Fantasy Baseball Scouting Report: Jonathan Niese

Jonathan Niese is an interesting pitcher to look at. Given the other names currently starting for the Mets, he appears to be entrenched in the rotation, as long as he stays healthy. The fact is, there is no reason for the Mets to look anywhere else given his performance this season:

2 Wins
48.1 Innings
4.28 ERA
1.68 WHIP
39 Strikeouts (7.3 K/9)
19 Walks (3.5 BB/9)
.373 BABIP

His skill set actually looks like one that should be successful in the major leagues, especially pitching in Citi Field. 

First of all, he does a good job of generating ground balls. So far this season he has a ground ball rate of 50.6 percent, and over his minor league career it is at 51.8 percent.  While it’s not one of the elite marks in the game (Tim Hudson is currently at 66.7 percent), it is an extremely solid one.

If you can generate this type of ground ball rate you should see success, especially when you factor in the ballpark.

Like the ground ball rate, the strikeouts are not overly impressive, but solid just the same. Is he going to buoy your squad in the category? Not even close, but he’s not someone who is only going to strikeout three or four guys every time he toes the rubber.

Over his minor league career he posted a K/9 of 8.2. During his past two years in Triple-A, he was at 7.3 (39.2 innings) and 7.8 (94.1 innings). While there may be a little bit of upside, this is what we should expect at this point.

Like the other numbers, the control is solid though unspectacular. In his minor league career he posted a BB/9 of 3.1, so again, his numbers this season are right where we think they should be.

Niese is a very usable pitcher, but he’s just been plagued by terrible luck in the early going. If his BABIP were to regress to .303 with everything else being equal, his WHIP would be a usable 1.35. In turn, his ERA would also regress to under 4.00 and we’d be discussing a pitcher who is usable in all formats.

Is he going to be an ace? Is he going to be a must own option? Absolutely not. But with improved luck he will be a solid option in all deeper formats. If you are in need of some pitching depth, he certainly is worth grabbing.

What are your thoughts on Niese? Is he a usable option? How good do you think he could be?

Make sure to check out other recent Scouting Reports:

• Brett Cecil
• Jason Donald
• John Ely
• John Jaso
• Jonathan Lucroy
• Mike Stanton
• Andres Torres

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