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Judging a pitcher's RA rather than ERA has been shown, consistently, to be a better measure of performance.
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wouldn't RA be useful over ERA only insofar as you standardized among the team somehow? you alluded to runs that weren't at all the P's fault...if some team just has 8 fat toads fielding, they may allow a ton of UER as a team, and finding some sort of "base" figure (aw, crap...bad pun) to use for calculations for their pitchers would eliminate some of the uncertainty and allow for some of those runs that weren't the pitcher's fault in any way, shape or form.
i enjoy BIPA (BA-against on balls put in play) and DIPS ERA's (defense-independent ERA)? i get more out of those than i think i'd get out of just runs allowed, b/c it gives an idea about who should be on base in the first place. it also seems like it'd be a good predictor of future performance (depending on the defensive changes made by the team and amount of "luck" that goes into D). al leiter, jake peavy, and carlos zambrano (?!?) had the biggest hikes in ERA if defense is taken out. leiter went up 1.6, peavy .94 (it's done by % increase, so peavy's absurd 2.27 ERA goes up 41%), and zambrano goes up .93. among the bottom 6 (those least helped by their D) were derek lowe (predictable, with his high grounder totals and low k's), jason johnson, sid ponson, bonderman, lieber, and lackey. kris benson's also up there.
http://www.diamond-mind.com/articles/qstart.htm
Thought I'd also share this interesting article on quality starts. it's old as hell, but back in the day, apparently 5.7% of starts in this eight year period fit the "exactly 6ip 3er" mold. if you don't wanna read it, it basically argues that in the aggregate, it's an effective statistic, though it has an arbitrary dividing line.
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Two out, runner on second. Fly ball to RF, who drops it. Runner scores, batter ends up on 1B. Pitcher allows a HR. ERA doesn't count any of those.
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MLB rules seem to indicate otherwise. the guy who hit the HR would've conceivably hit it regardless of situation, so his run is earned. The other two are unearned, because but for the fielder's error, both would've been erased.