Carmona is special pitcher

By Justin Albers
Basketballss132002@yahoo.com
CLEVELAND- I don’t have any experience in the matter, but I would imagine living away from your native country would be difficult to do. Especially when you end up living away from home, in a place where they don’t speak your language.
Fausto Carmona came to the United States last year from the Dominican Republic and signed a contract with the Cleveland Indians. Both sides probably thought they made a huge mistake. Carmona was placed into the closer role, but he never ended up with even a single save. He blew nine of them in nine opportunities, and ended the 2006 season with a record of 1-10.
I know that if I was in the same situation Carmona was in, I would have given up and gone back home. But that is what makes Carmona so special; he spent the off-season working as hard as he could to become a great pitcher. Then, when Cliff Lee got injured early in the season, he got his chance to become a starter. He has not disappointed.
Carmona (13-4) has an ERA of 3.31, and is tied for the most wins in the Major League. He has become a ground ball specialist; forcing three ground ball outs for every fly ball out. He is every manager’s dream pitcher with nasty enough stuff that he could become an eventual Cy Young winner. His turnaround is unbelievable and unprecedented, but it doesn’t appear to be a fluke.
The Indians got lucky in this case, finding the future ace of their pitching rotation. And oh yeah, they are only paying him $387,500. That is about three percent of what the Yankees are paying Andy Pettitte, and he has six wins. Go figure.