Hello Tribe Fans Everywhere!

No matter from what angle you study it, 1-10 is not a good record for a baseball pitcher. Not when you have a 5.42 earned run average to go with it. Yet, I am tempted to argue that Fausto Carmona has pitched better this season than those statistics would have you believe.

The 22-year-old righthander was the loser in last night's 2-1, rain-shortened setback to the White Sox, but, for the second game in a row, he gave the Tribe a solid outing. Carmona surrendered two runs in six innings, while pitching through several jams. In his last two starts, he gave up a total of 3 runs in 11 innings.

Still, he finishes what has to have felt like a tumultuous rookie season with a 1-10 record.

Now, let me tell you what I like about Carmona. First, the kid has great stuff, and his size -- 6-foot-4, 195 pounds -- enables him to look quite intimidating as he delivers it from all angles. I was impressed with the young Dominican in spring training, when he pitched well enough to make the club. He also turned in two good starts during a brief promotion to the Indians in May, even though his record stood at 1-3 at that point.

Carmona's best stretch occurred at mid season, during a three-week period when he worked as a setup man for Bob Wickman. The kid looked great in those games, which is probably why the club foolishly traded Wickman away for a Class A catcher. That catcher had better turn out to be Bill Dickey II. Otherwise, this trade looks downright lopsided.

You'll note that the Braves recently coaxed Wickman to return for 2008 by waving $7 million under his nose. For a closer with a record like his (16 saves in 17 attempts for Atlanta), $7 million would probably seem like a deal for the Indians. Now, they have to go out and find a new closer, and it will likely require a significantly higher investment. Oh well. When will this club learn?

Anyway, getting back to Carmona, he clearly is not ready to be a closer. A four-game meltdown against the Red Sox and Tigers in August made him look like the second coming of Fred Lasher.

But didn't you like the way Carmona never lost heart? He never bellyached when the Indians sent him back to the minors to re-tool as a starter, and then when he returned to Cleveland, he pitched fairly well.

It's clear the Indians don't know what to do with the guy. But he looks like a starter to me. He's so young that the club could keep him in the minors at the start of '08. I would hope that the experience with Jason Johnson and Paul Byrd has convinced the Indians to stay away from signing aging, retread starters. That's being a little unfair to Byrd, I know, who is infinitely better than Johnson, but I would rather have seen Carmona in the rotation.

In fact, the club's reluctance to promote Jeremy Sowers until late July probably doomed the season. Had he come up, say, on June 1st and replaced Johnson in the rotation then, perhaps the Indians would not have folded so soon. I think it goes back to the club's reluctance to take a chance with promising youngsters.

Carmona easily could have been crushed by this topsy-turvy season (lots more turvy than topsy). But he looks resilient to me, which is a blessing in a young, hard-throwing hurler.

Speaking of hard-throwers, I would have let C.C. Sabathia go out for the 9th inning of Tuesday's game. Yes, I know how many pitches he'd thrown, but, my gosh, it was his last game of the season. He has five months to recover.

I suppose I shouldn't question Cleveland's success at keeping its starting pitchers healthy, but there are times when Eric Wedge, et al, seem rather anal to me. Plus, it was great watching Sabathia, who was so pumped all night long.

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The answer to yesterday's quiz is: Standford University. Ryan Garko likes to say Tiger Woods taught him a lot about golf during his time there, but I don't think they actually went to that distinguished university at the same time.

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Today's quiz: Who was the first player from the Lake County Captains to earn a promotion to the Cleveland Indians?

-- Kevin Cuneo