Should Jeff Karstens Stay In Pirates' Rotation?

not Friday

You have to keep Karstens in there. As was stated, a lot of people here aren’t big fans of Karstens, but the guy has earned the spot.

Until Ohlie or someone else show better results, there’s no reason to make the change. I’m a firm believer in “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.

Mentally weak. Not that I’m some mental “Rambo” or anything…. but it seems that he falls apart very easily whenever he hits adversity. I’m not a big fan.

starts aren’t like pitch counts. I say you wait until he can’t keep putting up quality starts before you switch him out. basically, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it

Unless he pitches his way out of a spot. Ohlendorf doesn’t appear to be real close to starting a rehab assignment. When that does happen, if the plan is for Ohlie to go back in the rotation, they will likely use most or all of the available rehab time to get him stretched out.

Lincoln is beginning to pitch like he deserves a spot in Pittsburgh. I’m guessing that if he keeps it up for a few more starts, and everyone else stays healthy…that’s the time where the Pirates will start looking for what they want to get in a trade for Maholm. Since I see no way that the Pirates will exercise his option, it’s a fairly sure bet that the Pirates will look to trade him prior to July 31st.

As the weather warms up…so will the hitters. I think we will see at least one…and maybe more…of our pitchers start to see their ERAs rise somewhat.

tweeting this morning that Ciriaco is on his way to Pittsburgh. Pedro to the DL perhaps??

Loved Fogg, love Karstens. Keep him in ’ere

let him leave on a good note and bring up Lincoln and if he falters then just throw Karstens back in. But if Lincoln does good, your bullpen gets that much better. Karstens isnt more than a spot starter but hes very valuable out of the pen giving you 2-3 innings a clip.

The Nady trade is the trade that just keeps on giving.

But he’s a 5 inning guy. This works if the other four guys are going deeper into games — generally have been so far — but becomes a big issue once a couple guys falter. So I really think his place in the rotation depends on the other starters.

So it’s a good problem to have, what to do with Karstens when RO comes back. I’d agree with a poster above in giving him two AAA rehab stints and move one of them into long or middle relief. RO seems to have a heavy pitch (forget if it’s a sinker or what), but could be well utilized in the pen.

Also, we’re discussing this all after Karsten’s best start of the season – that’s a start that included the typical 6th inning HR and many, many hard hit balls that aren’t always going to be hit directly to the infielders or hang up long enough for Cutch to make a sliding grab. While Jeff K is sure ugly, you gotta love his effort and 5+ solid innings he’s regularly putting up.

last year after we got out scored 36-2 or something like that in the series against the Brewers. I saw that Karstens was pitching the next game and I thought “Oh no, how bad can this get? After that pounding they are going to go with a guy who wasn’t good enough to make the team out of spring training.”

But he pitched well and we got a win. I don’t know if he will regress or not but I would love to see him do well.

He’s been a good starter I think he should go back to muddle relief. If he does well, there’s a chance he and maholm will both get traded.

Karstens is probably a good relief pitcher for teams in the hunt later on in the season.

And being able to start or relieve is an attractive quality for a RP. But don’t give him away.