Jon Niese is one of those prospects who does not get his name thrown around a lot. I first heard of him at before the 2007 baseball season from Street and Smith's Baseball (2007). He was listed as number 5 on the Mets top 10 prospect list. He is also on the Baseball America top 10 prospect list that was created in November 2007. He is listed at #8 on that list.
In the Street and Smith's Baseball write up, they say, “Niese throws four pitches for strikes, including a solid splitter, but needs a better changeup and more command with his fastball. He went 11-11 with a 3.97 ERA and 9.6 K's a game at Class A.” (Niese is a left handed pitcher). In his three seasons in the minors, he is 23-18 over 62 G, 60 GS. He has posted a 4.05 ERA over those 62 games. The past two seasons he has pitched over 130 innings and averages 8.5 K's a game. Last season was the first season that he had a K thru 9 below 8.75 (last year he had a 7.41)
The thing to remeber with his statistics is that he will only be 21 next season. He is building up stamina pitching more and more each year. His ability to strike people out is what intrigues me. We won't see him at Shea/Citi anytime soon but he could be an under the radar development for 2010/2011.
