Fausto Carmona Tells Media He's Not Speaking to Them

For the second consecutive season, Fausto Carmona was supposed to be the No. 2 man in a solid 1-2 starting pitching punch for the Cleveland Indians. For the second consecutive year, he's pitching very poorly. Through 6 starts, Carmona boasts a 6.11 ERA (even worse than last year's dubious 5.35 mark) and has walked 17 batters in only 35 1/3 innings.

After his outing against the Blue Jays Monday, when Carmona took his ERA all the way down 0.17 points, the media basically ignored Carmona. Apparently, he's not mad. He's just decided to return the favor for the rest of the season.

"I'm not mad at anybody," said Carmona, "I'm just not talking to the media for the rest of the year. I'm serious."

Asked if he would talk to reporters if he threw a no-hitter, Carmona said, "If I throw good, bad or a no-hitter, I'm not talking."

As explained in the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, starting pitchers know part of their job is to talk to the media after every start. In Monday's extra innings 9-7 win over the Blue Jays, though, Carmona didn't really mean much to the game outcome, so the media spoke to other players. Often times reporters will give what seems like a courtesy interview to starters when they don't figure significantly in the outcome, but in extra innings night games -- such as Carmona's Monday start -- deadlines can sometimes get in the way. It's very rare, but it happens. Really, the only logical explanation as to why he's announcing this boycott a day later is that his feelings were hurt and he fails to understand the realities of the situation.

First of all, why not just boycott instead of trying to shine the light on yourself a day later by announcing? Just don't speak to them after the next start to make your point -- in a much more strong way. It comes off as whining when you do it the way Carmona did. Second of all, this boycott might mean a little more if it came from a guy with more than one quality start in six tries. Time to start pitching well instead of pontificating about how you aren't mad -- when you really, actually, obviously are.

Is Carmona, a 25 year-old who has been in the bigs for four years, so childish that he has to be given a courtesy coddle to avoid him flipping his lid -- even when it interferes with the real storylines of the game? Let us consider that the game ran way late and many reporters likely were staring down a deadline. It's possible there wasn't time to waste in stroking his apparently fragile ego.

Also, why punish the entire media because a few Cleveland guys didn't have time for him on a single night? That's like cameramen boycotting all pitchers because Kenny Rogers attacked one once a few years ago.

Finally, what's the over/under on how long this childish silence treatment actually lasts? Two weeks? A month? I'll take the under on the latter.