This Pen is Dry

Consider the Fausto Carmona-Closer Experiment over. Unless the Indians plan on trotting the kid out again, only to develop a Byung-Hyun Kim complex, it’s time to move Carmona to a different role in the bullpen.

You don’t want to send Carmona down to Buffalo, as that would completely destroy his fragile psyche right now. Sending him down would essentially relay the message that he’s gone from the best arm in the bullpen to the worst arm on the team.

Remember that he’s still a 22-year-old that proved that his stuff translated to the Majors for 2 months. The last week has proven that he’s not ready to close, not that he’s ill equipped to stay in Cleveland.

Carmona’s quickly entered the national spotlight, and not really for something that a young pitcher aspires to be known for. The guys on “Baseball Tonight” were just groaning after the Pudge HR. Carmona’s even a part of the Sports Guy’s mailbag.

Put Carmona in the long relief role for now and let him work some bullpen sessions to iron out whatever has suddenly gone wrong (if that problem is not strictly between his ears).

As soon as Wedgie remembers that he has more than 4 relievers in the bullpen (did anyone realize that Tom Mastny is on the roster, and has been for 2 weeks) there will be the opportunity to evaluate all of these young arms on the ML level.

Does anyone think it’s time to see if Jeremy Guthrie can succeed in the Bigs, before the Indians need to make a decision on him next year (he’s out of options)? Can’t we see someone like him, rather than castoff Sikorski?

When Mujica was sent down to Buffalo, I thought that the reason was that he could get “regular work” in AAA rather than getting inconsistent work in Cleveland. But you’re not going to get an idea if you can bank on these guys next year (Mujica, Perez, Guthrie, and even Andrew Brown) by having them throw against AAA hitters.

If the remainder of the 2 months of the season is all about evaluation and determining where the team needs additions in the off-season, shouldn’t these spots in the bullpen be Priority #1, #1a, #1b, and #1c?

While it’s true that the rest of the team can’t be enjoying this whole “go into the 9th innings with leads in 6 games against two of the best AL teams only to get 1 win” thing, they have to understand that the Indians aren’t exactly going to be able to pull Mo Rivera off of waivers to correct the bullpen.

GM Mark Shapiro was on WKNR with Kenny Roda on Friday and had some interesting thoughts (outside of comparing Roda to Roger Brown on the air). He stated that the pitching and defense are what let the team down this year and that the Indians will make moves that would be deemed “unlike” what they’ve done in the past to correct the problems.

He singled out C.C. and Westbrook as having career years, while pointing out that Lee should be having a better year. He made no mention of Sowers, who has done nothing BUT impress, or Byrd, who has nothing TO impress.

The crux of the conversation sounded as if Shapiro didn’t sound opposed to moving one of those veteran arms (likely Lee or Byrd) if he can improve the team in other spots.
Carmona, if the decision is made to move him back to the rotation in the latest yo-yo act for a young pitcher, could factor in as a starter next year, Adam Miller (who likely needs more seasoning) or a FA pitcher would have to be counted on for them to make that kind of move.

Also, from the Department of Obvious Statments, he intimated that the bullpen would be completely redone in the off-season.

He made no mention of the offense being a part of the big problem, only saying that the inconsistency of the lineup has been as frustrating to him as any part of the club.

He went further to say that this year has “humbled him” and taken a “considerable toll on him mentally and physically”

Finally, for all of the Dolan-bashers, he indicated that the Indians would not be as low as they were this year in the payroll rankings (they’re 24th this year), as the Dolans have apparently authorized him to spend significant money in the off-season to get this ship righted.

With that out of the way, a brief Lazy Sunday with not a lot of notable articles today. Only Sheldon Ocker’s examination of the trade-deadline deals and their impact on 2007 makes the cut.