2009 Team Unearned Runs

On Friday I cross-posted something I wrote for Brew Crew Ball regarding earned and unearned runs in an inning with errors and pitching changes. One of the topics that came up was team unearned runs.

The concept of team unearned runs comes from Official Rule 10.16(i).

When pitchers are changed during an inning, the relief pitcher shall not have the benefit of previous chances for outs not accepted in determining earned runs.

You can read my Friday post for an example of this rule being applied. Team unearned runs come into play if a reliever allows earned (to him) runs to score after the team should have been out of the inning. They're relatively rare, since errors, pitching changes, and ineffective relief pitching all have to present for one to result.

Team unearned runs can have an effect on baseball statistics, though. Since they are charged as earned runs to relief pitchers but unearned runs to the team, summing up earned runs allowed by a team's pitchers can make a team's ERA look higher than it should. Baseball-Reference.com calculates team ER and team ERA by summing the earned runs allowed of the team's pitchers, so that's at least one often-used site that can be off. As noted Friday, Cleveland is one example of this. Unfortunately, there are ten other teams in the same boat through June 6.

• Arizona Diamondbacks
  Baseball-Reference ER/ERA: 252/4.48 - Correct ER/ERA: 250/4.45
  
  May 25 - 8th inning - Jon Rauch charged with two earned runs (both team unearned)
  
  
• Baltimore Orioles
  Baseball-Reference ER/ERA: 293/5.37 - Correct ER/ERA: 290/5.32
  
  April 15 - 4th inning - Radhames Liz charged with three earned runs (all team unearned)
  
  
• Chicago Cubs
  Baseball-Reference ER/ERA: 211/4.05 - Correct ER/ERA: 210/4.04
  
  June 2 - 8th inning - Carlos Marmol charged with one earned run (team unearned)
  
  
• Cleveland Indians
  Baseball-Reference ER/ERA: 298/5.27 - Correct ER/ERA: 297/5.25
  
  May 12 - 7th inning - Tony Sipp charged with one earned run (team unearned)
  
  
• Colorado Rockies
  Baseball-Reference ER/ERA: 252/4.71 - Correct ER/ERA: 250/4.67
  
  April 18 - 7th inning - Ryan Speier charged with one earned run (team unearned)
  May 17 - 7th inning - Manuel Corpas charged with one earned run (team unearned)
  
  
• Detroit Tigers
  Baseball-Reference ER/ERA: 217/4.09 - Correct ER/ERA: 209/3.94
  
  April 7 - 8th inning - Brandon Lyon charged with three earned runs (two team unearned)
  April 28 - 7th inning - Nate Robertson charged with four earned runs (all team unearned); Brandon Lyon charged with two earned runs (both team unearned)
  
  
• Florida Marlins
  Baseball-Reference ER/ERA: 259/4.51 - Correct ER/ERA: 257/4.47
  
  May 19 - 7th inning - Renyel Pinto charged with one earned run (team unearned)
  June 3 - 5th inning - Hayden Penn charged with one earned run (team unearned)
  
  
• Milwaukee Brewers
  Baseball-Reference ER/ERA: 223/4.07 - Correct ER/ERA: 222/4.05
  
  May 18 - 7th inning - Mark DiFelice charged with one earned run (team unearned)
  
  
• Oakland Athletics
  Baseball-Reference ER/ERA: 235/4.30 - Correct ER/ERA: 234/4.28
  
  April 28 - 6th inning - Andrew Bailey charged with one earned run (team unearned)
  
  This is further notable because of an error in the Baseball-Reference box score/play-by-play. Bailey entered the game due to injury with a 2-0 count on Michael Young. The box score/play-by-play lists Young's walk (and later run) as belonging to Bailey when in fact it should belong to Anderson per Official Rule 10.16(h). Curiously, the walk and run do not count against his total on his player page but they are still there in his game log.
  
  
• San Diego Padres
  Baseball-Reference ER/ERA: 245/4.49 - Correct ER/ERA: 244/4.47
  
  April 29 - 6th inning - Arturo Lopez charged with one earned run (team unearned)
  
  
• Tampa Bay Rays
  Baseball-Reference ER/ERA: 251/4.49 - Correct ER/ERA: 247/4.42
  
  May 25 - 9th inning - Grant Balfour charged with two unearned runs (both team unearned); Jason Isringhausen charged with two unearned runs (both team unearned)

Obviously the difference will mean less as the season goes on. Where one team unearned run might cause a difference of 0.02 in a team's ERA now, it might not cause an apparent difference in a team's ERA at the end of the season. However, that's no reason to ignore the fact there is a difference. Who knows, maybe those eight team unearned runs will be the difference between Detroit finishing first, second, or third in the team ERA standings.