He’s only pitched one game last week, but I’m going to jump on the bandwagon anyway. SP Fernando Nieve is my Man-Crush of the Week.
Over 3 starts against the Yankees, Cardinals, and Rays, and 4 appearances overall, Fernando Nieve has pitched to a 1.31 ERA with a BAA of .153. In his last start, on June 24th, he pitched 6 strong innings with 5 strikeouts (although with 4 walks, but no harm, no foul) and 0 runs.
What really drives this home for me is that although the Mets have been befallen with countless injuries, they’ve gotten unexpected performances out of Livan Hernandez and Nieve, who was given up on by the Houston Astros, which usually raises about 7,000 red flags. This is one pick-up which made GM Omar Minaya look like a genius during a season when he’s been perceived as pretty lazy, so I’m sure he’s thanking his lucky stars that Nieve is here as well.
John Maine and Oliver Perez both went down, and Met fans got pretty nervous, so Nieve coming in does two things.
- He helped hold down the fort in a rotation which has a struggling Mike Pelfrey and two missing starters, and
- He’s created a good kind of problem. When Maine and Perez comes back, he’s made it very difficult to do anything but leave him in the rotation.
Granted, the solution to problem 2 is pretty simple, as has been pointed out by fellow footer Andrew Beaton, albeit under different, Nelson Figueroa-related circumstances. Once the rotation is a little healthier, it makes much more sense to put Tim Redding into the bullpen until Nieve proves that he doesn’t deserve to start.
Fernando Nieve. Man-Crush of the Week.
Pete Lappin (3)
