Indians' Carmona regains confident demeanor
Right-hander off to fast start after two years of struggles
By Anthony Castrovince / MLB.com
04/29/10 10:00 AM ET
ANAHEIM -- Mike Redmond called for a slider. Fausto Carmona shook him off.
It was the seventh inning of last Saturday's game at Oakland Coliseum, and A's second baseman Adam Rosales was at the plate with the game tied at 1-1. Carmona had surrendered a line-drive single to Rosales on a fastball earlier in the game, so Redmond thought the pitcher-catcher battery ought to take a different approach this time around.
"Fausto actually shook me off twice, because he wanted to overpower him with his heater," Redmond said. "He wanted to see if the guy could do it again. He got mad because [Rosales] had gotten a hit off him."
Not this time. Carmona trusted in his fastball and got Rosales to strike out looking. The Indians went on to score twice in the eighth and three times in the ninth to reward him for his 7 1/3 innings of nearly spotless work and get him the victory.
That was but a small moment in Carmona's finest start of the season to date -- a start he hopes to build on when he takes the mound against the first-place Twins in the opener of the Indians' homestand Friday night at Progressive Field.
It was also a moment that spoke to the confidence of Carmona in 2010.
Gone, seemingly, are the mental and mechanical flaws that made Carmona, a 19-game winner in 2007, such a walk-prone wreck the past two seasons. In their place is a certain swagger that extends even to his clubhouse demeanor.
Carmona, who is 3-0 with a 2.96 ERA in four starts and appears to be reclaiming his '07 form, doesn't just shake off Redmond, his personal catcher; he also shakes off reporters who approach him between starts.
"I'm not talking before I pitch," he said. "That's part of my routine."
How long the Indians' media relations department will tolerate such a routine is another story for another time. The point is that Carmona is in a state of mind in which he refuses to be rattled by whatever internal or external pressures are placed upon him.
Between starts, you can often find the 26-year-old Carmona sitting alone at his locker, head down, iPod on, and thoughts, presumably, on his next start.
"He's very shy," Tribe manager Manny Acta said. "He doesn't say much. He keeps to himself and keeps his headphones on."
In the short time he has been at the helm, Acta has already learned to give up expectations of deep life conversations with Carmona, a fellow Dominican Republic native.
"He's got an office phobia," Acta said. "I learned that right away. He doesn't like to be in offices. You're not going to pull him over by the batting cage and talk. He's a very respectful guy, but he keeps his distance. You try to get close to him, but he's not the easiest guy to engage in long conversations."
Ask Carmona -- when you can get a few moments of his time -- what's made him so successful in the early going this season, and his answers are predictably to the point.
"Different side of the rubber," he said, "and throwing strikes."
While there is, of course, more to it than that, those two points are worth exploring.
After Carmona went 5-12 with a 6.32 ERA in a 2009 season in which he was demoted to the Minors for two months, the Indians allowed him to pitch in the Dominican Winter League. There, former Major Leaguer Jose Lima suggested to Carmona that he move to the first-base side of the rubber to increase his effectiveness against left-handed hitters.
"Pitching on the right-hand side of the rubber did not help him at all," Acta said. "He was pitching everybody the same way, sinking it in to righties and away to lefties. He had success with it in 2007, but the league adjusted to him."
Carmona had tried to adjust in different ways last season, namely by relying less on his mid-90s sinker and more on his changeup. That's something Redmond noticed when he stood in against Carmona last year, while still a member of the division-rival Twins.
"Even though I didn't get any hits off him, he actually did me some favors by the way he pitched me," Redmond remembered. "As I was facing him, I was always in the back of my mind going, 'This guy doesn't need to do all that stuff. He doesn't need to throw me changeups. He's giving me a chance by throwing me those pitches. If I ever caught him, I'd use him differently.'"
Now, Redmond has that opportunity, every fifth day.
"We were able to talk to Mike about Fausto's issues in the past," Acta said. "Having been on the other side, he could be more familiar with Fausto's problems. We felt Mike was a perfect match for Fausto."
Carmona downplayed the significance of the pitcher-catcher relationship.
"I don't care who I throw to," he said.
But what he throws is important, and Redmond has made good on his intentions of sticking to Carmona's strengths.
According to data on Fangraphs.com, Carmona is only turning to his changeup 6.5 percent of the time this season. By comparison, he used that pitch 20.2 percent of the time last year, as he tried to account for his lack of control with the sinker and give opposing hitters something else to think about. This year, when he wants to throw off hitters sitting on the fastball, he's using his slider much more often (20 percent of the time, vs. just 7.6 percent in '09) and with much greater effect.
"It's fun now to catch him and try out what I thought and how I thought," Redmond said. "He's the one executing the pitches, not me, but we're just trying something a little different."
Carmona isn't inducing as many ground balls as he did in 2007. His ground-ball percentage that year was 64.3, whereas it is now 52.4. But his line-drive percentage has fallen drastically from last year (17.8) to this year (9.5), and his opponents' batting average on balls in play is .219 after a .303 mark in '09 and a .304 mark in '08.
So when opposing hitters are getting hold of Carmona's pitches, they are doing so rather weakly. His .196 average against is the fifth-lowest mark in the American League, to date. And with each clean inning, his confidence is growing.
"That's a product of him having a good spring and getting off to a good start," pitching coach Tim Belcher said. "When you get off to a good start, your confidence grows and grows. That's not something that comes from any manager or coach. That comes from within. And that's the best kind of confidence."
The Indians, who have Carmona locked up at least through next year, with individual club options for 2012, '13 and '14, will have a great deal more confidence in their rotation and their reloading plans if Carmona keeps pitching the way he has in the early going. He is, after all, the only current member of the rotation who possesses ace potential, in terms of his stuff. Now, he's gaining the demeanor to go with it.
That Rosales at-bat was proof of it.
"That was great," Redmond said with a smile. "That's what you want to see, guys who want to go out there and compete and not be afraid. He didn't look at it as, 'Oh man, this guy's on me.' He looked at it as, 'He beat me last time, and I'm going to beat him this time.'"
