An Open Letter To Those Who Don't Like Jon Niese

Photo by Anthony Causi/NY Post

Dear Mets fans,

I've been a Mets supporter for 34 years, investing my time - and occasional money - in the team since the year after the magic was supposedly back (it wasn't).  In those three and a half decades, I've seen hundreds of players come and go.  Some of these players have been universally beloved by the fans, while others are married to Mrs. Armando Benitez.

While some of the vitriol dished out to those less fortunate players has been well-deserved, others have received the hate for reasons unknown.  One such player is Jonathon Joseph Niese.

Was Niese voted "Mr. Personality" in his high school yearbook?  Probably not.  Is he a "rah-rah" type of guy?  Not that I've ever seen.  Does he have a cool super-hero nickname like Matt Harvey?  Only if you consider Super Schnoz to be a sweet moniker.

Are these reasons for Mets fans to dislike Niese as much as they do?  Not at all.  But somehow, in seven-plus seasons as a Met, the 28-year-old southpaw has never been a fan-favorite.  And he's done nothing to make this happen other than be a serviceable pitcher.

Jon Niese is not paid like an ace, so no one should expect him to pitch like one.  But for several years, he's pitched better than an average pitcher.

Since 2012, Niese has a 30-28 record for a team that has finished below .500 in each season.  He has made 85 starts in the last three-plus seasons, posting a 3.47 ERA.  Of all the pitchers who have made that many starts since the start of the 2012 campaign, only 18 have posted a lower ERA, including Clayton Kershaw, Felix Hernandez, David Price, Adam Wainwright, Madison Bumgarner and Max Scherzer - all of whom are considered to be among the best pitchers in baseball.  In addition, 16 of those 18 hurlers have made at least one All-Star team in that time frame, with the two exceptions being Kyle Lohse (3.34 ERA) and Hiroki Kuroda (3.44 ERA).

Going back to August 2012, Niese has also allowed three earned or fewer in 55 of his last 63 starts.  That's just eight starts where Niese gave up four earned runs or more in two and a half seasons, which is amazing when you consider that last year alone, Madison Bumgarner had ten such games and Max Scherzer had nine.  You may know Bumgarner as the most recent World Series most valuable player and Scherzer as the $210 million man.

But those who don't like Niese fail to notice things like that.  Instead, they look at how he gets rattled when his teammates make errors behind him, thereby forcing Niese to record extra outs.  Well, guess what?  That happens to most pitchers!

Including the two unearned runs allowed in Friday night's loss to the Braves, Niese has allowed 25 such runs since 2012.  That's fewer than the number of unearned runs allowed by Stephen Strasburg (30 unearned tallies), Jon Lester (28) and R.A. Dickey (27) over the same time period.  And all three of those pitchers made All-Star teams since 2012 as well.

Finally, for those who are sabermetrically inclined, Niese has a 104 ERA+ over the last three-plus seasons.  Those are pretty solid numbers for a pitcher who, for some reason, is a disappointment to so many fans.  That's also better than the ERA+ posted by Tim Hudson (101 ERA+ since 2012), Matt Cain (100 ERA+) and Scott Kazmir (100 ERA+).  And you guessed it.  Hudson, Cain and Kazmir have all been All-Stars in that time period, with Cain starting the 2012 Midsummer Classic and Hudson and Kazmir both selected for last year's game.

Jon Niese has never blown hitters away, but he still has the ninth-most strikeouts in franchise history.  The eight pitchers ahead of him are a who's who of the greatest Mets pitchers of all-time.  Tom Seaver, Dwight Gooden, Jerry Koosman, Sid Fernandez, David Cone, Ron Darling, Al Leiter and Jon Matlack are the only hurlers in club annals who can claim more whiffs than Niese - a fact that still doesn't get Niese a whiff of respect.

When the Mets were in the midst of their second consecutive late-season collapse in 2008, one of their own pitched eight shutout innings to temporarily halt the bleeding in a mid-September victory over the Braves.  Who was that clutch pitcher?  That was Jonathon Joseph Niese.  But because the Mets didn't make the playoffs, Niese's effort was largely forgotten.

In 1969, Tom Seaver had one of the greatest pitching performances in team history, retiring the first 25 batters he faced in a crucial matchup against the Chicago Cubs before allowing a single to Jimmy Qualls.  He then retired the final two batters and settled for a one-hit shutout.  Forty-four years later, Matt Harvey had his bid for a perfect game broken up on an infield single by Alex Rios of the Chicago White Sox.  The seventh inning roller was the only base runner allowed by Harvey in his nine innings of work - a game won by the Mets in ten innings.  Seaver and Harvey are two of the three pitchers in Mets history to pitch nine innings and allow just one base runner in a single game, facing 28 batters to record 27 outs.  Who was the third?  That would be Jonathon Joseph Niese, who allowed just a third-inning double to the Padres' Chris Denorfia in June 2010.  The two-bagger was all that stood between Niese and a perfect game.

Jon Niese was almost perfect once, even if fans don't have an almost perfect recollection of that game.

People who weren't around in 1969 are constantly reminded of Seaver's imperfect game, just as current Mets fans remember Harvey's gem as if it were yesterday.  But hardly anyone - other than those who were in attendance at Citi Field for the second game of a day-night doubleheader on a chilly June evening in 2010 - can recall Niese's effort.  Perhaps it's because he has never been a must-watch pitcher the way Seaver was and Harvey is.  Or perhaps it's because no one wants to admit that Niese actually accomplished such a rare feat.

Jon Niese came up late in the 2008 season and was immediately thrust into a playoff race.  He has yet to play in a meaningful late-season game since.  That means he doesn't have the big-game experience that fellow southpaws (and more treasured former Mets) Jerry Koosman, Jon Matlack, Sid Fernandez and Al Leiter have.  Perhaps that's another reason why Niese isn't appreciated, even though he ranks just behind all four of those pitchers on the team's all-time ranks for left-handed starting pitchers.

You may think he's boring.  You may also think he doesn't have charisma, talent and various other intangibles.  But what you should really do is reconsider your opinions about Jon Niese, especially when you weigh the facts and realize how much better he's been than what you may have thought.

Since signing his team-friendly five-year, $25.5 million contract at the outset of the 2012 campaign, Niese has performed as well as - if not better than - several All-Star pitchers.  Niese has suffered some nagging injuries over the years, but has still made at least 24 starts in every season since 2010, making him one of only 32 pitchers who has made 24 or more starts in each of the last five campaigns.  In fact, Niese is one of just a dozen pitchers in Mets history to make two dozen starts in five separate seasons.  And if Niese reaches 24 starts in 2015, he'd be one of nine Mets pitchers to reach that total six times.

So what does everybody want from Niese?  He's not Matt Harvey.  He's not someone who's going to strike out 10 or more batters every game.  And he's not going to pitch a shutout all the time.  What Niese will do is keep his team in the game more often than not.  He will also keep opposing teams from putting up crooked numbers on the scoreboard.  And he's not making the money that a perennial All-Star makes.  But no matter what he does, it will never be good enough for Mets fans.

I'm sure many teams would love to have a pitcher of Jonathon Niese's caliber.  And I'd bet fans of those teams wouldn't pick apart everything he does on the mound the way Mets fans do.  Jon Niese will never be the best pitcher on the team.  But he doesn't have to be.  He just has to pitch the way he has over the past three-plus seasons.  And that's probably better than what his haters deserve.

Sincerely,
A Jon Niese appreciator

It's a crying shame that Mets fans don't appreciate Jon Niese more.

What Will The Mets Produce Next: A No-Hitter or A 20-Game Winner?

What do the Mets have a better chance of producing?  A no-hitter or a 20-game winner?  On the surface, the question appears to have a simple answer.

Considering that the Mets have had five different pitchers produce a total of eight 20-win seasons (Tom Seaver accomplished the feat four times, while Jerry Koosman, Dwight Gooden, David Cone and Frank Viola each did it once), yet they've never pitched a no-hitter, it would seem that the 20-game winner would be the obvious choice.

But what would appear to be the clear-cut favorite of two things sometimes isn't, as I'm sure fans of the 1988 Mets (boo, Dodgers) and 2006 Mets (boo, Cardinals) can attest.

The five pitchers who won 20 games in a single season for the Mets all experienced great success in the major leagues.  Tom Seaver won 311 games in the big leagues en route to receiving the highest percentage of votes of any Hall of Fame inductee.  Fellow 1969 World Series champion Jerry Koosman finished his career with 222 victories.  Dwight Gooden, David Cone and Frank Viola also had long and successful careers in the major leagues, with Gooden and Cone both winning 194 games and Viola finishing his career with 176 victories.

In addition, four of the five 20-game winners for the Mets also won the Cy Young Award at some point in their careers, with the lone exception being Jerry Koosman, who came tantalizingly close in 1976 when he finished second in the vote to Padres' pitcher (and future Met) Randy Jones.

Here's the kicker.  Although none of the five pitchers ever pitched a no-hitter while in a Mets uniform, three of them (Seaver, Gooden, Cone) accomplished the feat after leaving the Mets, and David Cone took it one step further, pitching a perfect game against the Montreal Expos in 1999 as a member of the New York Yankees.

Tom Seaver never did it as a Met.  Neither did Jerry Koosman, Dwight Gooden, David Cone or Frank Viola.  In fact, no Mets pitcher has ever pitched a no-hitter.  But dozens of Mets hurlers have tossed one-hitters, and not all of them were pitched by All-Stars or future Hall of Famers.  In fact, many of them were pitchers who didn't even win 100 games in the major leagues.

Of course, Tom Seaver leads the list of most one-hitters fired by Mets pitchers with five.  David Cone pitched two complete-game one-hitters as a Met and combined with Jeff Innis on a third.  Dwight Gooden pitched a one-hitter for the Mets during his rookie season, but never pitched another one in a Mets uniform.  Meanwhile, Jerry Koosman and Frank Viola never pitched a one-hitter for the Mets.
 
But Jack Hamilton did.  So did Terry Leach, Pete Schourek, Bobby Jones, Aaron Heilman, Jonathon Niese and R.A. Dickey.  What do all of those pitchers have in common?  None of them won 100 games over their major league careers.  Even Shawn Estes, who won four games as a Met, was able to pitch a one-hitter for the team.  (He could pitch a one-hitter, but he couldn't hit one pitcher.  Ah, the Roger Clemens jokes never get old, do they?)

Both Aaron Shawn Estes and George Thomas Seaver were known by their middle names and they both pitched one-hitters for the Mets.  But Seaver would've hit Roger Clemens if he had the chance.

Want some more?  Gary Gentry pitched two one-hitters as a Met, but only won 46 games in the majors.  John Maine also pitched two one-hitters in New York (with one being of the rain-shortened variety), yet he only won 41 games over his career (so far).  Even the underrated and never quite appreciated Steve Trachsel authored two one-hitters during the 2003 campaign.

A total of 35 one-hitters have been pitched in club annals.  More than half of them (18) have come after 1990.  Why is that year so important?  Because that was the last time the Mets had a 20-game winner.

Since Frank Viola's 20-win season in 1990, no Met pitcher has reached that level of pitching excellence.  In fact, the closest any pitcher has come was in 1998 when Al Leiter won 17 games for the Mets.

For a pitcher to win 20 games, he has to be consistently good over the course of an entire season.  It also helps to have a good bullpen.  Johan Santana went 16-7 for the 2008 Mets, but the bullpen blew seven games in which he left with the lead, costing him a potential 20-win season.  Meanwhile, to pitch a no-hitter, a pitcher only needs to have one game in which he harnesses all of his "stuff" against opposing hitters.

It's rare for a so-so pitcher to win 20 games.  None of the five pitchers who accomplished the feat for the Mets would be considered "so-so".  In fact, Seaver, Koosman, Gooden, Cone and Viola combined to make the All-Star team a total of 19 times as members of the Mets.

But considering how guys like Terry Leach, Pete Schourek and Aaron Heilman all came within one safety of becoming the first Met to pitch a no-hitter, it goes to show that players with nondescript careers can occasionally show flashes of brilliance.

All one needs to pitch a no-hitter is a nine-inning flash of brilliance.  For a pitcher to win 20 games in a season, he'll need a couple hundred innings of brilliance (and a good bullpen).  John Maine won only 39 games in five seasons as a Met, but came within one Paul Hoover dribbler of pitching a no-hitter.  Jonathon Niese has barely cracked 20 wins over his entire major league career, yet he came within a Chris Denorfia double of pitching a perfect game.  Even Pete Schourek and Shawn Estes, who won 20 games COMBINED over their Mets careers, have one-hitters to their credit.

It's true that the Mets have gone 50 years without a no-hitter, but perhaps we'll see one before we see another 20-game winner in a Mets uniform.  It's been 22 years since Frank Viola became to last Met to record 20 wins in a season.  Since then, there have been 18 occasions in which the Mets have come within one hit of recording the team's first no-hitter.  Common sense and superstition might suggest that the Mets will have another 20-game winner before they record their first no-hitter.  But considering how close the Mets have come to pitching a no-hitter on several occasions over the past two-plus decades, while not having a pitcher even sniff a 20-win season over the same time period might suggest otherwise.

What will Mets' pitchers accomplish next?  Will it be a no-hitter?  Or will it be a 20-win season?  It wouldn't surprise me if it was the former rather than the latter.

What Do Jeremy Lin And Jon Niese Have In Common?

What do Knicks' starting point guard Jeremy Lin and Mets' starting pitcher Jonathon Niese have in common?  Let's see.  They're not the same age, as Lin was born in 1988 and Niese's mom got over her pregnancy on the night the Mets won the 1986 World Series.  They're also not the same height, as Niese is one inch taller than Lin.  Jeremy Lin is a righty, while Jonathon Niese is a lefty.  Okay, so what do they have in common then?

The answer is NOTHING!  But they should have something in common, even though the Mets aren't exactly doing anything about it.

Earlier today, Madison Square Garden and other sporting goods stores started selling Jeremy Lin jerseys.  This comes after Lin's recent stretch of excellence in which he's carried the Knicks to four consecutive wins, including Friday night's game against the Lakers.  Let me remind you that these four straight victories are the only four games Lin has started for the Knicks.  But despite the tiny résumé, Lin is now having his jersey sold at the Garden.

There is no truth to the rumor that the Knicks will retire No. 17 for their floor captain before the Mets retire No. 17 for their first captain.  Of course, that could always change.

That brings us to Jonathon Niese.  Niese will be entering his fifth season as a Met, his third as a regular member of the starting rotation.  He is one of only six players left on the Mets who played for the team at Shea Stadium (the others being David Wright, Mike Pelfrey, Johan Santana, Bobby Parnell and Daniel Murphy).

Niese made his final start for the Mets in 2011 on August 23 before missing the rest of the season with an injured ribcage.  At the time of his injury, Niese was leading the team in wins (11 - tied with Dillon Gee) and strikeouts (138).  Eventually, he was surpassed in wins by Gee and strikeouts by Chris Capuano, but still finished second on the team in both categories.

Although Niese is only 25, he is already 43th on the Mets' all-time wins list and 39th in strikeouts.  With a healthy season in 2012, Niese could jump into the top 25 in both categories.  He's already in the top ten in strikeouts per nine innings, as his 7.6 K/9 IP is the eighth best ratio in franchise history, ahead of such stars as Tom Seaver (7.5 K/9 IP) and Johan Santana (7.4 K/9 IP).  He's also improved every year in strikeout to walk ratio, from 1.38 K/BB in 2008 to a career-best 3.14 K/BB in 2011.

And of course, on the individual game front, Niese came within one Chris Denorfia double of pitching a perfect game in 2010.  Perhaps had he retired Denorfia, we would have had Jonathon Niese No. 49 jerseys printed up immediately.  But alas, he did not.  We're still waiting for those No. 49 jerseys.

Since Jason Bay became a Met in 2010, I've seen No. 44 jerseys and T-shirts for sale at Citi Field.  The one place I haven't seen them is on the backs of Mets fans.  Meanwhile, Justin Turner, a player who wasn't even a homegrown Met, had his No. 2 T-shirt for sale at Citi Field.  Even Sandy Koufax, who never played for the Mets, and whose 9-10 career mark as a Brooklyn Dodger (the same record Jonathon Niese had for the Mets in 2010) was less than extraordinary, had a replica jersey for sale at Citi Field last year.

Do you think Fred Wilpon wears these to bed at night?

Jose Reyes is gone.  So are Francisco Rodriguez, Carlos Beltran and Angel Pagan.  All four players had their merchandise for sale at Citi Field in 2011.  With their departures, there will now be some real estate available at the Team Stores.

It's time for Jonathon Niese No. 49 apparel to go on sale at Citi Field.  If Knicks fans can proudly wear No. 17 Jeremy Lin jerseys after only four starts, why can't Mets fans do the same for Niese, a homegrown player who's been with the team since 2008?  Lin and Niese need something in common, don't you think?

Another No-Name Keeps The Mets From A No-Hitter

Do you recognize that mug to the left? No? Then welcome to the club. The man in the Padres hat is Chris Denorfia, and he became the latest player to keep the Mets from finally recording their first no-hitter.

Last night, Chris Denorfia lined a leadoff double in the third inning against Jonathon Niese. It turned out to be the Padres' only hit (and only baserunner) of the game.

Denorfia now has full membership in the Mets' No-Hitter Breaker-Uppers Club, which is supposedly somewhere near the Caesar's Club and the Acela Club. In joining players like Jimmy Qualls, Chin-Hui Tsao, Kit Pellow and Paul Hoover, Denorfia is entitled to full Club privileges. These privileges include being booed mercilessly by Mets fans who have great long-term memories and the right to never be known for anything else other than being the one man who prevented the Mets from finally achieving that ever-elusive first no-hitter in franchise history!

Let's talk more about the latter privilege discussed above and the other Club members we mentioned.

Jimmy Qualls

Jimmy Qualls was given Club membership when he broke up Tom Seaver's perfect game on July 9, 1969. After denying Seaver his perfecto, Qualls went on to rack up only 91 more at-bats in his short career. The ninth-inning hit against Seaver was the 12th of the 31 hits collected by Qualls over his short career that saw him start only 20 games in the major leagues. However, one of those 20 games was on July 9, 1969.


Chin-Hui Tsao

Chin-Hui Tsao had a short-lived career as a pitcher for the Rockies and the Dodgers. In his fifth major-league start on August 18, 2003, Tsao opposed Steve Trachsel for the Mets. After Trachsel retired the first 17 batters to face him, Tsao hit a double to break up the no-hitter and perfect game. The two-bagger was the first hit and only double of Tsao's career, a career that saw him start only three more games, appear in 42 others as a reliever and spawn only one more base hit, which he collected five days after joining the No-Hitter Breaker-Uppers Club.

Kit Pellow

Kit Donovan Pellow (yes, his birth certificate really does list "Kit" as his first name) played briefly for the Kansas City Royals before signing with the Colorado Rockies in 2003. His moment in the sun came in his final year in the majors, when he doubled to break up Tom Glavine's no-hit bid with two outs in the eighth inning on May 23, 2004. The double was one of only 52 hits picked up by Pellow in his career. It was also the last double of his career. After joining the Club, Pellow only started seven more games in the big leagues and picked up eight additional base hits, none of which put him on another team's No-Hitter Breaker-Uppers Club.

Paul Hoover

Paul Hoover wasn't even supposed to be in the game on September 29, 2007. However, Marlins' starting catcher Miguel Olivo had been ejected from the game in the fifth inning for charging at Jose Reyes, who was standing on third base, igniting a bench-clearing incident. Three innings later, Hoover hit a 30-foot roller in front of home plate that didn't roll foul. The squibber ended John Maine's no-hit bid with two outs in the eighth inning. It was one of only three hits picked up by Hoover in 2007. Although Hoover made his major league debut in 2001 and has played in the majors as recently as three weeks ago with the Philadelphia Phillies, he has still only amassed 25 hits in the big leagues in 96 official at-bats. The No-Hitter Breaker-Uppers Club is the only thing that has rescued Hoover from baseball anonymity.

Last night, Jonathon Niese became the latest Met to be victimized by a member of the No-Hitter Breaker-Uppers Club when Chris Denorfia recorded the only hit against him in the third inning. It's only fitting that it was a player like Denorfia who got the hit. After all, looking at his career statistics, he seemed destined to become a Club member.

Denorfia broke into the major leagues in 2005 with the Cincinnati Reds and is now playing for his third major league team. Despite the fact that he has been on a major league roster for five of the past six years, he has only collected 74 hits in the big leagues, of which 16 have been doubles. Unfortunately for Jonathon Niese and the Mets, hit #74 and double #16 prevented no-hitter #1 from happening.

The No-Hitter Breaker-Uppers Club card has its advantages, which is why card-carrying members should never leave home without it. After all, unless if you're a Mets fan, no one would ever have any idea who these Club members were.

What Do Jonathon Niese and Tom Seaver Have In Common?

What Do Jonathon Niese and Tom Seaver have in common? If you said they've all been pied in the face after games, then congratulations! You're 100% wrong!

However, if you said they're the only two pitchers in Mets history to pitch a complete game one-hitter in which the one hit was the only thing preventing them from pitching perfect games, then pat yourself on the back. You are a true Mets fan!

On July 9, 1969, Tom Seaver's date with perfection was unfortunately chaperoned by the Cubs' Jimmy Qualls. Once Seaver got a little too close to perfection, Qualls stepped in to break things up. In this case, the breakup occurred with one out in the ninth inning and came in the form of a clean single to left-center.

Seaver was one of only four pitchers in Mets history to pitch more than one complete game one-hitter. Two of the other three were Gary Gentry and Jon Matlack. The third was Steve Trachsel, who came closest to joining Niese and Seaver on the "28 batters up, 27 batters down" list.

On August 18, 2003, Trachsel (who had already pitched a one-hitter earlier in the season against the Angels) retired the first 17 Colorado Rockies to face him before pitcher Chin-Hui Tsao doubled off him to break up the perfect game bid. Trachsel then retired the next eight hitters until Greg Norton reached first on a throwing error by first baseman Jason Phillips with one out in the ninth inning. After the last two batters were retired in order, Trachsel found himself with a complete game one-hitter where he did not walk or hit a batter. However, the ninth inning error preventing him from joining Seaver as the only pitchers in Mets history who missed perfection by one batter.

Now Jonathon Niese can lay claim to one of the best pitching performances in Mets history. Last night, Chris Denorfia's third inning double was the only blemish in a near-perfect performance by Niese. He may not be the best pitching prospect in franchise history, but he is now up there with "The Franchise" when it comes to best pitching performances in team history.

Jonathon Niese and Tom Seaver. Once upon a time, their only connection was that they were both homegrown talents. Now they will forever be connected by near-perfection.

Congratuations to Jonathon Niese on his masterful pitching performance! Let's hope there are many more left in the tank.