San Diego’s Best? Scouts Are Drawn to a Pair of Aces : Baseball: Benji Gil of Castle Park and Jose Silva of Hilltop might be the best in a county deep in high school talent.

2001: A Baseball Odyssey.

Major league baseball has witnessed its first million-dollar-a-month midseason free agent signing. Charles O. Finley has invented an orange hybrid grass that grows indoors as well as out and eliminates the plastic stuff. The Seattle Mariners feel they have enough depth to repeat as World Series champions. And Commissioner Steinbrenner has given his OK for Bo Jackson to attempt a comeback with a bionic hip.

On a quiet night in a Tijuana disco--down the street from Matador Stadium, which the expansion Mats call home--two amigos are arguing over who is the best pitcher in the bigs . . . Benji Gil or Jose Silva.

“I saw Benji pitch when he was a puppy, and he was always better,” one says to the other.

“Yeah? Well Jose’s won back-to-back Valenzuela Trophies. Nobody’s ever done that,” the other quips. . . .

Fantasies can be fun. But before we get too carried away, let’s simply say Gil and Silva are two of the best high school pitchers in San Diego County. And in 1991, that’s saying enough.

This year’s crop of senior pitchers has college and professional scouts drooling. They’re saying it could be the best bunch San Diego has produced in 10 years, maybe ever. And the most promising are Silva and Gil.

Silva of Hilltop High and Gil of Castle Park High have been rated by one national publication--Baseball America--as the Nos. 4 and 5 professional prospects in the nation, though Gil, a good hitter, might be valued more as an infielder than as a pitcher.

They don’t come as a pair--although it seems that way at times. One is rarely mentioned without the other, and the two have been friends since childhood.

Both were born in Tijuana but have lived in San Diego’s South Bay since they were a few months old.

After Gil was born, his mother moved to Chula Vista while his father chose to stay in Tijuana. Gil and his two older brothers and older sister went with their mother. The Silvas--Jose has two sisters--had lived in San Diego for a number of years when Jose was born, but Jose’s mother, who didn’t speak English, wanted her doctor in Mexico to deliver the baby.

Silva (6-feet-5) and Gil (6-2) are lean right-handers with impressive fastballs that have been clocked in the high 80s and breaking pitches that have made them seem unhittable.

Gil led the county last year with a 0.52 earned run average, and Silva was second in strikeouts with 116. Silva was 9-4 with a 1.24 ERA, Gil was 6-3 with 89 strikeouts.

This year, Silva is 2-1 with a 0.75 ERA and 46 strikeouts in 28 innings. Gil is 1-2 with a 2.10 ERA and 23 strikeouts in 20 innings. Gil is also hitting .545 (12 for 22) with eight runs batted in.

Both grew up dreaming of becoming major league baseball players, but each values education and might put off signing professionally until after college.

Silva, after receiving offers from nearly every university with a top-25 baseball program,signed a national letter of intent in November with San Diego State. Gil is getting similar offers, and he said he has narrowed his choices to Miami, Texas, Texas A&M; and SDSU.

Barring injuries, both are certain to be high selections in the June amateur draft. If the money is right, they’ll sign. If not, then it’s off to college.

“I wouldn’t mind (Gil) going to San Diego State,” Silva said. “That would be fun.”

Gil, who turned 18 in October, is 11 months older than Silva. Neither can recall whether they met at Twin Hills Little League in Paradise Hills or Tijuana’s municipal park near the Otay Mesa border.

They played at both sites. In fact, they played wherever and whenever they could.

“That’s why these kids are better. They played all the time,” Silva’s father, Jose Sr., said.

It didn’t matter the time of year, Gil and Silva were always playing ball. A couple of times, they were on the same team, but more often, they played against each other.

On occasion, after the standard Saturday doubleheader in Mexico, the Silvas and Gils would visit Gil’s father, Benjamin Sr., and stay the weekend.

Said Gil of his parents’ relationship, “I would call it a regular marriage (with exceptions). My father preferred to live and work in Mexico, and my mother wanted us to go school in America. I lived with my mother during the week, and we all visited my father on the weekends.”

Shortly after Gil had become a freshman sensation at Sweetwater High, Gil’s mother died. She had been diagnosed as having cancer a few months after Gil was born, but Gil said she lived a normal, active life until two months before her death.

“I always knew she had cancer, but I didn’t know what it was until I was about seven or eight,” Gil said. “It wasn’t until I was 13 or 14 that I knew how serious it was.”

Gil said he had always been motivated by his mother, and that remains the case today.

“For her, I want to succeed,” he said. “She believed in me and always said I could be the best.”

Said Silva, “His mom always wanted him to be a pro baseball player.”

After his mother’s death, Gil moved in with his brother and enrolled at Castle Park his sophomore year. He now lives with the Sosa family--cousin Jackie Sosa was a senior last year at Castle Park and is now playing at Southwestern College.

Two other cousins--Jimmy and Gerry Barrigan--played at Sweetwater and went on to play minor league baseball.

Gil, a Mexican citizen, said he thought about living with his father, but noted that opportunity doesn’t often come knocking for Tijuana ballplayers.

“With God’s help, everything has gone pretty well,” Gil said. “I can’t look back and complain. For me, being from Tijuana, and being able to come here and play here, has been a blessing.

“There’s a lot of talent there. But mostly they are never discovered, and they get discouraged or lose interest. In Mexico, occasionally a scout will go out and take a look, but you don’t see too many.”

“I try telling (the scouts), there’s a lot of talent in Tijuana,” said Silva’s father, who managed a number of Jose’s teams in the Mexican leagues. “A couple of them will go down for a game or two, but that’s it.”

Said Silva, “There’s more competition down there. They’ve got better players.”

Here in America, Gil and Silva see plenty of scouts.

Last Friday, in a Metro Conference game at Hilltop, a dozen or more scouts were on hand to witness Silva throw a three-hit, 12-strikeout 2-0 shutout against Sweetwater.

Silva said he is aware of the scouts and is mindful of the upcoming draft, but he doesn’t feel any added pressure.

“People are always asking me, ‘What are you going to do Jose?’ I say, ‘I don’t know. I’ll answer that when the time comes.’ I don’t feel there’s any pressure. Pressure is bases loaded with nobody out.”

Although Silva is being scouted solely as a pitcher, Gil’s overall athletic ability makes viable as either a pitcher or position player.

“Most schools are recruiting me for third base or shortstop,” Gil said. “Though some have asked if I would pitch in relief in an emergency situation. If I go to college, I’ll probably play both. If I play professionally, I’ll play wherever they want me.”

Most seem to think Gil prefers playing every day as opposed to pitching.

Castle Park Coach Bob Korzep said Gil recently informed him that he doesn’t want to pitch as often. He wants to work on his fielding and concentrate on hitting.

Said one Metro Conference coach, “He’d better stay on the mound because he’s not that great a shortstop. He’d be doing us a big favor if he stays off the mound.”

Said Korzep, “(Gil has) got great athletic ability. The scouts are excited by the fact he can do so many things, and maybe he’s trying to do too much.

“He’s got a great body. He doesn’t have the kind of body that will go soft any time soon. He’s got potential to get even better. A lot of scouts have said he reminds them of Robin Yount when he was in high school.”

Gil demonstrated his athletic versatility earlier this year when he averaged 20 points per game for the Trojans’ basketball team before he pulled a muscle in his back after 12 games. He hadn’t played basketball in more than a year.

“There are very few kids that have a combination of talent like he does,” Korzep said.

Silva is one of them. Silva always considered himself a catcher first. It wasn’t until his sophomore year that he switched his allegiance to the mound.

Normally a good hitter, Silva began swinging like a pitcher, too, his sophomore year.

But he worked hard this past winter to improve his stroke. Batting fifth for the Lancers, he’s hitting .263 and won a game earlier this year with a three-run homer in the seventh inning.

“I wanted to be able to help on offense as well as pitching,” Silva said.

“Before he was one of the best hitters around,” Gil said. “I guess he just got away from it for a couple of years. But he’s worked hard in the cages. I know he’s worked hard. I think he wanted to prove he could still hit.”

Is there a rivalry between the two?

“We kid each other a lot,” Gil said.

Said Silva, laughing, “It’s like, OK, let’s see who does better this week. It’s a fun, competitive thing.”