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Jonathon Niese headshot

Players · N · Pitcher · 2016

Jonathon Niese

Pittsburgh PiratesNational League Central
Age
30
B/T
L/L
Height
6' 3"
Weight
215 lb
Number
#49
Born
October 27, 1986 in Lima, OH, United States
MLB debut
September 2, 2008
dbWAR
.3
4 season(s)
IP
121.0
ERA
5.50
FIP
5.62
K/9
6.5
FIP−
134
100 = avg

Jonathon Niese was a starting pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates. In 2016 he struck out 88 batters over 121.0 innings across 29 appearances, 20 of them starts, going 8-7. His ERA of 5.50 was 31.4% higher than the league average of 4.19 — the worst on his team, and 413th of 512 among MLB pitchers with 20+ innings. Stripping out defence, his 5.62 FIP suggests the ERA was no fluke. He missed bats on 17.9% of swings (8.3% of every pitch he threw), walked 8.6% of the batters he faced and struck out 16.1%. His -0.8 dbWAR is built from that FIP rather than runs allowed, so it credits him for what he controls and not for the defence behind him.

League context

Percentile among qualified pitchers, 2016.

FIP5.62
K/96.5
WHIP1.59
WAR-.8

WAR by season

0.80.0-0.81516

Pitching

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
2016PIT/NYM2920121.08701457488475.505.621.596.53.5131134-0.8
2015NYM3329176.2910019281113554.134.411.405.82.81041110.8

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
2016PIT/NYM18343010214.100.156.133.033.1885.9%41.2%.138-5.0-24-0.1
2015NYM26609040518.173.246.192.019.2658.3%30.0%.208-5.1250.4

Platoon splits

How left- and right-handed hitters fare against him.

Opponent batting by the side the hitter bats from, 2016. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
SplitPAABHHRBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBAK%
vs LHB1421253841328.304.383.504.38619.7%
vs RHB404364107213460.294.352.530.37614.9%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2016.

Loading 18 batted balls…

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2016.

——————2 AB—0 AB—3 AB—3 AB—1 AB.0008 AB—7 AB—1 AB
Below averageLeague averageAbove average
Batting average by location of the pitch that ended each plate appearance, catcher's view. The bordered square is the strike zone; the outer band is chase territory. Cells with fewer than 8 at-bats are left grey rather than shown as signal. League average on the same attribution is .255.

Pitch sequencing

What Jonathon Niese throws in each count, and what he follows each pitch with. Select any cell for the breakdown.

ShowBatter
SinkerFour-seamCutterChangeupCurveballSliderIN

Select a count to see exactly what Jonathon Niese throws in it.

Pitch arsenal

What he throws, how hard, how often it misses, and what hitters do with it.

Sinker29.9%60288.82,03842.9%11.2%154.325.893
Four-Seam Fastball26.5%53289.31,75446.4%17.0%122.3201.018
Cutter23.5%47286.076350.2%20.6%111.261.769
Changeup10.3%20782.61,55327.1%17.3%49.265.721
Curveball8.9%17874.41,00439.3%36.6%51.255.834
Slider0.5%1182.480554.5%0.0%3——
Jonathon Niese's arsenal by usage. Velocity is average release speed in mph, spin in rpm, and whiff rate is misses per swing — the cleanest single measure of whether a pitch beats hitters. BAA and OPS are what hitters did against each pitch, credited to the one that ended the plate appearance, and are left blank under 15 at-bats.

Head to head

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Jonathon Niese

Similar players

Nearest 2016 seasons by command, run prevention and role, on rate statistics rather than totals.

Braden ShipleyAZ
ERA
5.27
FIP
5.76
SO
43
WAR
-0.4
Very close
Tommy MiloneMIN
ERA
5.71
FIP
5.54
SO
49
WAR
-0.4
Very close
Matt CainSF
ERA
5.64
FIP
5.14
SO
72
WAR
-0.0
Very close
Pat DeanMIN
ERA
6.28
FIP
5.20
SO
50
WAR
-0.2
Very close
How these are computed

wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.