Why would you use ERA? RA9 is a better stat for this type of inquiry.
/shrug? For one thing, ERA is what I'm/most folks are most familiar with.
RA9 is simply including unearned runs as well as earned runs, right? I'm not sure burdening Stras with poor defense/fielding is necessarily an absolute... Might be useful as well, but imo ERA is an adequate indicator of pitching performance.
It does appear Stras has allowed a relatively significant number of unearned runs with 10, but Kershaw, #1 ERA, has six unearned runs, #13 in Chris Sale has 12 unearned runs allowed. Zimmermann has 4 and Gio 6. Unfortunately I don't see RA/9 on the rudimentary stat page I'm looking at currently.
