Pirates Starter Jon Niese Excited For Opportunity With New Team
PITTSBURGH (93-7 The FAN) - A big contributing factor to the Pirates' turnaround over the last three seasons has been the well-documented philosophy of positioning their infielders strategically behind the pitcher.
The fielders position themselves not only where they believe the hitter in the batter's box is prone to hit the ball, but also the type of pitcher on the mound and where and how he executes his pitches.
For the plan to work, the pitcher's repertoire has to be conducive to getting the ball hit on the ground. The pitcher must keep the ball down in the zone. The Pirates have subsequently made a conscious effort to acquire pitchers that are able to do this better than the Average Joe in the league.
When the Pirates dealt fan favorite Neil Walker this winter to the New York Mets, they acquired one of the best ground ball pitchers in the game in 2015.
Jon Niese had a 54.5 percent ground ball rate, which ranked seventh among qualified starting pitchers. According to fangraphs.com, of the six pitchers ranking ahead of him, many have of front-end of the rotation pedigree: Brett Anderson, Dallas Keuchel, Tyson Ross, Felix Hernandez, Jake Arrieta and Garrett Richards.
Past successes to other Pirates starters have been attributed in part to an increased ground ball percentage. A.J. Burnett (56 percent in 2015) and Edinson Volquez (50 percent while with the Pirates in 2014) all benefited from the Pirates' shifting and usage of their two-seam fastball. Francisco Liriano has maintained a ground ball rate of over 50 percent since his arrival in 2013.
Niese is excited to come to Pittsburgh, not only because he has a chance to start every fifth day (Niese was the odd man out of the Mets' talented rotation at times last year). He's also excited to come to Pittsburgh because of their forward-thinking ways of playing defense.
"I love when the defense knows what pitch I'm going to be throwing and positions themselves [accordingly]," said the left-hander.
Niese also discussed the benefits of pitching in a spacious PNC Park that is bias to left-handed pitchers. The entire interview, with Pirates pre-game and post-game show host, Dan Zangrilli, can be heard below.
