Is an ERA between 3 and 4 considered "very good" in today's baseball?

Question

When you answer, consider as a reference what would be considered great/exceptional. I'd think that, as a rule of thumb, anything below 3 is great/exceptional, whereas anything between 3 to 4 would be very good. 4 to 5 would be average, okay, good. Over 5 would be bad, poor. What do you think?

Answer 1

Last year in the NL the league ERA was 4.76, so I guess that's average by definition. The league leaders were around 3.0, so that's quite good. I guess I would put it like this for the NL:

Under 3.5 - Very good
4.0 to 3.5 - Good
4.5 to 4.0 - Above average
5.0 to 4.5 - Average
5.5 to 5.0 - Below average
Above 5.5 - Go away, little boy, you bother me.

You need to add about half a run a game for the AL equivalent, to adjust for the DH rule.

Answer 2

I agree. Although my own personal adjectives might be different. Sub 2.00 ERA I'd call great. 2.00-2.99 I'd call very good, 3.00-3.99 I'd call good, 4.00-4.49 average, and anything worse is bad. But that's semantics really.

For my money, in Fantasy Baseball, I won't take a player with an ERA of 4.00 or higher, unless absolutely necessary (such as to get more Ks or something). I really prefer to stay below a 3.50 even. I have several below 3.00 right now as well. I personally believe that, while not absolute, everything else will follow ERA, except for maybe Ks, and so I value that more than any other stat. I'm old school, so I do the same for batters with average. OBP, SLG, and OPS are all nice, but you won't have any of them without a decent AVG.

What sorta caught me was when I thought about what an individual ERA translated to in terms of a regular start by a pitcher. Let's say a pitcher has a 4.50 ERA, which is bad by my standards. A quality start will net 6 innings. So that means the pitcher gave up 3 ER. Now really, 3 ER is a decent enough outing, so when I look at it that way, a 4.50 ERA is pretty alright. I mean, if he'd have given up 1 less ER, his ERA would drop 1.5 points to 3.00. Of course, the problem is that's only 6 innings of work. If your bullpen holds up, 3 innings isn't much to overcome. But let's say your bullpen pitches just as well. That's 4.5 runs, which you can round down to 4 one day, which isn't TOO bad, or round up to 5 the next day. 5 runs means you'll need to score 6 runs to win. Last year the Yankees scored 930 runs, which was the most by 60 runs. That's only 5.74 runs per game. Which isn't actually enough for a win when you need 6 runs to win.

Now, you said anything up to a 5.00 ERA is good. Now, let's just consider that's the team ERA, which means each game they are giving up 5 ER. Again, that's a hard thing to get over. Granted, over 6 innings, that's not even an additional half a run compared to the pitcher with a 4.50 ERA. Over 7 innings, that almost a full run more.

Anyways, yeah, I agree.

Answer 3

ERA's are deifnitely up in the last twenty years. The juiced ball is one factor, but pitch counts and fewer innings do not hurt that either. I mean if a pitcher gives up two runs in a five inning start he has a 3.60 ERA and three runs over six innings- a quality start- would be 4.50. ERA's near 3.00 have led the league the last few seasons, so something in the 3.0 to let's say 3.25 has become exceptional, and anyone under 4.00 has been very good or great.

Answer 4

You can just look at the league ERA as a whole. If a pitcher is below that he is doing ok. Below 3.0 these days and generally always has been considered very good to exceptional. There is perhaps a half a run difference between the leagues due to the pitcher batting in NL.

Answer 5

An era between 3 and 4 in today's game is very acceptable. Even more so in the American league because of the DH. Anything under 3 and you would be an allstar.

Answer 6

I believe most of what you say to be reasonable, except a few of your ranges are too broad. I would split your "3 to 4" range in half. Anything from 3 to 3.5 is "very good" while anything under 4 would still be considered "good". I just don't see a 3.8 ERA as "very good", but like i said, it's still good.

Anything under 3 is excellent.

4 to 5 would be average, yes. Anything over 5 is lackluster.

Answer 7

anything below 3 is great

3-4 is good, but i wouldnt say very god

an ERA of 3 means that every 9 innings a started gives up 3 earned runs. that is very good.

an ERA of 4 means that every 9 innings a starter gives up 4 earned runs. that is ok

but with the avg major league team scoring about 5 runs a game, an ERA of 3.- anything in pretty damm good

Answer 8

Yes an era between 3 and 4 is considered pretty good in the mlb, but anything blow 3 is great
pretty much what you said is right

Answer 9

I would say "good"--under 3 gets you into the "very good" range. Under 2 earns the "exceptional" ranking. And we are talking about starters here, aren't we? Because I sure wouldn't want my stopper to be between 3 and 4.

Answer 10

Yes, it used to be between 2 and 3 but hitting now rules with all the changes made by baseball to benefit the hitters.