A Comprehensive Look at Jeff Niemann
by R.J. Anderson on Feb 27, 2009 4:30 PM EST
9 comments
Last season Jeff Niemann finally broke into the majors. Niemann would start two games before heading back to Durham. He would return the team in September as a reliever and finished with 136 pitches as a starter and 101 as a reliever. Let's see how Niemann differed in the two roles.
Let's begin with Niemann's starts:
Clearly Niemann favors his fastball and curveball far more than his change. Speaking of the change, it seems to be similar in everything but velocity to his fastball. Niemann's fastball steaks in, sometimes more than he likely intended, but the cluster is quite spread out. Also notice the variance in break between Niemann's fastballs and curve.
Here's Niemann's velocity and average location as a starter:
Well enough, how about Niemann the reliever?
And the overview:
Things that you may have noticed:
1. Niemann's velocity jumped up as a reliever.
2. The average location of his pitches moved towards lefties more as a reliever.
3. Niemann's pitches seemed to be more in a cluster and dare I say consistent.
Here's an overlay comparison of Niemann's starter stuff versus his relieving stuff:
In the key I've labeled which pitches are "SP" or from Niemann's starts and which are "RP" or from relief appearances. It appears our observations were correct. Niemann's fastball was lower and more clustered as a reliever, perhaps by accident. I'm not entirely sure what was going on with the fastballs that broke towards lefties. Experimenting with a new pitch/grip?
How about Niemann's control and ability to throw strikes?
(The following charts measured are in feet, not inches)
The dark box is the normalized strike zone. Some players have taller/shorter strikezones, but this gives you a pretty good idea of control/placement nonetheless. There's a bit too much static here to point out any trends, but I figured people would find it interesting anyways.
To wrap this all up, here's what we learned about Niemann the starter v. Niemann the reliever:
- As a starter Niemann features a show-me change. Forget about that pitch if he becomes a full-time reliever.
- Niemann's velocity is definitely going to raise in the pen and his stuff will move less because of it.
- As a reliever Niemann's pitches seemed to be more clustered in terms of movement. Perhaps easier to repeat mechanics? Maybe not having to pace himself.
0 recs |
9 comments
|
Email
Print
Comments
"it seems to be similar in everything but velocity to his fastball"
Isn’t the mark of a pretty good change, as long as there’s enough of a difference in velocity? It looks exactly the same coming in, just it’s slower, so the hitter swings too early? That would seem to indicate that it’s more than a show-me change.
Vogt early, Vogt often.
by Brickhaus on Feb 27, 2009 5:23 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
I said it's a show-me change because he barely uses it and completely drops it as a reliever.
Plus apparently it doesn’t work as well as you would think.
6 balls
2 swinging strikes
2 called strikes
Base hit
He only threw it twice as a reliever.
The pitch doesn’t seem to be much of a priority for Niemann, and only a pitch he uses occasionally. Hence the label.
by R.J. Anderson on Feb 27, 2009 5:38 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
ok
I think of a ‘show me change’ meaning that the pitch is a minus pitch that a pitcher mixes in occasionally just to keep people honest off their fastball. I realize it’s a minuscule sample size, but a 20% swinging strike rate is pretty decent. I suspect it’s more of a confidence/location issue than the fact that the pitch itself isn’t good.
Vogt early, Vogt often.
by Brickhaus on Feb 27, 2009 6:40 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
92 MPH from a starter
is pretty decent. I would imagine it’s hella hard to hit a ball coming down from that angle. I really hope he wins that 5th spot and shines. If that happens then we’ll be able to get something real good for him in the worst case, and in the best case he’ll be dominant and (not that this would really happen) challenge Sonny for his spot in the rotation when Price comes up.
I could be wrong though
by staplemaniac on Feb 27, 2009 7:06 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
I like Niemann but
He strikes me as a incredibly inconsistent, I can see him being an ace one start and Edwin the next start
Evan Longoria and David Price - the fight for my heart
by joeybw on Feb 27, 2009 9:11 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
If you run through his box scores, he was fairly consistently good but not great
With an occasional great game and an occasional bad game thrown in there.
Vogt early, Vogt often.
by Brickhaus on Feb 28, 2009 4:48 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
The moving more to lefties thing is probably just do the pitch f/x system not being well calibrated at the beginning of the year. The inconsistency is probably because it was at different stadiums with different calibrations.
His “curve” could have been subdivided into a slider and curve and you can probably guess how.
by ultxmxpx on Feb 28, 2009 2:16 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
This in addition to his problematic mechanics,
makes it seem like a permanent spot in the bullpen is more or less inevitable, and the sooner the better.
Space.
It's a problem we face.
So we never go anywhere.
We just stay in one place.
by hazel on Feb 28, 2009 10:27 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Certain photos copyright © 2009 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
