Friday, June 13, 2003 | 9:11 a.m.
Steve Colyer said he felt awful when he arrived at the mound in Denver two weeks ago. Not bad-burger awful, or feverish, but he hadn't thrown in a game in 16 days.
Unimpressed with any of his seven warmup tosses, he didn't know what to expect from a repertoire that consists of a fastball and a slider.
Then Colorado first baseman Todd Helton stepped to the plate.
"I'll tell you one thing, Todd Helton was a hard out," Colyer said. "I threw everything I could at that guy. I actually was making good pitches, too. I was not feeling comfortable throwing, but I was making great pitches.
"And he was just slapping them foul, like they were nothing. In my mind, I was thinking, 'This guy is pretty good.' "
Helton chipped a few more pitches foul, and then Colyer became the most stunned person inside Coors Field.
"I got him to fly out on a hanging slider, which was pretty amazing," Colyer said. "It just shows that you can make great pitches, and they'll foul them off. Throw a bad one, and they get out on it."
In the next inning, Colyer threw only six pitches, punching two Rockies out on grounders.
That outing serves as the highlight, so far, of Colyer's career in the major leagues. Though he has spent most of the season in Las Vegas as the 51s' closer, he actually broke camp with the Los Angeles Dodgers, making the team's opening-day roster to secure his $300,000 salary this season.
He had an uneventful outing in San Diego on April 3 -- 2 2/3 awe-filled innings in his debut in which he doesn't remember one pitch -- then was optioned back to Las Vegas the next day.
The Dodgers recalled him May 14, he finally got into that game in Denver on May 28 and then he was jetted back to Las Vegas the next day.
"I didn't get that much playing opportunity up there, so the main thing was to ask as many questions as I could to get a better idea of what's going to happen when I do get into games," Colyer said.
"When you're up there with guys who have that much experience and that much time in the big leagues, they kind of know what's going on. You pick their brains, and try to work on stuff you need to work on."
Daily, Colyer talked to a variety of Dodgers, but he culled the most information from middle reliever Paul Quantrill and closer Eric Gagne.
Like Colyer, Quantrill is an avid hunter. Quantrill has already arranged to host Colyer on a bear-hunting trip to Alaska in the offseason, then Colyer will have Quantrill come to his native Missouri for a deer expedition.
Colyer still lives in St. Peters, Mo., near where he was born and raised, and the specialized Missouri plates on his green Cadillac Escalade are adorned with a picture of a buck on the left third and read "BUCRAK."
In Gagne, Colyer discovered a mirror image of himself, and not just because he is a southpaw and Gagne is right-handed.
"I talked to a lot of guys," said Colyer, 24. "and, the thing is, me and Gagne are kind of on the same level of intensity. We're both power pitchers and we have the same mentality, of not wanting to get hit.
"It's a thing where you go out there and go all out, leave whatever you have on the field, all you have. That's all you can ask for."
Thing is, Gagne, with 24 saves, is the Dodgers' power closer. Converted from a starter before last season, he has collected 52 saves in 56 opportunities.
That was also when Colyer underwent a similar conversion, in Double-A Jacksonville. He saved 21 games, and he was third in the Pacific Coast League, with 15.
At first, he wondered how his arm would respond to pitching more frequently. He had favorable results from the start, and he relishes knowing he might pitch on any given day after arriving at the park.
"I love it," Colyer said. "The more I'm in the game, the better I feel."
He called Gagne the best closer in the game, so he knew he wasn't auditioning for that role with Los Angeles. Instead, he knew he needed to develop his arsenal by adding a changeup.
Once, Colyer had one of those. However, he has had success with the 51s by relying on only the smoke and slider. He has found no need to nit-pick or be fancy with Triple-A batters.
The long drought between his last appearance with Las Vegas and his first with Los Angeles, last month, did not give him confidence with the changeup.
In fact, he had forgotten how to throw one.
Colyer compared and contrasted changeup grips with four or five Dodgers pitchers before settling into a comfort zone with a four-seamer in which he spreads his fingers wider than he would on a typical four-seam fastball.
"Now I have to put it into a game," he said. "At the next level, it's the change of speeds that matters. Any hitter at any level will catch up to a fastball. When you go through a lineup, you have to show a hitter something different every time.
"If you throw a changeup first, put that in the back of his mind, then throw a slider for a strike and a fastball for a strike ... well, this guy's like, 'OK, he's got three pitches he can come at me with at any time.' As long as you can throw them for strikes."
Gagne, 27, also helped Colyer with the dissemination of scouting reports, that often they are not necessary. Let the other guy worry about what you have done and what you might do.
Against PCL batters, all Colyer wants to know from catcher Koyie Hill is if a guy is hot.
"That guy has to look at my scouting report," Colyer said. "I'm not going to look at his. Why should I care? The main thing is, don't give them much credit. Not just to one hitter, but every hitter I face."
"(Gagne) told me not to get beat on something I'm not supposed to throw him, make him beat my best stuff. That's what I've done here. The guy might be an inside-fastball hitter, but I'm going in, whether he takes me deep or I get him out."
Eventually, he might join a stellar set-up crew with the Dodgers or find himself closing for another team.
"As long as I do my job, I'll find somewhere," Colyer said. "As long as I'm in the big leagues, throwing and throwing well. That's all I'm worried about, helping a team and making sure we win."
archive
