Enter earned runs and innings pitched to get ERA. Set the game length for youth ball (often 6 or 7 innings).
ERA, or earned run average, is the number of earned runs a pitcher allows per full game's worth of innings. In the majors that means per nine innings; in youth baseball and softball it is usually per six or seven, because that is how long the games are. Lower is better.
The word "earned" matters. A run that scores only because a fielder made an error, or because of a passed ball, is charged to the team but not to the pitcher's ERA. The idea is to measure what the pitcher gave up on their own — hits, walks, wild pitches, home runs — separately from what the defense gave away behind them.
ERA is the most quoted pitching stat at every level. Its main weakness is that it depends on the official scorer's judgment about errors and on how the game length is set, which is why this calculator lets you choose innings per game and why it pairs so naturally with WHIP.
ERA = (Earned Runs × Innings per Game) ÷ Innings Pitched
Earned runs (ER) are runs that would have scored without any errors or passed balls. The scorer reconstructs the inning as if the misplays had not happened; any run that still scores is earned. If a pitcher leaves with runners on base and a reliever lets them score, those runs are charged to the pitcher who put them on.
Innings pitched (IP) are counted in outs and written in baseball notation: 5.1 means five innings and one out (5⅓), and 5.2 means five innings and two outs (5⅔). It does not mean 5.1 in decimal. This calculator reads the notation for you, so type 5.2 and it will use 5.667 in the math.
Innings per game is the scaling factor. Use 9 for MLB, high school and college; 7 for many 13U–14U leagues and for most softball; 6 for most Little League and 8U–12U divisions. Use whatever your league's regulation game is, or your pitcher's ERA will not be comparable to teammates' or to the league leaderboard.
Your 11-year-old starts a 6-inning game and is pulled with two outs in the fifth. The line: 4.2 innings pitched, 5 runs allowed, of which 2 scored after a dropped fly ball in the fourth that the scorer ruled an error.
If you had left the game length at 9, the same outing would show as (3 × 9) ÷ 4.667 = 5.79 — the number is 50 percent larger for identical pitching. That is why the game-length field matters, and why a youth ERA should never be compared directly to a big-league one.
In the 2025 MLB regular season the league-wide ERA was 4.15 (calculated from official MLB Stats API team totals; 2024 was 4.07). These are 9-inning figures:
| Level | ERA (per 9 innings) | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| MLB, 2025 league average | 4.15 | An ordinary big-league pitcher |
| MLB, good | Under 3.75 | A dependable starter |
| MLB, excellent | Under 3.00 | Top-of-the-rotation quality |
| MLB, elite | Under 2.50 | Cy Young conversation |
| Youth (8U–14U) | Varies widely — judge the trend, not the number | Depends on game length, walk rates and how generously errors are scored |
Youth ERAs are not comparable to those tiers even after you scale for game length. At younger ages walks and stolen bases produce most of the runs, and scorers vary enormously in what they call an error, so "earned" is a much fuzzier idea than it is in the majors. Judge a young pitcher by the direction of their ERA across the season, by their ERA this year against last year on the same field size, and by where they sit among pitchers in the same league who face the same hitters. Pair it with WHIP, which ignores the error question entirely.
ERA is the number every young pitcher knows about, which makes it worth tracking honestly and explaining kindly. A bad inning behind a shaky defense can double a season ERA at 10U, so show your player the trend line rather than the figure. Record innings in outs, note which runs were unearned, and set the right game length: the printable scorecard has room for all three.
MyBallPlayer tracks pitch counts alongside ERA and WHIP for every game you log and charts them through the season, which is far more useful than a single number on the car ride home. Good defense behind a pitcher shows up in fielding percentage, which is worth tracking too.
Multiply earned runs by the number of innings in a regulation game, then divide by innings pitched. Example (9-inning game): 3 earned runs in 6 innings = (3 × 9) ÷ 6 = 4.50. For a 6-inning youth game the same line is (3 × 6) ÷ 6 = 3.00.
In MLB the 2025 league average was 4.15 per nine innings; under 3.75 is good, under 3.00 is excellent and under 2.50 is elite. Youth ERAs depend on game length, walk rates and error scoring, so judge them by the trend over a season and the league leaderboard rather than a fixed number.
Use your league's regulation game length — commonly 6 innings for Little League and 8U–12U, 7 for many 13U–14U leagues, and 9 for high school and above. The setting changes the ERA, so match it to how your games are actually played.
In baseball notation the decimal counts outs: 5.1 is 5 and 1/3 innings, 5.2 is 5 and 2/3. This calculator converts that automatically.
A run that would have scored even if the defense had made no errors and no passed balls. The scorer reconstructs the inning without the misplays; any run that still scores is earned and counts against the pitcher's ERA.
The same way, but most softball games are 7 innings, so use 7 as the innings per game. Youth softball leagues that play 6-inning games should use 6.