Jon Niese Is Closing In On A Rotation Spot

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• russell Zanca March 24, 2010 at 10:33 pm

  As a Mets fan and native of Queens, I wish it could be Figgy, but I simply don’t think he has the stuff to sustain himself in the Mets rotation for a whole year. I wish he could make believers out of all of us, but he’s blown it a little too often.
  • METS62FAN March 25, 2010 at 10:20 am

    Emotionally, Figgy has Major Legue Heart unfortunately it comes attached to a bonafide AAAA arm. Takahashi, my favorite Rotation candidate, gets his first starting assignment on Sat. though ST numbers mean zilch, his consistancy @ throwing quality strikes from the leftside along with 9Y experience as a solid #2 on a strong contender in Japan makes me salivate at the thought of his going every fifth. I’d also be truly tempted to slide him into #3 hole moving Ollie down to #5 against weaker mound opponents than @ #3. a greater liklihood we could provide enough offense to cover for Ollies’s occasional walks on the wildside. Taka is a VET re. pressure situations w/Japanese playoff
    experience.
    Remembering the inequivalency of ST numbers. Takahashi has comparativly speaking been our most consistantly impressive pitcher this camp:
    Pitcher IP ERA K BB
    Santana 14.2 6.75 10 3
    Pelfrey 14.2 7.36 9 2
    Perez 15.1 5.87 7 8
    Maine 6.1 11.37 5 4
    Niese 9.2 5.59 9 4
    Nieve 9.0 6.00 2 5
    Taka 8.1 0.00 10 1
    With Four pitches capable of being strikes, gives Taka an edge as an “unknown” ahgainst ML hitters of those in camp likely has least footage of tape available to opposition, while u may argue that Figgy’s 0.00 ERA is equal, the quality of opposing batters certainly is not with Taka more often in games before massive replacements are made. Obviously, this all can still get inflated with just 1 bad outing from any one of them next week. as a snapshot for comparison purposes only is the lone value for these numbers.
    • russell Zanca March 25, 2010 at 10:43 am

      Interesting list of stats. Strong argument for Takahashi. Would love to see one truly successful Japanese player on the Mets after all of these years.

      With the core rotation, I think I am actually least worried about Maine despite his team worst ERA in ST. Pelfrey and Perez really worry me. The collectively need to be 25-30% better than they were last season, if they remain in our rotation all season. Otherwise we will very likely be a big mediocrity. Obviously, same is true for Maine, but I see the determination, concentration, and fire in him that will make him reliable and much improved over last season.

      Can’t wait for this season to begin!
• Devin March 24, 2010 at 10:54 pm

  That’s quite a compliment to say he has the best curveball in camp. I’m very happy from everything I’ve seen from the younger Mets. Our future really does look bright.
• papi March 24, 2010 at 11:12 pm

  i think this is by fat the best decision. niese has proven he can pitch and he will have a full year to prove himself worthy of the majors (assuming he doesnt struggle badly) and he is very young, figueroa on the other hand is not. i want niese to surprise us all and have a big year and do what oliver perez is getting paid to do but cant do.
  • Shamsky March 24, 2010 at 11:21 pm

    I agree with you Papi, I want to see Niese get a full shot, and I do believe he will outperform not only Perez but Pelfrey and Maine too. I’m tired of their antics and inability to throw stikes. I also hate the fact that by the fifth inning they are already at 90-100 pitches and they strain our bullpen.
    • Des March 25, 2010 at 8:55 am

      I did an analysis of the average number of innings that Mets starting pitchers threw per game last year. It included every start for the year. The average was 6.1 innings.
• danny krieger March 25, 2010 at 9:59 am

  Someone explain to me why Niese pitched two innings of relief yesterday. How is his arm strength going to be ready for the season?
• Des March 25, 2010 at 10:33 am

  Niese reminds me of Clem Labine, the wonderful Dodger pitcher of the 1950′s. Labine was a righthander, a kind of mirror image of Niese, who had a terrific curveball. He pitched mainly in relief but had enough secondary pitches to be a starter. He wanted to be a reliever.

  I think Jon will probably have a slightly better K rate and K/BB rate than Clem, but if he has a career that is comparable to Clem’s, he will have been a helluva pitcher.

  Clem wound up his career with the early Mets but by then he was finished. He died a couple of years ago in Vero Beach.
• alex68 March 25, 2010 at 11:30 am

  2 very good news about this:
  #1 is that niese is gonna be good for us, this is what I wanted from the get go, we need to give our up and coming players to be given a chance instead of us givin the opportunitty to over the hills bums just coz they have a good spring or becoz the tight wit management
  #2: we won’t have to hear about nelson figueroa anymore!!!!! No posts, no nothing, sayonara!!!!
  • danny krieger March 25, 2010 at 11:53 am

    Alex – It seems that I’ve fought a losing battle. It does appear that Figueroa will not make the team.

    But why was has Niese thrown only 9 innings this spring including just 2 yesterday???

    Is it possible that Niese will start the year in AAA as they won’t need a 5th starter right away? Hey that will make room for FIGGY.
    • alex68 March 25, 2010 at 12:00 pm

      Danny:

      Honestly, there is no way.. no way figueroa makes the team in april, (knock on wood) if someone get hurt and he happens to be in buffalo then yes, he has a chance, but not now, so bid ur favorite pitcher sayonara.. and honestly danny, thank god!!!!
• theonlymaskman March 28, 2010 at 9:52 am

  If Neise starts the season as #5, so be it. As far as his curve ball, it is a big breaker, but after 1 turn through the rotation, it becomes entirely recognizable and then the line drives start flying over the wall. He may be a serviceable starter, but unless he does something to hide the predicability of his curve, he is probably more suited to be an RP. But I’m OK with the experiment of Niese as the #5. Let’s see what he can do. I believe that we will need more than 1 starter out of the combination of Niese, Nieve, Takahashi and Figueroa. Crazy Ollie should be the mop-up man out of the Pen. Maine could very well be a flop again. We could very well need 3 starters out of that group of 4, certainly at least 2 of them. My candidates would be Takahashi and Niese. But keep the other Nieve and and Figueroa on a close string just in case they are needed. Obviously, I don’t have a high degree of confidence in the current rotation. Santana is the clear ace and Pelfrey belongs in the rotation. The others are a crap shoot.