ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 28, 1996 TAG: 9604290111
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Jack Bogaczyk
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
If you're looking for really impressive numbers and missed the Jackie O. auction, try Salem Memorial Stadium.
The diamond futures there are quite rare for a baseball franchise that has finished with a losing record for seven consecutive seasons. The Colorado Rockies are mining gems, and they know exactly where to look - 60 feet, 6 inches from home plate.
The Avalanche, unlike most recent Salem clubs, is well-armed. This club finishes its second homestand at 3 p.m. today against Winston-Salem, and although Doug Million will be on the mound, just about any starter Salem has put out there has looked like the left-hander's surname.
The Avalanche took a six-game winning streak into John Burke's second rehabilitation start Saturday night, and adding a Class AAA pitcher to this rotation doesn't seem fair.
Salem's superb pitching, particularly by the starters, began before the streak. A ``quality start'' is defined as at least six innings. The five-man rotation had strung together 10 of those through Friday.
``If there's anything that's surprised me about our pitching, it's that some of these guys have gone this long, this early,'' said Bill McGuire, Salem's manager.
Figure in the Burke-Million effort of 82/3 innings last week, a legitimate addition considering Burke's rehab, and Salem's starters have a 2.22 earned run average since April 16.
In the past week, the regular rotation of Brent Crowther, Mike Vavrek, Matt Pool, Luther Hackman and Million has an incredible 1.02 ERA.
The Avalanche club ERA was 3.29 entering Saturday's game. At spacious Memorial Stadium, it was 2.89. That could have been a per-inning number at old Municipal Field.
Sure, the move a half-mile up the hill has made a difference. That was evident in August, when Salem had a 4.35 ERA before changing home parks and a 3.11 mark in the three weeks at Memorial.
Yes, it's still early, but those low numbers just haven't been seen recently in these parts. Salem hasn't had a sub-4.00 ERA in a Carolina League season since 3.83 in 1989.
The club hasn't had an ERA under 3.80 since the 1976 Pirates staff, including future major-leaguers Ed Whitson and Al Holland, posted a 3.52 mark. The franchise record is 3.35 in 1974. John Candelaria, Rick Langford and Dave Nelson anchored that staff on a league championship club that finished 35 games over .500.
It may be a different ballpark, but it's also a different ERA era. Expansion in baseball has helped batting averages and hurt ERAs, thereby making the Salem numbers more glossy.
``Some of it is experience and maturity,'' said Billy Champion, the Avalanche's pitching coach. ``Crowther, Pool and Million were here last year. They're still young, but they're older. They're tougher mentally. They've learned.''
Mistakes don't go as far now as they did at Municipal Field, with its 323-foot power alley to the scoreboard. A fly ball is an out, instead of going out.
Crowther, Million and Pool also figure they have something to prove. Surely, they didn't want to return to Class A ball after playing here last year. Vavrek and Hackman, who worked for Asheville in the South Atlantic League last season, are proving they belong a step higher in the Rockies' system.
Also, don't discount the work of catchers Mike Higgins and Blake Barthol. Champion wants his catchers very involved and allows them great leeway in calling a game.
``Those guys make it like [cinematic catcher Crash Davis said] in `Bull Durham,''' Crowther said. ```Don't think. Just pitch.'''
It's also a balanced rotation with three right-handers and left-handers Million and Vavrek, and it features a good mix of power pitchers and precise painters.
``Some of what we've done is the competition'' on the Salem staff, Crowther said. ``Good pitching breeds good pitching. We're trying to do a one-up on each other.
``It's not life or death, but you want to be the guy on top of the heap. The guy that does well is the guy that goes up. It's not totally selfish, but in a way you have to look out for yourself.''
Maybe they aren't all ground-ball pitchers who could one day work in Denver's mile-high atmosphere, but if there's one thing the majors can use these days, it's guys who can and know how to pitch.
It isn't as if the Rockies didn't expect Salem to have a solid staff. Among the five starters, only Pool, a 16th pick, didn't go in the top 10 rounds of the draft.
The Blake Street Bombers are the antithesis of the Colorado system. You build a franchise on pitching. The Rockies are short on arms at Denver and Class AAA Colorado Springs, but look out below.
Salem's ace last season, Jamey Wright, has a 0.00 ERA through three starts for the New Haven Ravens, who lead the Class AA Eastern League with a 3.55 team ERA. And if the Avalanche loses one of its starters to the Ravens?
McGuire has former Yankees fourth-rounder Stephen Shoemaker in the bullpen, waiting for a shot at the rotation. Asheville has a 3.20 ERA to date, and Rockies insiders say right-hander Scott Randall (4-0, 2.61), an 11th-round pick last summer, should be the first to jump from Asheville to Salem. Chandler Martin and Marc D'Alessandro aren't far behind.
Colorado is stockpiling arms, and not only is that legal in Salem, it's overdue.
LENGTH: Medium: 100 linesby CNB