Cliff Lee: Coverboy
August 16, 2008Do Not Adjust Your Television…
August 18, 2008With the 2007 season long in the rear view, the common thought coming into this year was that if the Indians were not able to extend the contract of C.C. Sabathia, the team would have a 24-year old Fausto Carmona to rely on. In the Cy Young talks himself, Carmona tallied one of the biggest bounceback seasons in recent history, and was a huge reason that last year’s squad got as far as it did. Armed with a crazy good sinker ball and would-be excellent control, Carmona was extended to 2014.
The hopes were that Carmona would bring his 97 MPH heater and ground ball outs back to the 2008 squad, rack up double-digit wins, and be the face of the rotation for the following three or four seasons. But then Cliff Lee showed up. And Fausto disappeared.
Or did he?
Through 15 starts this season, Carmona has thrown eight quality starts – not the best ratio by any means. Prior to his injured hip, causing him to miss all of June and most of July, Fausto was 4-2 with an ERA of 3.10 and a stellar ground out rate of 116:31. What you won’t see is that during three pre-injury quality starts resulted in a “no decision” despite only allowing five combined earned runs in said stretch.
Five runs. Twenty innings. Saving you the math, that’s an ERA just over two – with nothing to show for it in terms of wins.
Now, it is obvious that things have been a little different since the injured hip. In his first start off of the disabled list, Carmona was lit up like the Griswold home after allowing nine earned runs in two-plus innings against the Twins. Thankfully, he would bounce back against the Tigers, tossing six-plus innings of five-hit, two-run ball. It should be noted that in the loss to Minnesota, Carmona only notched three outs on the ground. Against Detroit, the ratio was 11:5.
Which takes us to August. Carmona’s renowned control has definitely gotten the best of him this season – something that I will readily admit. In 215 innings last season, Fausto walked only 61 batters. Through 84 innings this season, he has already walked 54 batters – well on his way to a career high in bases on balls. For a guy that does not have a big strikeout pitch, relying mostly on ground outs, the lack of control has been alarming. In his first two starts of this month, Carmona walked five and four guys respectively. To no surprise, this lead to a 0-1 record with 11 earned runs.
However, in the Baltimore game (a no decision), Carmona managed to notch twice as many groud outs to fly outs. He only gave up six hits, but it was an awful seventh inning that resulted in seven earned runs thanks to Eddie Mujica’s inability to get outs. Which then takes us to this weekend. Carmona threw seven innings of six-hit ball, allowing two earned runs. The pair of wild pitches did not help his case much, but he was able to record 15 outs on the ground. Yes, he walked three, but this is a direction I do not mind given the amount of walks prior.
He’s keeping the ball down – sometimes too far down – and is forcing opposing teams to ground out. Unfortunately, when Jhonny Peralta boots routine grounders, there is not much you can do. A ground ball pitcher needs a solid defense behind him; that’s all there is to it. But nearly 70 percent of Carmona’s pitches were strikes, and he was able to force three double plays. He took one of the better offenses in the league late into the game, and kept his team in it. It just so happens that the Tribe’s offense mustered three hits in the final three innings of the game and managed to not capitalize on having the bases loaded with zero outs in the seventh inning.
Carmona may only be 5-5 this season, and could be thought of as a huge disappointment to many. This next start will be very telling. Unfortunately, he’ll miss the series against the Kansas City Royals and will take his game to Arlington, Texas where anything hit in the air has a chance to leave the park. But if the young gun can keep the ball on the ground, I feel that he’s primed to finish off of the rest of 2008 in stellar fashion. Aside from his walk totals, Carmona isn’t too far from where he left off last year. Assuming that he is fully recovered from the injury, the quality starts are there. We just need to capitalize on a guy that is able to get us seven innings deep.
2 Comments
and on another note, matt laporta was beaned in the head in a game vs. china today.
First off- nice Griswold reference. I’m a fan. Second- Carmona throwing ground ball outs is a great sign. Third- Do I have to mention skillet-glove again?