Is there a future for Fausto Carmona in Cleveland?
I’m starting to wonder after Carmona gave up five runs in two-thirds of an inning in Wednesday’s game. Carmona now has a 6.48 ERA, which follows his 5.44 ERA of a year ago, which makes his career ERA 4.64, which means that in three of his four major league seasons Carmona’s ERA has been over 5, which means that that 2007 season seems like an aberration.
FanGraphs puts his ERA this way, and compares it to the league average. Clearly this is not tracking well. 
It’s hard to imagine that '07 season being a mirage, but the numbers are the numbers. I remember Carmona being nearly unittable in some games in 2007. His focus in the midges game was nearly flawless. Now he can’t get a guy out.
PitchFX charted Carmona on Wednesday and he’s all over the board.
There are some who believe Carmona may still be a major league pitcher. It’s hard to give up on a guy with a great arm who’s only 25, but at some point you have to wonder when the risk-reward scenario tilts the wrong way.
The answer could like in these salaries, which were part of the extension Carmona signed in April of 2008. At that time the extension made sense, but now … yikes.
Carmona’s future salaries:
2009: $2.75 million.
2010: $4.9 million
2011: $6.1 million
2012: $7 million (team option)
2013: $9 million (team option)
2014: $12 million (team option)
Add Carmona’s $4.9 million to the salaries of Travis Hafner ($11.5 million), Jake Westbrook ($11 million) and Kerry Wood ($10.5 million), and the Indians are on the hook for those four guys for $37.9 million in 2010 – a year when the total payroll figures to be around $60 million.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I think these last two seasons were a waste – he was injured or he wasn't prepared – and there was no coming back from either situation for him.
I think there's an argument to be made here that even though they sent him down to reconfigure things, it didn't work. Is that on the pitching coaches throughout the organization? And, just when you brought him back up, you took Victor away from him. That made a difference.
With Fausto, I think things are going to have to be 'perfect' for him to succeed, unless over the offseason he learns how to approach pitching a different way. I'm not sure what that means, but you're going to see Fausto 2007 again.
This team is in too much flux for there to have been anything valuable out of Fausto this season. At least Westbrook got to stay on the DL.
Oh, and it couldn't have been a case of rushing someone before they were ready, could it?
The Shapiro Indians never do that…
Yet there are still those for criticizing the Dolan's for not spending any money…
I've felt all along this season was an epic fail on three fronts, not just one:
Dolan: for not building up the financial reserves to keep the talent that has been established here in the stable; and
Shapiro: for not having qualified coaches and managers throughout the system who can develop the talent in place to their fullest potential AND "fix the problems" when they arise; and
Wedge: for not finding eight guys and sticking with an everyday lineup. "Platoon" is a movie, not an approach to starting a season on a solid platform. The musical chairs approach was the death knell to this season.
"Build up financial reserves?" How is that possible, when the team is losing money hand over fist, and–as Cliff Lee astutely and bravely pointed out–the so-called "fans" don't show up to support the team when it wins?
And, Liz, you want those "reserves" to lock up established talent? Which players are you referring to? Lee wasn't staying, no matter what. Victor's best days are behind him. I couldn't care less if ANY player on the current roster walks away.
Jonah: "Financial reserves" – See Dan Gilbert