Jeff Niemann

Jon Rauch-like with a better fastball.

According to Peter Gammons' blog, Jeff Niemann could be a part of the Rays' bullpen by season's end. I only remark on this because I saw him pitch against the Louisville Bats earlier this season, and he threw a complete game shutout. He was pretty much amazing. He threw strikes, and his fastball topped out around 97 on the radar at one point (he mainly sat 93-95 for the entire game). On baseball-reference, he's listed at 6'9" and 260 lbs., but when I saw him, he was that tall but didn't seem to be that big (although, I don't understand how weight to height ratios work very well). Anyway, Niemann is 9-5 with a 3.59 ERA and 1.14 WHIP and 128 K in 133 IP, which is pretty good. He's only issued 50 BB, which isn't bad but not spectacular. From the bullpen, I imagine he could keep his fastball around 97 the entire inning-plus he'd have to pitch. He seemed to have a pretty good slider (from where I was sitting, the ball didn't dip much, but they were taking awful swings at it; plus, it was hitting about 85-87 on the radar). With him and David Price out of the bullpen, the Rays could end up having a very special bullpen (one that would be fresher than most as well).