Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 6, 1995 TAG: 9510060032
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Brad Clontz arrived for the 1995 major-league baseball season in a limousine.
The Atlanta Braves might consider leaving one at his disposal now that they know all he's done to help them make this week's National League divisional playoffs.
Given that the Braves' No.1 concern going into the season was finding a way to stabilize their frequently fallible bullpen, it would be hard to find anybody who did more to that end than the sidearming rookie from Patrick County.
Greg Maddux must have known he was on to something when he sent that limo to pick up Clontz and his fellow rookie Jason Schmidt at the ballpark and squire them to his house when they arrived in Atlanta this spring. Maddux invited the pair for a few days because he didn't want them to spend any time in a motel.
Since then, no matter the role, Clontz has been as consistent as summertime humidity in Georgia. Clontz started the season in short relief and, once bomb-throwing Mark Wohlers put the controls on the 100-mph projectiles he was launching, finished as a late-inning setup specialist.
``I don't think anybody, including me, thought I was going to close from Day 1 here,'' said Clontz, the former Virginia Tech right-hander. ``Closing was a good experience for me. I'll be ready to do it again when the opportunity comes up down the road, either here or somewhere else.''
For now, he's mostly setting up for Wohlers, a job that has its own pleasures.
``I tell you what, he's something,'' Clontz said. ``In his first three or four games this year, he was really struggling. I mean he was going up on the backstop with some of his pitches. But he was throwing so hard. I said to myself then, `if this guy ever gets that stuff under control ...'''
Clontz doesn't have Wohlers' stuff, but he does have what the big right-hander has not had until recently - consistency. Since joining the Braves as a 10th-round draft choice in 1992, Clontz had progressed from rookie ball (he started at the Braves' former outpost in Pulaski) through Class AAA Richmond, putting together a cumulative 2.37 earned-run average and 173 strikeouts in 1742/3 innings.
Last year, he had 38 saves combined at AA Greenville (S.C.) and Richmond. He's followed that with an 8-1 record and 3.65 ERA in Atlanta this season. The eight-game winning streak with which he finished the regular season is the current longest one in the majors and the third longest this year.
His weapons include a sinking fastball, a slider and a changeup. Clontz's breaking ball tends to bend down and away from right-handed hitters, but he also can make it swerve up and away.
``I've been throwing mostly fastballs off the plate lately,'' he said. ``The hitters up here are so good, you have to be careful. They're always looking for something on the middle to inside of the plate that they can drive. But my fastball, because of the way it breaks, keeps them honest. They can't afford to lay off the slider and wait for the fastball.''
Clontz played shortstop for Patrick County High, a position that required him to make numerous sidearm throws. Between that and friendly games of catch, he developed his pitching style. First, he was just using it only on two-strike pitches. Then he was throwing it all the time.
Although the affable Clontz has a boatload of strikeouts (55 in 69 innings this year) as a hurl-for-hire guy, he is primarily considered a groundball pitcher.
``I don't worry about base hits much,'' he said. ``The way I look at it is, the next guy can ground into a double play and then you have two outs.''
Clontz took the same breezy approach to his first year in the big leagues.
``My main goal was not to have the sort of setback that would send me back to the minors,'' he said.
Mission accomplished. Now he's in the playoffs, and the Braves hold a 2-0 lead in their best-of-five series with the Colorado Rockies. Game 3 is tonight in Atlanta.
``We were flying from Denver when we got the word that we had clinched the division,'' he said. ``It was weird. It wasn't as exciting as I had expected it to be. But you've got to remember, these guys have been to the World Series. Just winning the division isn't good enough for them.
``Now it isn't for me either.''
by CNB