RaysBaseball.com:Niemann making adjustments look easy

Via Jesse Temple of MLB.com, with my addition at the end. Check it out and leave your thoughts.

CHICAGO — Jeff Niemann admits the learning curve for young pitchers adjusting to life in the Major Leagues can be tough.

“It’s weird,” Niemann said. “It’s the same game you’ve been playing your whole life, but you’ve kind of got to start over again, learn from square one in the big leagues. It takes some time. Everyone’s curve is different.”

Yet, Niemann, a 6-foot-9, 280-pound righty in his first full year as a starter, has made this big league thing look easy.

At 26, Niemann leads the team in victories (8-4) and sports a 3.73 ERA, the second-best among the starting rotation.

Niemann will make his first start since the All-Star break on Tuesday night when the Rays take on left-hander Clayton Richard and the White Sox in the second game of a four-game series at U.S. Cellular Field.

At 6-foot-9, Niemann is one of the tallest pitchers in the Major Leagues. He said his biggest challenge was trying to keep the ball low, as he released from such a high angle off the mound.

As he begins the second half of the season, however, perhaps Niemann’s biggest challenge will be overcoming an extended layoff between starts.

Niemann’s last start came on July 10, and he will have made one start in 17 days by the time he takes the mound on Tuesday.

There is some consolation, however, as that one start was a beauty. On July 10 against the A’s, Niemann threw a shutout, allowing seven hits and striking out six. It was his second shutout this season.

“He’s been getting run support and doing his job, mowing guys down,” Rays outfielder Carl Crawford said. “[He's] throwing strikes [and] keeping us in the ballgame, so that’s the main thing.”

Niemann said he threw two bullpen sessions between starts in an effort to remain sharp.

“You just try to keep it as normal as you can, play catch as much as you can in between and go out there and try to keep doing what you’ve been doing,” Niemann said.

In 2008, Niemann made five appearances in a Rays uniform, but he spent most of the season at Triple-A Durham. He was sent down in April after making two starts with the big league club and returned as a September callup to make three relief appearances.

Niemann went 9-5 with a 3.59 ERA in 24 starts for Durham and 2-2 with a 5.06 ERA for Tampa Bay.

Rays manager Joe Maddon has been pleasantly surprised by Niemann’s rapid progression.

“To be leading our team in victories right now, I never would have guessed that,” Maddon said. “The part that I’m not surprised with — and I’m kind of liking — is that he’s getting more comfortable with his breaking ball and his breaking-ball command. … That’s the element of him that sets him apart, being that he’s as tall as he is and throws at such a severe angle to throw his fastball and a really good breaking ball.”

With half of the season in the books, Niemann certainly has fared well against much of the American League. Sustaining that success is the next step.

“It’s still just getting started overall, and [I'm] still learning,” Niemann said. “Definitely I haven’t figured this thing out by any means. [I'm] just trying to keep doing what I’ve been doing, and in a few years, see where we are.”

My Thoughts:

I think I speak for us all when I say that no one expected Jeff Niemann to be 8-4 going into his first start after the All-Star break, especially after his rocky start to the season. But Niemann has turned it around, and making the decision to let Jason Hammel go make more and more sense.

And the better Niemann pitches, the more it will lessen the sting of trading Edwin Jackson to Detroit, as Jackson has been phenomenal this season.

Could it be that Niemann–from the fifth spot in the rotation–leads the team in wins at season end? What are your thoughts? Leave some comments below.