Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 30, 1995 TAG: 9507310134
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Or take a bat and give his metal locker a resounding whack.
Or at the very least, come forth with some unsavory language.
But Saipe, being the calm and well-bred Californian he is, is taking his injured right elbow stoically.
``You have to be patient and come to the yard to watch the other guys play,'' said the 21-year-old right-hander. ``But it ticks you off.''
Just when he was throwing well, too. A curveball and change-up specialist, Saipe had come out of the bullpen to take the place of done-for-the-season Doug Walls and immediately established himself as a starter. Saipe struck out 13 Wilmington Blue Rocks - a Salem season high - in one game and fanned 12 Lynchburg Hillcats in seven innings in another start.
But in the game against Lynchburg, which the Avalanche would go on to lose 5-4 on July 14, Saipe's elbow started hurting.
``I was going good and I didn't want to come out,'' Saipe said. ``In the one-hit game against Wilmington, I threw a lot of deuces [curveballs] in that game and that may have been a factor. But no one game did it.''
By the end of the past week, Saipe had missed two starts, the most recent Tuesday when he was scratched about an hour before the beginning of the game with Prince William and replaced by Jeff Sobkoviak.
Saipe underwent a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exam Friday, and the team announced Saturday that he may not pitch for Salem again this season.
``I'll miss at least one more start,'' he said. ``I'm anxious to get on with it.''
In spring training, you wouldn't have found many minor-league officials of the parent Colorado Rockies who thought Saipe would be in Salem in the first place.
``Saipe has been the biggest surprise on the team,'' said Bill Champion, the Avalanche's pitching coach. ``When we came up here, Saipe and Scott LaRock were the last two pitchers who made the team. Now, they're two of our more important guys.''
Many thought Saipe's future was exceptionally promising when he was a draftable junior at his hometown University of San Diego. Baseball America projected him in the top five rounds of the 1994 amateur draft.
``Being from the West Coast and that being an East Coast publication, that made me feel pretty good,'' Saipe said..
His mood changed, though, when he lasted through 12 rounds before the Rockies snatched him. He was disappointed, but got over it.
``There was never any question about signing,'' he said.
More questions arose after he went 3-7 with a 4.16 earned run average with short-season Bend, Ore.
``I don't think the Rockies were happy with my short season,'' he said. ``I let some things that I can't control get to me. That's not like me, because I usually have pretty good mental toughness. I'm not going to let something like that happen again.''
Mental toughness is something Saipe's father, Mark, probably could write a thesis on, being a psychologist in private practice. Mike has a pretty analytical mind himself, which isn't surprising considering his family background. Deep thinking must run in the blood. His mother, Chantal, a native of France, is an urban planner for the city of San Diego.
Mike is the middle of three boys (the older is 23-year-old Jon, the younger 11-year-old Tony), all of whom have a taste for an unlikely pair of sports: baseball and soccer.
``It was good for me to have an older brother who either wanted to beat me up or beat me in sports,'' Mike Saipe said.
How good, we may be beginning to see.
``I don't think Mike Saipe has learned how good he can be yet,'' Champion said.
HAMMERING HOLDREN: Avalanche slugger Nate Holdren was on a 9-for-17 (.529) tear and at one point had three home runs in four at-bats entering the series opener with Kinston on Friday. Overall, he had four homers and eight runs batted in during the stretch.
Holdren swatted 28 home runs with Asheville, N.C., last year to tie for the South Atlantic League lead, but his power seemed to all but vanish this season. The recent pyrotechnics have brought his homers total for the year to 11.
``The only pressure I'm feeling is what I put on myself,'' he said. ``Especially after coming in here and seeing the size of this [Municipal Field] ballpark.''
Holdren has changed nothing.
``I'm just trying to put the ball in play and things are happening for me. Sometimes it happens in bunches, sometimes it happens occasionally and sometimes it doesn't happen at all.''
SHORT STUFF: Get the feeling teams in the Northern and Southern divisions of the Carolina League are going in opposite directions? Late in the week, Lynchburg had won eight of its past 10, Wilmington seven of 10 and Frederick six of 10. Among the Southerners, only Kinston (5-5) was as good as .500 during the same period. Salem and Winston-Salem had dropped seven of 10 each and Durham six of 10. ... A potential Triple Crown winner? How about Lynchburg's Reed Secrist, the former Salem Buccaneer who was hitting .340 (second in the league) with 17 homers (tied for third) and a circuit-leading 65 RBI through Thursday? ... Yates Hall, the former Virginia pitcher from Front Royal now hurling for New Jersey of the short-season New York-Penn League, is off to a 3-0, 1.37 ERA start. That on the heels of a 3-2, 1.86 tour of the league in 1994.
by CNB