Jon Niese entered his 2015 debut on Friday coming off a solid, steady, and uneventful spring training.
However, from the very beginning on Friday, it was clear Niese’s first outing of the year was going to be a trial, as he allowed a leadoff home run to Cameron Maybin in the first inning and an RBI single to Jonny Gomes which plated Nick Markakis.
“I didn’t have the fastball command, so I kind of steered away from it,” Niese explained after the game. “You gotta pitch, you just gotta figure it out with what you’ve got.”
Niece threw 86 pitches, 51 for strikes. He allowed three runs – one earned – on seven hits in five innings.
In fairness, Niese was badly hurt by Wilmer Flores behind him. But for most of the night, Niese was centering his pitches over the middle of the plate. His arm slot was inconsistent, often throwing from a 3/4 angle which seemed to make his cutter slide over the plate rather than that crisp, downward movement he showed during spring training.
As for his velocity, he averaged just over 89 mph with his fastball and about 87 mph with his cutter. But it was up and down – at times he threw his fastball in the low 90s, others in the upper 80s and nothing he threw missed very many bats. He also didn’t throw his curveball very much, which is arguably his best pitch. To get that 12-6 action on the curve he has to come more over the top and again, it looked like he was mostly 3/4 with his delivery.
Still, Niese maintains he feels really good and is not suffering from any arm problems.
“My arm felt great today, all around,” Niese said.
Just Mets 