Jonathon Joseph Niese (born October 27, 1986) is an American professional baseball pitcher who is a free agent. He has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Mets and Pittsburgh Pirates.\n', '

Niese was born to Jeffery and Annette Niese in Lima, Ohio, on October 27, 1986, the same day that the Mets won their second World Series. He was brought up in Defiance, Ohio where he attended Defiance High School. He played soccer all four years of high school and was named Third Team All-State during his junior year. In 2004 and 2005, he was named the state\'s baseball Player of the Year, becoming the first athlete to win the award in consecutive seasons. In Little League (and later in high school), Niese was a teammate of Major League pitcher Chad Billingsley. In the 2005 Major League Baseball Draft, the Mets chose Niese 209th overall (ninth pick of the seventh round).\n', '

Niese began his career in the minors in 2005 pitching for the Gulf Coast Mets of the Gulf Coast League, where he pitched in 7 games including 5 starts while earning one win and zero losses. In 2006, Niese was moved up to Single-A where he split time between the St. Lucie Mets in Port St. Lucie, Florida and the Hagerstown Suns. In 2007, he pitched the entire season for the St. Lucie Mets where he went 11–7 with a 4.39 earned run average (ERA). In 2008, Niese gained another level beginning the year with the Double-A Binghamton Mets.\n', '

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