OT: "Fausto Carmona" is 3 years older than claimed and not Fausto Carmona either
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/01/dominican-police-carmona-using-assumed-name.html
They're not even sure he's going to be able to get back into the US, since this could make getting a visa difficult. I'd say this makes the AL Central even worse for the upcoming season, but it wasn't like Carmona was that good last year.
I give him credit for a good stolen/fake name though.
January 19th, 2012 at 5:55 PM ^
i bet your real name isn't Yinka Double Dare.
January 19th, 2012 at 6:32 PM ^
personally i like how the dominicans are doing it.....if you're not cheating you're not trying.
January 19th, 2012 at 6:02 PM ^
I can understand falsifying his age, but why would he use a fake name? Did he get cut, then come back the next year as "Fausto" to try to conceal it?
January 19th, 2012 at 6:03 PM ^
Only in Ohio.
January 19th, 2012 at 6:07 PM ^
Fake name to try to hide that his age is fake.
Man these Dominicans everyone says are the best players but I doubt it. They keep sucking ass in the WBC and always getting hit with these fake names and steroids.
Leo Nunez earlier this year. Vlad used a fake age and a couple other Dominicans too.
January 19th, 2012 at 6:12 PM ^
I guess I can understand why someone might do just about anything to get out of third world poverty. Between him and Nunez in less than a year though, this is a bit ridiculous.
January 19th, 2012 at 6:13 PM ^
January 20th, 2012 at 12:38 AM ^
A man's baldness doesn't necessarily resemble his age, sir. As a young balding male, I can attest to that.
Although now that he's received that 10-yr contract, I could see him retiring around year 8 or 9 after declining productivity just to have him reveal that he's actually 45 and now quite filthy rich. Tricked ya!
January 19th, 2012 at 8:13 PM ^
Per capita, the DR has the best baseball players in the world, and I don't think it's really that close. 4/9 of AL Silver Sluggers this year and last year are Dominican, 3 of the last 9 NL batting champions are Dominican, 9 of the last 11 AL home run champions are Dominican (I'm counting ARod), 5 of the last 11 NL home run champions are Dominican, etc. And this is from a country with less than 10m people.
There was a really interesting NYTimes article the other day on why Puerto Rican players have really fallen behind their Dominican and Venezuelan counterparts over the past 20 years.
January 19th, 2012 at 10:12 PM ^
Dominicans are definitely performing at crazy per-capita levels (they are to baseball what Samoans are to the NFL), but I wouldn't count ARod. He was born in New York and grew up in Miami.
January 19th, 2012 at 6:32 PM ^
Danny Almonte?
January 19th, 2012 at 8:38 PM ^
January 19th, 2012 at 7:10 PM ^
I'm sure the Indians wished he was three years younger when he was at least marginally better.
January 19th, 2012 at 7:27 PM ^
As a tribe fan, I hope it does.
January 19th, 2012 at 8:37 PM ^
January 19th, 2012 at 7:29 PM ^
As a life time Tribe fan the saga of Fausto is a strange one. Tribe signed him when they thought he was 15 or 16. Normal in the DR. If he was 18 or 19 he would not have been signed, despite obvious ability. An American kid would get signed at that age. Can't say I blame him. Obvious big league talent. An enigma wrapped inside a riddle. Only hope he can get visa because I don't think he' a threat to national security. More a threat to fans sitting in bleachers when pitching lately. AL Central is messed up division.
January 19th, 2012 at 10:10 PM ^
I've never understood that. Why is 18 "old" for a Dominican? Talent is talent.
January 19th, 2012 at 10:58 PM ^
Imagine the carnage that would result if you put a high-major college freshman in a U16 AAU basketball tournament. Players tend to do a lot of developing in their late teens, and it matters a lot what side of that development scouts think you're on.
January 19th, 2012 at 11:07 PM ^
Exactly. They still may have signed him if they knew, but it would have been for a lot less than what they paid him. There is a huge difference between a 15 year old who is out playing most 18 year olds, and an 18 year old who is out playing most 18 year olds. You might want both of them on your team, but if you're projecting where they'll end up, you'll probably pay a lot more for the kid who is 3 years younger at the same level.
January 20th, 2012 at 11:32 AM ^
That makes sense - but it also raises the question of why it's OK to sign a foreign player at 16 when it's too young for an American. They should make it 18. Kids in the DR and elsewhere should be encouraged to stay in school, too.
January 20th, 2012 at 12:25 PM ^
Fair point about the importance of education, and I really don't know how disruptive development camps are from that angle. At the same time, giving major league teams the ability to sign players early gives quick money to kids and their families who otherwise might really struggle. It also gives major league teams a much greater incentive to invest in player development; if they know they have exclusive rights to a player, it makes a lot more sense to pour resources into giving him the tools to be the best player possible. I linked to it above, but there's a really good NYTimes article about how Puerto Rico really fell off as a baseball hub once their players were forced to enter through the draft -- teams lost any real incentive to invest in skill development, because that investment would pay off to all other teams with equal probability. Ultimately, I think that baseball is really good to the DR in terms of the wealth that it injects into the country's economy, and the extent to which that wealth is available really does depend on this practice of signing players directly at a young age. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/sports/baseball/puerto-rico-traces-decline-in-prospects-to-inclusion-in-the-baseball-draft.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all%3Fsrc%3Dtp&smid=fb-share
January 19th, 2012 at 7:59 PM ^
I'm an Indians fan too and this certainly does explain some things. For openers we now understand why he faded as quickly as he did. And....now I get why when people yelled "Hey Fausto" he never turned around.
January 19th, 2012 at 8:36 PM ^
As a tribe fan I can only say thank god. Now we don't have to pay his underacheiving ass.
January 19th, 2012 at 8:47 PM ^
Real name: Dick Whitman
January 19th, 2012 at 10:22 PM ^
and I want to keep him because I really believe that one of these days he'll get back to the 19-6 form he had in 2007. However, if we can sign him to a new contract for a lot less money (which is probable, as he doesn't have a lot of bargaining power in this situation), we won't have to pay him entirely too much money while he sucks in the meantime.
January 19th, 2012 at 10:26 PM ^
coming to claim the soul of Dr. Fausto tonight?
January 19th, 2012 at 11:56 PM ^
Only on a Michigan blog
January 20th, 2012 at 7:04 AM ^
He always did look a little older to me. The way that he fell off makes sense now. Dirty twins bullshit again.
January 20th, 2012 at 9:11 AM ^
If all the Dominicans can do to escape DR is lie about their age and juice out of their skulls I say to hell with em. We need more Cubans. They float here on makeshift rafts. No reason to lie about your age when you have already braved life and limb trying to ride the gulf stream on a mattress into the Keys. That gives me an awesome new idea for the next Pitbull-Dr. Pepper commercial.