A lot of people helped Fausto Carmona get from the Arizona Rookie League last year to the American League All-Star Game Tuesday at Angels Stadium. Carmona invited one of them, Julio Rangel, the Indians' mental skills coach, to Anaheim to show his appreciation.
"We just tried to slow the game down for Fausto," said Indians mental skills coach Julio Rangel. "The game had sped up on him and he didn't know how to slow it back down." The work of Rangel and other Indians coaches helped Carmona earn a berth in Tuesday's All-Star showcase.ANAHEIM, Calif. -- One of the first things Fausto Carmona did after being picked to represent the Indians in Tuesday's 81st All-Star Game at Angels Stadium was reach out to one of the people who brought him back from the edge.
"Fausto called and told me, 'I want to take you to the All-Star Game,'" said Julio Rangel. "I thought he was kidding around. I told him, 'Are you sure?' He said yes and I'm here."
Rangel's job title with the Indians is mental skills coach. As the title suggests, the former Yankees' minor-league pitcher deals with the side of the game that isn't physical.
Carmona needed all the help he could get last year. He was Humpty Dumpty, the skills that produced 19 victories in 2007 splintered by a second straight poor season. Carmona said he never lost confidence in himself, but his was in the minority.
When the Indians optioned Carmona to their Arizona Rookie League team in Goodyear, Ariz., on June 5, 2009, he was 2-6 with a 7.42 ERA in 12 starts. The day before, Rangel was at the Metrodome when Carmona allowed seven runs in two innings. Jason Kubel hit two three-run homers. Outside of a miracle, the odds on fixing Carmona did not look good.
What the Indians did was triple-team Carmona. Dave Miller and Steve Lyons, the minor-league pitching coordinators, worked on his mechanics. Rangel took care of everything else.
"A lot of people were involved in this," said Rangel, who started working for the Indians in 2007. One of the things they tried to change was to have Carmona stop rushing his delivery. He was a man in a hurry and was going nowhere.
"I was never angry about getting sent down," said Carmona about his 2009 demotion. "I knew I wasn't performing well. I wanted to work hard to get back."ON DECK: 81ST MAJOR LEAGUE ALL-STAR GAME
Where: Angels Stadium, Anaheim, Calif.
When: Tuesday at 8 p.m., WJW, Ch. 8.
Series standings: National League leads, 40-38-2. The American League is 12-0-1 over the last 13 years since 1997.
Managers: New York’s Joe Giradi, American League. Philadelphia’s Charlie Manuel, National League.
Pitching matchup: Tampa Bay’s David Price (12-4, 2.42) vs. Colorado’s Ubaldo Jimenez (15-1, 2.20). Price, 24, is the youngest All-Star starter since Dwight Gooden, 23, of the Mets started for the NL in 1988. Jimenez is the third pitcher from the Dominican Republic to start the All-Star game and the first from the Rockies.
Umpires: H Mike Reilly, 1B Mike Winters, 2B Brian O’Nora, 3B Laz Diaz, LF Bruce Dreckman, RF Jim Wolf. Reilly, crew chief.
Official scorers: Bill Shaikin, Los Angeles Times, Ken Davidoff, Newsday, president of the Baseball Writers Association of America, and Ed Munson, MLB.
AL update: The Yankees have three of their five starting pitchers on the All-Star squad in Andy Pettitte, CC Sabathia and Phil Hughes. Sabathia will not pitch because he started Sunday’s game just before the break. Pettitte replaced Boston’s injured Clay Buchholz.
NL update: Seventeen players will be making their first All-Star appearance: Michael Bourn, Marlon Byrd, Matt Capps, Andre Ethier, Yovanni Gallardo, Jason Heyward, Omar Infante, Ubaldo Jimenez, Hong-Chih Kuo, Evan Meek, Brandon Phillips, Martin Prado, Arthur Rhodes, Troy Tulowitzki, Joey Votto, Adam Wainwright and Chris Young.
— Paul Hoynes
"We just tried to slow the game down for Fausto," said Rangel. "The game had sped up on him and he didn't know how to slow it back down."
They watched hours of video, studying not only the pitches Carmona was making, but what he did between pitches. They showed him how he reacted after good pitches and bad ones.
"Fausto didn't have a plan from pitch to pitch," said Rangel. "He'd throw one pitch and I'd ask him 'what are you going to do with the next pitch?' All he said was 'I'm going to try and throw a strike.'"
Carmona's comeback started with simulated games in the Arizona desert. Rangel, Miller and Lyons would try to distract him during those games. They'd tell him the umpire just called a pitch that split the plate a ball. They they'd ask him what do you now.
They were trying to get him to react better during in-game situations. They wanted him to be fluid.
Carmona made his first minor-league start for Class A Lake County on June 25. Rangel, who reached Class AA as a pitcher before retiring in 2002, was in the dugout. Miller and Lyons would be in the stands watching Carmona pitch.
"He'd be telling me to breathe and relax," said Carmona. "He was there every step of the way with me."
When Carmona was on the mound, Rangel would be talking to Miller or Lyons.
"You can see a pitcher better from the stands than the dugout," said Rangel. "They'd tell me, 'Tell Fausto to do this or do that.' I'd be telling him to slow down, don't rush and to stay in the moment."
Dr. Charles Maher is the Indians' sports psychologist. He established the program that Rangel used to help Carmona.
"It's a great program," said Rangel, born in Panama. "It's very basic. It's about staying in the moment. I'm not a psychologist. But I played, I know the game. I think I know what players are going through and I can talk to them."
Two or three starts into Carmona's tour of the minors, he started to get it. He told Rangel, "Now I feel it."
Carmona spent seven weeks in the minors before being recalled on July 31. He made one start at Lake County, two at Class AA Akron and five at Class AAA Columbus.
"I was never angry about getting sent down," said Carmona. "I knew I wasn't performing well. I wanted to work hard to get back."
He finished the season with the Tribe, going 3-6 in 12 starts after his recall. For the year, he went 5-12 record and a 6.32 ERA.
Carmona is 8-7 with a 3.64 ERA in 18 starts in 2010. If teammate Shin-Soo Choo didn't injure his right thumb just before the All-Star team were announced, Carmona probably wouldn't have made it.
But he's here now. So is Rangel.
"I owe him a lot," said Carmona.