Jon Niese throws a lot of curveballs. We know that. What people might not realize is just how good the movement on his patented pitch has been.
Since 2008, Jon Niese has thrown 2,106 curveballs. It is one of his strongest pitches, if not the strongest. A big part of his success is the amount of break he gets on his hook. Looking at pitchers who have thrown at least 2,000 curves (dating back to 2007 to get a wider sample), Niese finds himself in an elite group in terms of movement. His average vertical movement—think of how a curveball moves downward—ranks seventh among the qualified group.
| Rank | Player | Team | Throws | Count | Velo | H Mov | V Mov | Swing Rate | Whiff/Swing | GB/FB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barry Zito | SFN | L | 2980 | 72.24 | 4.33 | -10.36 | 42.58% | 21.43% | 4.09 |
| 2 | Brett Myers | CLE | R | 2357 | 77.05 | 6.86 | -10.16 | 47.35% | 31.27% | 8.38 |
| 3 | Adam Wainwright | SLN | R | 4038 | 74.87 | 8.14 | -9.14 | 44.58% | 36.67% | 3.09 |
| 4 | Gio Gonzalez | WAS | L | 3932 | 79.79 | 5.57 | -8.98 | 39.57% | 36.57% | 6.60 |
| 5 | Chris Carpenter | SLN | R | 2364 | 75.27 | 6.64 | -8.89 | 36.76% | 34.06% | 2.55 |
| 6 | Phil Hughes | NYA | R | 2002 | 75.27 | 6.67 | -8.46 | 33.92% | 20.62% | 2.30 |
| 7 | Jonathon Niese | NYN | L | 2106 | 75.20 | 5.06 | -8.45 | 45.16% | 25.24% | 3.44 |
| 8 | Clayton Kershaw | LAN | L | 2107 | 74.06 | 3.14 | -8.05 | 32.99% | 36.83% | 2.83 |
| 9 | Randy Wolf | BAL | L | 2957 | 68.12 | 5.34 | -8.03 | 38.96% | 19.70% | 2.22 |
| 10 | Felix Hernandez | SEA | R | 2755 | 82.51 | 5.71 | -7.90 | 35.21% | 34.43% | 3.45 |
Source: Baseball Prospectus
