Project #1, Part A - Impact of Fielding Errors

One of the things about baseball that does not make any sense to me is runs not being counted as part of a pitcher's Earned Run Average (ERA) that were a result of that pitcher's fielding error. The run is considered unearned even though the pitcher made the error. I wanted to provide some basic statistics that would show the impact that these errors would have on a pitcher's ERA, but unfortunately, I cannot find this data on the web.

As a result of this dead end, I realized that there could possibly be a link between team fielding errors and team ERA. My initial thought was that errors are typically higher on teams where the ERA is high. Or on the other hand, ERA could be higher when fielding errors are a common problem - indirectly through pitcher fatigue by throwing more pitchers and seeing extra batters.

Listed below is the data I have found thus far on the topic (data file). It's hard to say at this point whether errors are the cause or the effect. I see some trends appearing in this data, but I do not see a conclusion or any significant findings yet.

Possible Trends

1. Teams with a high number of errors tend to have a higher ERA.
   
2. Teams with lower ERA's rarely have high number of errors.
3. One team per year tends to defy the odds and have a very low ERA and a high number of errors.

From Guido's Gripes - Research

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