{"playerId":1442,"percentChange":0.1,"averageDraftPosition":260,"percentOwned":0.2,"playerRaterSEASON":-2.2,"mostRecentNews":{"news":"Karstens (shoulder) is shooting for a mid-June return, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports.","spin":"Karstens threw 45 pitches for Double-A Altoona on Monday and is expected to throw 60 pitches Saturday. The right-hander came into his own in 2011 as a starter, but it's possible he pitches out of the pen -- at least initially -- as the team eases him back from a shoulder ailment.","date":"Fri May 25"},"fullName":"Jeff Karstens","seasonOutlook":{"outlook":"What a season Karstens had in 2011. Despite a meager 5.32 strikeouts-per-nine innings ratio, he set career bests in ERA (3.38) and WHIP (1.21), and at one point even strung together nine consecutive quality starts (June 3-July 20). The problem, however, is that Karstens is highly unlikely to repeat the effort. Though he did improve his ground ball rate to 47.7 percent, that's still not an elite number, and his 1.22 homers-per-nine allowed is too high for a pitcher whose left-on-base percentage was a bloated 77.4. Karstens simply got lucky last year, and regression to the mean could strike him significantly. Treating him as anything more than a late-round NL-only roster filler is dangerous.","seasonId":2012,"date":"Fri Feb 10"},"positionRank":161}