating a pitcher’s ERA, and we hope this article will help give you a new perspective!