The Indians were one of the first teams to sign their youngsters to long-term deals in the late 90s, and that obviously worked well.

They aren't first with signing players after good rookie years to big deals — the Colorado Rockies with Troy Tulowitzki and the Arizona Diamondbacks with Chris Young started the trend — but, in this instance, not being first is OK.

Fausto Carmona is worth risking a seven-year contract on. He has shown to be a tough pitcher and more important he has shown mental toughness.

His disaster as closer two years ago showed that Carmona can bounce back from tough times.

GM Mark Shapiro deserves credit for rolling the dice in this situation.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 10th, 2008 at 10:46 am and is filed under Indians. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.