Naive about Nieve
If you haven’t been visiting your mistress in Argentina or hiking the Appalachian Trail for the past two weeks you’ve probably noticed that the Mets have gotten three strong pitching performances in a row from the recently called up Fernando Nieve.
Since putting John Maine and Oliver Perez on the DL the Mets have turned to Nieve to take the ball every 5th day in the interim. At first it seemed he’d be headed right back to the bullpen or even back to the minors when Maine or Perez was available again. As a result of the way those two have been throwing so far this season, the talk has become that Fernando just might hold on to his spot in the rotation.
Nieve is essentially a career Minor Leaguer whom the Mets claimed off of waivers in May. Since then he spent a month in Double and Triple A, before getting called up in early June.
In 24 innings at AAA Nieve posted a 3.70 ERA and 1.15 WHIP, piled up 3 wins and struck out 23 batters along the way. Since arriving in New York his strikeouts are down, but so are his ERA and WHIP. Fernando is posting a 1.31 ERA and a .97 WHIP. Also notable is that he’s only given up one extra base hit in 3 starts, which went for a Homerun.
So far Nieve has won all 3 of his starts, none of which have come against weak competition. He pitched well against the Yankees and Rays and recently shut out the Cardinals, even getting Albert Pujols to fly out in a clutch situation.
If the Mets continue to give Nieve a chance to start his numbers, of course, should get a bit higher. That being said, he is pitching for a team capable of providing run support and in a stadium which is much friendlier to pitchers than it is to batters.
Nieve is owned in only 3% of ESPN and 11% of Yahoo leagues. Nieve has value as long as he remains a Starting Pitcher. He’s probably still just a guy to keep an eye on in most formats, but in a deeper mixed league, I went ahead and added him. I suggest you do the same.
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Labels: Fernando Nieve, John Maine, Oliver Perez, Paul C Benhamou, PCB Scout