An inauspicious debut...

[battists]

So, if you haven't read my other recent posts... I am in my inaugural season as manager of the rookie league Titusville Barracudas in my league. They're not all that good, although after a brutal 12-game losing streak I have managed to turn things around a bit recently, going 16-6 in June. That is, until I ran into the interleague buzzsaw called the Ft. Myers Bluegills. They currently lead all teams in the 12-team league with a 45-20 record on the season. First game of the three-game set, they rode a 5-run fourth to a 6-1 victory.

Second game, the wheels came off. ALL of them. Including some I didn't know I even had. As manager, I don't do any GMing at all, but just days earlier my GM had depleted my pitching staff, leaving me with just 9 pitchers (5 starters, 4 relievers), so I set aside my house rules for a moment and at least signed a few bullpen arms. Now, this is for rookie ball, so I picked up rookies, just for realism. One righty and one southpaw.

Anyway, SP Ned Scott had been decent good so far this season, comparatively speaking, with a FIP- of 105, almost 1 strikeout per inning, and a 1.34 WHIP. Not today. They tuned him up for 6 runs in 4 innings.

In comes Ralph Miles, my most reliable long reliever. 5 runs in 2.1 innings. Meanwhile, our bats are silent through six. Not a no hitter, but no runs either.

At this point, I'm thinking, "I need someone to just eat up these innings. My bullpen is already tired, I just want to get out of here and go home!" So, I bring in recent scrap-heap signee "Wynn Belt."

Please note Wynn's impressive line:



That's right, he gave up NINE RUNS without getting an out. And somehow, even more impressively, only one of the runs was earned! He came in with the bases loaded. All three of those guys scored. (He also had the gall to tell me he was "fine" when I went to the mound to delay a bit while I warmed up another pitcher haha.)

Although, honestly, I'm not sure how that works. Here's what the game log looked like:




Anyway, quite a debut, eh?

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by battists

That's right, he gave up NINE RUNS without getting an out. And somehow, even more impressively, only one of the runs was earned!

I'm trying to figure that out. It looks like Belt came into the game with the bases loaded and one out. He walks the first batter, then the next batter - Slater - hits a grounder to short that the shortstop boots for an error. That's the only error or passed ball that occurred during Belt's time on the mound. I don't know if there were any errors or passed balls before or after Belt left the game, but it seems to me that, at most, only one of the runs that he gave up - the run that Slater eventually scored - should be unearned as to Belt.

If we reconstruct the inning without the error, then either there's a fielder's choice on Slater's ground ball and the runner is thrown out at the plate, or else Slater is thrown out at first and the run scores. The double-play can't be presumed. Either way, there's an unearned run in there somewhere - either the run that scored because of the (presumed) groundout or the run that Slater eventually scored. Presumably, the scorer could rule that both of those runs are unearned, but because the lead runner was the previous pitcher's responsibility, Belt only gets the benefit of one of those unearned runs.

No other run scored as a result of an error or passed ball. Furthermore, if there were any errors or passed balls prior to Belt's appearance on the mound, Belt doesn't get the benefit of those in calculating his own ERA (that's rule 10.16(i), for those of you keeping score at home). So even if there were one or more errors in the inning prior to Belt showing up, that doesn't help him (they would, however, be considered when calculating the team's ERA).

So I'm left confused. Which of the runs that Belt gave up did the game think was earned?

[RBPD5015]

How did he give up an earned run but his ERA stay a 0.00??

Matt

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by RBPD5015

How did he give up an earned run but his ERA stay a 0.00??

Matt

He's yet to record an out.

[Fyrestorm3]

Originally Posted by David Watts

He's yet to record an out.

Which means technically his ERA is infinite. So rather than crashing the game by telling it to divide by zero, it defaults to 0.00.

[Quinton_Upchurch]

Not much of a pitcher but Wynn Belt would be a great boxer.

[sc_superstar]

Miller's first at bat run would be the only earned one, because that is the only runner that gets on prior to the error, and he did not score or bat on the actual error play

[Fyrestorm3]

Originally Posted by sc_superstar

Miller's first at bat run would be the only earned one, because that is the only runner that gets on prior to the error, and he did not score or bat on the actual error play

That would be true if there were two outs in the inning. Because there was only one out, the error would not have ended the inning if it had resulted in an out. Therefore, only runs that scored as a direct result of that error should count as unearned.

[Abyss]

Was OOTP 15 but I think this guy had the opposite debut as your guy!

[battists]

Originally Posted by Fyrestorm3

That would be true if there were two outs in the inning. Because there was only one out, the error would not have ended the inning if it had resulted in an out. Therefore, only runs that scored as a direct result of that error should count as unearned.

Yeah, I don't know how all of this works.

Do you guys think it's scored correctly?

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by battists

Do you guys think it's scored correctly?

You'd have to give us the entire inning.