ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, May 3, 1996 TAG: 9605030036
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
THE AVALANCHE PITCHER may not have the most impressive stuff, but his bosses say he has the right stuff to be a major-leaguer.
Submitted as Exhibit No. 31245 in the the Why Radar Gun Readings For Baseball Pitches Are Overrated file, we have Mr.Michael Vavrek, a left-hander for the Salem Avalanche.
First, let us establish Mr.Vavrek's credentials. The witness is Dick Balderson, vice president of player personnel for the Colorado Rockies, the Avalanche's parent club. Mr.Balderson, what sort of fastball does Vavrek bring to the average game?
``His fastball is a little short,'' Balderson said.
Short?
``A little below major-league average.''
And what about his curve?
``His curve is a little short, too .''
Well, Vavrek can't be short in all respects. After all, the Rockies did take him in the fifth round of the 1995 amateur draft. Teams don't waste draft picks that high on guys they don't think will make the big leagues. So what's the deal here?
``Vavrek is a very effective pitcher,'' Balderson said. ``Very effective.''
In other words, regardless of the pitches Vavrek uses, he has a knack for getting people out?
``That's right,'' Balderson said.
Vavrek has done it ever since he signed with the Rockies out of Lewis University, an NCAA Division II school in the Chicago suburb of Romeoville, Ill. Straight from the chute a year ago, Vavrek hurled 14 consecutive scoreless innings for Portland (Ore.) of the short-season Northwest League, which earned him a promotion to Asheville (N.C.) of the South Atlantic League. There, Vavrek continued to cause hitters acute discomfort, as his 5-4 record with a 2.00 earned run average attests.
Another promotion before the current season began, another league (Carolina) and he's still getting it done. To date, Vavrek has gone 4-0 with a 2.12 ERA, holding batters to 29 hits and eight earned runs in 34 innings.
Just one more day-in, day-out testament to the fact that you still can go places in pro baseball without a bomb of a fastball.
``Ask any hitter,'' said Vavrek, who was a pretty good one himself in college. ``They'll tell you that if you're throwing 95 mph but are still throwing it down the middle of the plate, it's going to get hit.''
Obviously, there is more to pitching than that.
``My mentality ever since I came into pro ball is to throw strikes, hit spots and change speeds,'' said the 22-year-old.
Sounds like the mantra of some major-league pitchers of note. Speaking of which, Vavrek's mound model is obvious.
``Greg Maddux,'' Vavrek said, referring to the Atlanta Braves' four-time Cy Young Award winner. ``Every time he pitches, I want to see it. Every time there's an article about him, I want to read it. Now that guy is a pitcher.''
Vavrek's getting there.
``In the short period that we've had him, the first thing you think about Vavrek is: No.1, he wants to pitch; No.2, he throws it over the plate; and No.3, he is very aggressive,'' Balderson said.
Which is pretty much the same stuff Lewis coach Irish O'Reilly saw when Vavrek was helping pitch his team to a third-place finish in the NCAA Division II World Series.
``A very competitive kid, very fiery,'' O'Reilly said. ``The Rockies have a good one there.''
As a sophomore, Vavrek went 8-1 with a 3.36 ERA. The next year, which turned out to be his last as a collegian, he went 6-5 with a 3.32 ERA despite 98 strikeouts in 78 innings.
``An off year for him,'' O'Reilly said. ``But we didn't give him any run support.''
That brings up another of Vavrek's talents: He knows how to do more with less.
``The last two times out, Mike hasn't had his good stuff,'' said Billy Champion, the Avalanche's pitching coach. ``He hasn't thrown well at all - his fastball up, his breaking ball up - but he's such a competitor that he's found a way to win anyway. It's nice for a pitching coach to be able to say that one of his pitchers has won when he doesn't have his good stuff.
``When we had Jamey Wright last year, we said that about him a lot, too.''
Vavrek said there is no secret to pitching when you're not at your best.
``You have to concentrate on every single pitch, whether you have good stuff or bad,'' he said. ``Sometimes that's hard for me, especially when I have my good stuff. Then I think I can just throw my fastball by them or just throw them a hard breaking ball. That's when you get into trouble.''
Vavrek was on a state championship baseball team at Driscoll Catholic High School in Glendale Heights, Ill., in 1992, the same year he was All-State in basketball. He also played golf.
Which brings up an interesting point. Although he throws and bats left-handed, he golfs right-handed.
``It's screwed up; don't ask me,'' he said. ``When I was learning how to play golf, my father and uncle made me learn right-handed so they wouldn't have to buy me a new set of left-handed clubs. I wanted to play left-handed, but they wouldn't let me.''
Fortunately for the Rockies, the elder Vavrek's zeal did not carry over to the throwing of baseballs.
LENGTH: Long : 101 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY/Staff. Mike Vavrek, a left-handed pitcher forby CNBSalem, throws during a game versus Frederick at Salem Memorial
Stadium in April.