There have been a good number of surprising starts lately and Nate Karns is at the forefront with his second straight 10+ K outing with a 5.0 IP, 2 ER, 5 Hits, 1 BBs, 12 Ks line against the Orioles. First of all, yes he's worth a that add in a 12-teamer as he gets the Twins next. But the question here is if the K upside is real. Well, as with all questions I want to see a change in approach, pitches, movement, etc. for me to consider it as a possibility, and guess what! There is one. Karns is throwing a TON more of his Knuckle-Curve, featuring the pitch over 40% in each of his last three starts (48.4% yesterday!) after featuring a 26.8% rate across his first four starts. With that 40% rate, Karns has a 15.06 K/9, 2.08 BB/9, 2.08 ERA, 2.02 FIP, 1.95 xFIP and other ungodly good stats (25% soft contact, with only 27.8% pull rate, only 14.3% line drives...). That Knuckle-Curve has jumped from a 13.3% whiff rate to a 27.0% thus far, as batters are chasing it nearly 50% out of the zone and making contact at 50.4%. Groundballs are way up on the pitch to 67.9%, and he's doing an excellent job of throwing it for a strike when he wants to, while teasing it off the plate for a whiff as well. This ride is for real.
Let’s see how every other SP did yesterday:
