Don't be shellfish...030

Ok, so you’re going to ask yourself ‘has Razzball turned into a Perez Hilton site?’  Why should you care that Jonathan Niese got a nose job because Carlos ‘Ricky’ Beltran made fun of him?  At first, I didn’t really care either but then I learned a bit more about the procedure from this article:

Niese said he has always had trouble breathing through his nose, which he felt hindered him during cardiovascular exercise…The doctor conducted a scan that showed Niese’s nasal passageways were obstructed, but that they could be reconstructed to facilitate airflow…The difference in his breathing now, Niese said, is like “night and day.”

Alright, so he can jazzercise a bit longer than he could before and doesn’t have to wear breathe right strips to do it.  Good for him.  But then I started doing a little investigating into his splits and found some interesting numbers with regards to his first 4 innings of work.  Since becoming a full-time starter in 2010, his first inning through the fourth inning has given him a 3.87 ERA to go with a 3.85 K:BB ratio, good for an 8.48 K/9.  Meanwhile, his work in the 5th and 6th innings left him at a 4.65 ERA to go with a 1.40 K:BB ratio and a 6.25 K/9.  Even if we can reasonably expect a pitcher to wear down by the 6th inning, those K:BB ratios are quite drastic.  Given his xFIP has been 3.80 and 3.28 in 2010 and 2011, respectively, I believe we have multiple factors that could lead to a breakout 2012 campaign for Niese.  Even Ricky Nolasco - a pitcher with a similar ADP and the bane of Razzballer’s everywhere despite being a peripheral darling – has maintained a K:BB ratio above 3 for his career in the 5th and 6th inning.  I’m willing to believe that Niese simply never learned how to breathe through his eyelids a la Nuke LaLoosh and is finally going to get over that 5th and 6th inning hump.  Regardless of the Citi field walls moving in, I’m willing to buy in that Grey’s line in the Top 80 starters is his base for the year, with good room for upside.

And with that, this is ONC from Deep League Thoughts reporting for TMZ. Now let’s go find out which baseball career Rihanna will try to ruin next… Back to you, Harvey Levin!