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Archive for the category “Fausto Carmona”

04 Jul 2011

A blessing in disguise?

Looks like Fausto Carmona will potentially only miss one start after injuring himself while trying to run a mere 90 feet on Saturday.

Carmona will miss Thursday’s game against Toronto, but thanks to the All Star break he will be ready to return to the rotation on July 18 against Minnesota – if everything goes OK.

Is it wrong if we kind of wouldn’t be upset if everything didn’t go right with his rehab and Carmona missed a few extra starts?

Carmona has been a mess this season and some extra time off might help him get his head on straight and actually start pitching like a Major League starter.

With the Tribe expecting to call up either Zach McAllister (8-3, 2.97 ERA at Columbus) or Jeanmar Gomez (9-2, 2.26 ERA) to start on Thursday, there may not be a rush to get Carmona back on the mound.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound like the team is thinking that way.

“We’re anticipating that Fausto will just miss one outing,” manager Manny Acta said in published reports.

Oh well.

On a related note, we could not agree more with Sheldon Ocker at The Beacon Journal about the absurdity of the National League insisting on not having a DH.

The notion that having pitchers bat somehow makes the game more “pure” is nonsense; it’s just ridiculous. As Ocker rightly points out, if the NL teams think watching a pitcher try to swing a bat is so important, why don’t they keep the pitcher in the lineup when they visit American League parks?

Adding an extra bat to the lineup doesn’t hurt an NL team when it plays in an AL park, but taking the DH away from the AL clearly is unfair. We can’t help but think that having Travis Hafner in the lineup full time on this past road trip wouldn’t have helped out.

Of course, if Carmona was athletic enough to run 90 feet without hurting himself, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation.

So we’ll wait to see how Carmona’s rehab progresses and hope for the best. It’s the Fourth of July, the Tribe is in first place and the Evil Empire is in town.

What could be better than that?

Posted in Cleveland Indians, Fausto Carmona, silly baseball rules | Leave a comment
21 Jun 2011

Is staying the course an option?

Top of the fifth inning … two outs … Chris Iannetta, the No. 9 hitter at the plate … Tribe leading 4-1 … Fausto Carmona melts down … and by the time the inning is over the Indians trail 7-4.

Carmona’s outing Monday night against Colorado brought about a (NSFW) reaction from Tribe fans everywhere that is certainly understandable.

After the game, the response about what to do about Carmona’s ongoing struggles was less cohesive.

One person who is clear about Carmona’s future is manager Manny Acta – and his opinion is really the only one that counts.

“He’s pitching in five days,” Acta said in published reports. “That’s the solution we have here. You can’t just get rid of him and bring somebody else in here.

“The ability to make a pitch when it counts just hasn’t been there. I don’t know if I can attribute that to a lack of focus. In this case, you’ve got two outs. … You do have to smell blood and get after those guys and get out of that inning.”

But is staying the course really the best option for the Indians as they try to stay in first place? Is the Tribe really prepared to put the pitcher with the highest ERA among American League starters back on the mound Sunday night against San Francisco?

It would be one thing if this was an isolated incident, but Carmona shows no signs of becoming a functional starting pitcher any time soon.

Per Sheldon Ocker in the Beacon Journal, in his past eight starts, Carmona has posted an 8.87 earned-run average, given up 12 hits per nine innings and one home run every 41/3 innings. His record over this span is 1-6.

The Indians are obviously not going to release Carmona; that would be ridiculous. They can’t send him to the minors without his permission. But they can move him to the bullpen and let him try to sort things out away from a situation that will cost the Indians a game.

“I don’t feel like I did in 2009,” Carmona said. “Talking about the fundamental side, I feel fine. I’m working. I’m doing stuff. I’m making pitches. I’m not getting the results I want, but I don’t feel like I felt in 2009.”

Of course, if Carmona keeps pitching the way he has been lately, he will make the choice a pretty simple one for Acta.

***

This is easily the best thing we read today, and probably one of the best things we’ve read in a while.

The SummerHoopScoop blog created a fake college basketball recruiter to disseminate information and see if people would believe it just because it sounded credible.

And boy did it work.

The blog exposed the nonsense spewed by self-proclaimed “experts” and highlighted that subset of fans who have an unhealthy interest in the recruiting of high school athletes.

Well played indeed.

(h/t to Deadspin)

Posted in Cleveland Indians, college basketball recruiting, Fausto Carmona, hard choices, Manny Acta | Leave a comment

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