By Dejan Kovacevic
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/
Friday, August 08, 2008
Nick Oza/The Arizona RepublicJeff Karstens maps out a plan and sticks with it when he pitches. So far the results have been excellent since joining Pirates.
PHOENIX -- Those who follow the Pirates most faithfully might have difficulty not going overboard about Jeff Karstens' first two starts. And, after all that miserable starting pitching this summer, who can fault them?
Just do not expect Karstens to get caught up in it.
"Honestly, I'm just going to kind of roll with this, not think about it too much," he was saying not long after his momentous bout with perfection Wednesday in blanking the Arizona Diamondbacks, 2-0. "There are a few people I'm going to call, I'll have some fun with my teammates but, when we get to Philadelphia, it's right back to business. That's it."
No surprise there.
For one, it would appear to be colossally out of character for someone with Karstens' blend-into-the-background personality to celebrate two starts, even if the sum of his work since joining the Pirates is two victories against first-place teams, zero runs and seven hits in 15 innings, and even if one of those of victories nearly enshrined him into eternal baseball lore.
For another, this is a guy who has been built up and knocked down enough times that he surely feels more comfortable somewhere in the middle ...
Karstens, two months away from his 26th birthday, is not so far removed from being the New York Yankees' 19th-round draft pick in 2003 out of his native Spring Valley, Calif., and the Texas Tech program, and it did not take long to rise through that rich system, reaching Yankee Stadium just three years later.
That was not nearly as smooth as it sounds, though.
To open the 2006 season, New York management entrusted Karstens to a spot in Class AAA Columbus' rotation. Looked great. Knocking on the door.
But Karstens went 0-5 and was bounced right back to Class AA Trenton.
The performance there was good enough he earned his major league debut in late August in Seattle, where he gave up three runs over 5 2/3 innings, then hung around to make five more starts with a 3.80 ERA. Looked really great. Now, he was in the house.
But Karstens, after a fine spring, opened 2007 on the disabled list with elbow tendinitis, then, a week after he was reinstated, went right back on it in excruciating fashion: It was April 28 at Yankee Stadium, and his first pitch of the day was lined right back at his right leg by Boston's Julio Lugo, fracturing his fibula and momentarily felling him in apparent great pain.
Remarkably, Karstens stayed in the game for five more pitches, gave up a single and, only after Yankees manager Joe Torre noticed a limp, was removed. He left the field without help.
It would take three months of exhaustive rehabilitation, regaining strength and confidence in the leg, before he could return.
"It was rough, my first time ever on the DL," he recalled. "But I think I really learned a lot from it."
Not without more ups and downs that year: He was rocked in three starts for the Yankees, demoted again, then sent off to compete for Team USA at the World Cup in Taiwan, where he dominated the competition.
Jeff Karstens delivers a pitch against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the fourth inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008 in Phoenix.
(AP Photo/Matt York)
Finally, things began to stabilize this past spring, but hardly how Karstens would have wanted: He now had little chance to break into New York's megamillions-rotation and, most ominous, he beginning to get buried among the Yankees' pitching prospects with Joba Chamberlain, Ian Kennedy and Phil Hughes all surging to the forefront.
And, when he missed the first two months of this season to a strained groin, it probably felt like piling on.
But, as had happened every other time, Karstens found a way to rebound, and he put together 12 quality starts for Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, going 6-4 with a 3.80 ERA and an outstanding strikeout-to-walk ratio of 55 to 15.
Still, no majors, which surely had to be raising doubt.
"There was never doubt, no," Karstens said. "It was just a matter of some thing needing to happen for me to get that chance. Believe me: I was very excited when I got the call that I was coming to Pittsburgh."
That call came about largely because general manager Neal Huntington has begun deploying his special assistants at levels other than the majors, and their reach has spread: His scouts saw four of Karstens' games over the past two years, including two last month, and there were additional analyses from others who previously worked for other organizations.
"We had a lot of very good reports," manager John Russell said.
So, when Huntington's New York counterpart, Brian Cashman, came calling about Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte, and talks ran deep, Karstens was one of the Pirates' final two choices to seal the deal that also brought pitchers Ross Ohlendorf and Daniel McCutchen and outfielder Jose Tabata.
By most accounts, Karstens might have the lowest ceiling of the incoming four, if only because of his less-than-dynamic stuff. But one American League scout, on the day the trade, said, "I like the talent of the other three, but I'm telling you, the guy I like -- and the guy I think Pittsburgh is going to like -- is Karstens. All he does is throw strikes and compete. He's not going to blow you away, but he'll battle you."
Small wonder, if Karstens genuinely is the least of the Pirates' return, that Cashman told reporters the weekend after the Nady-Marte trade that he was experiencing "buyer's remorse."
Caution, quite obviously, should be advised against anyone reading too much into two starts, or even five or 10 should Karstens finish strong. The majors are littered with pitchers who have poise and fearlessness but do not have the stuff to back it up.
But that raises the question: How is Karstens' stuff?
To begin with the easiest to measure, the fastball he generates with his wiry 6-foot-3, 180-pound build averages a ho-hum 91 mph, although he ratcheted that up to 94 mph Wednesday as needed.
He also has a changeup good enough that he heavily leaned on it to mow down the formidable Chicago Cubs in his first start with the Pirates last Friday. There is a sparingly used but effective curveball, too, and his slider -- other than the one the Diamondbacks' Chris Young ripped to end the perfect game -- does its job, as well.
Better question, perhaps: What matters more, the stuff or how it is applied?
Jeff Karstens delivers a pitch against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the first inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008 in Phoenix.
(AP Photo/Matt York)
If Karstens were trying to strike people out, the stuff probably would not suffice. But his approach, as he has plainly shown, is to dissect hitters' weaknesses, keep them guessing and have them taking awkward swings. From there, let the defense do the work.
"I'm not one of those guys who's going to light up the radar gun," Karstens said. "I'm going to put the ball in play. That's just who I am."
"He pitches to contact, goes right after guys, and he has no problem with that," pitching coach Jeff Andrews said. "He has a plan, knows what he wants to do and attacks. If he gets hit, he keeps coming."
One other thing: He throws inside as necessary.
Sounds an awful lot unlike the nibbling the majority of the rotation has done this season, which surely explains why the everyday players have taken an instant liking.
"If you're in the field, you love to have that," first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz said. "He's competing out there with you."
That was evident in another way Wednesday: He had two hits of the Pirates' seven hits off the legendary Randy Johnson, meaning he had as many hits in the game as he gave up, a tremendous baseball rarity. And that was no accident, given that he was good enough as a catcher to have been originally drafted at that position by the Montreal Expos in 2000.
"The kid's tough," Andrews said. "He applies that mentality in every way."
Karstens freely acknowledges his early time with the Pirates has been "almost too good to be true" to this point, but he does little to downplay his delight at the trade itself.
"It means so much," he said. "Honestly, when someone trades for you, it makes you feel wanted. Not to say I wasn't wanted in New York, but there was an abundance of arms. To get out of there and come and have a real opportunity to pitch, I'll take it. And I'll take full advantage of it."
NOTES -- The Pirates signed outfielder Wesley Freeman, their 16th-round draft pick out of All Saints Academy High School in Lakeland, Fla. Freeman, 18, had signed a letter of intent with the University of Central Florida after a senior year in which he batted .478. But the Pirates are believed to have paid him a bonus in line with that of a fifth-rounder to get him to change his mind. Fifth-round bonuses in the draft last year averaged $226,556.... The team has signed 28 of 50 picks, including 11 of the top 18. ... Outfielder Chris Duffy and reliever Franquelis Osoria, designated for assignment last week, cleared waivers and were placed on the Class AAA Indianapolis roster.
Dejan Kovacevic can be reached at dkovacevic@post-gazette.com.
First published on August 8, 2008 at 12:00 am
The Karstens File
Name: Jeffrey Wayne Karstens
Position: Right-handed pitcher
Size: 6 feet 3, 180 pounds
Born: Sept. .24, 1982, San Diego
High school: Graduated from Mount Miguel High School in Spring Valley, Calif., in 2000, where he was team MVP -- as a catcher -- in his senior year. Was drafted in 45th round by Montreal Expos in 45th round as catcher that year, but did not sign.
College: Played two years at Grossmont Junior College in California, one year at Texas Tech. Was drafted in 19th round by New York Yankees in 2003 as pitcher and signed.
Minors: 44-31 record, 3.52 ERA, 533 strikeouts, 161 walks in 107 starts.
Majors: 5-5 record, 4.48 ERA, 27 strikeouts, 25 walks in 11 starts.
International: Played for United States that won 2007 World Cup in Taiwan, with 2-0 record, 1.37 ERA, 17 strikeouts in four starts.
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