MINOR LEAGUE REPORT : Trade Means Class A’s Treatment to Afenir

The Oakland A’s would get little argument calling themselves the best organization in baseball.

Three of the past four American League rookies of the year and 20 players that helped win the 1989 World Series came from the A’s player development system. (The fact they call it a player development system, instead of something such as minor league operations, says a lot.)

So Escondido’s Troy Afenir was quite pleased to be traded to the A’s from the Houston Astros’ organization just before the 1989 season.

And late Wednesday night, Afenir was called up to the big leagues to replace catcher Terry Steinbach, who was placed on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to July 3.

“(The trade) was the best thing that happened to me. Things are going a lot smoother and a lot more honest over here,” said Afenir, who spent the first part of this year as a catcher for the Tacoma Tigers, Oakland’s triple-A affiliate.

Afenir was not treated horribly by the Astros. He was called up to the big leagues from double-A at the end of the 1987 season and batted .300 (six for 20) in 10 games.

But Afenir says the two organizations don’t compare.

“The part that I like is that people are honest over here,” Afenir said of the A’s. “Sometimes you’re not going to want to hear what they say, but they’ll tell you. They’re very straightforward.

“To me, they’ve shown they care about you as a person. You’re not just a commodity.”

Afenir, who was on Oakland’s 40-man roster this spring, extended his praise to A’s Manager Tony LaRussa.

“He had a handle on everything,” Afenir said. “The first day we got to camp, (LaRussa) got all the young guys together and told us, ‘The lockout is really going to hurt some of you guys. We have to go with the veterans.’

“Later in the day, he pulled me aside and said, ‘Af, you were one of the guys that really had a chance to make this club.’ ”

At least temporarily, Afenir has made it after helping Tacoma win the first half in the Pacific Coast League’s Northern Division while hitting .269 with 10 home runs and 34 RBIs in 57 games.

Over the final two months last year, Afenir hit .270 with nine homers and 32 RBIs for double-A Huntsville (Ala.). He spent the first two months in rehabilitation from surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff.

Afenir said he injured his throwing shoulder early in the 1988 season, but the Astros wanted him to play through the season at first base and outfield. Then, the day after the season, they sent him to get the shoulder examined, and surgery was performed.

Afenir said when he came to camp the following spring with a sore shoulder, the Astros seemed mystified and upset. They finally dealt him to the A’s on April 6, 1989, for another catcher, Matt Sinatro.

Afenir graduated from Escondido High in 1981 and Palomar College in 1983.

Oddly, it wasn’t until after he had been drafted three times that Afenir, 6-feet-4, 195 pounds, put together a tremendous season. That came during his sophomore year at Palomar, when he hit 13 homers and had 43 RBIs in 30 games. During one game against Mesa College, he hit three home runs before flying out to the warning track in his fourth at-bat.

Before he had even played a game at Palomar, the Cubs made him the No. 2 pick in the nation in the January, 1982, free-agent draft. He thought about signing, but a week before the season, he ripped tendons near his thumb when he stuck his hand through a window trying to break into his locked apartment.

Surgery followed, and he was out for most of his freshman year. That didn’t stop Baltimore from drafting him in June, but Afenir declined that offer, too. Seven months later, he was drafted by Houston.

Sam Horn, a former star at Morse High, was recalled by the Baltimore Orioles after hitting .414 with nine home runs and 26 RBIs in 17 games with triple-A Rochester.

Last week, Horn was named the International League’s player of the week for hitting .500 with four homers and 12 RBIs.

Lance Dickson, a graduate of Grossmont High who also played for Arizona, is off to a super start in his pro career with the Cubs organization in single-A Geneva (N.Y.). In his first 17 innings, Dickson struck out 29 and allowed just five hits while going 2-1 with a 0.53 earned-run average.

Beto Rodriguez, a first baseman from U.S. International, hit .371 (10 for 31) with 12 RBIs in his first 10 games as a pro at Johnson City (Tenn.), the Cardinals’ rookie league club.