BASEBALL : No-Hitter Against Bakersfield Gives Ailing Martinez a Healthy Outlook

Fili Martinez felt sick about the whole thing.

On May 22, three days before his family was going to see him pitch professionally for the first time, Martinez woke up and discovered that he had lost his voice. Two days later, he could barely whisper and had a head cold.

Nevertheless, with 20 family members in attendance, Martinez took the mound last Saturday for Palm Springs, the Angels’ Class-A affiliate in the California League.

Nine innings later, he walked off the field with a no-hitter and a 3-0 victory over Bakersfield.

“I didn’t have my good stuff. I threw just one curve the whole game and went strictly with fastballs and changeups,” said Martinez, a left-hander who was the Angels’ ninth-round draft pick out of Cal State Northridge in 1988. “I just told myself, ‘Take it easy and get hitters out with as few pitches as possible. Just work slow and deliberate.’ I guess it worked.”

Martinez joined Palm Springs three weeks ago. He missed the first month of the season because of elbow and shoulder problems that kept him in extended spring training in Mesa, Ariz.

Last season, Martinez was 12-7 with a 2.57 earned-run average for Quad City in the Class-A Midwest League. He led the league with 195 strikeouts in 171 innings.

Martinez had pitched eight scoreless innings in two appearances before the no-hitter.

“In about the fourth inning (against Bakersfield), I was thinking, ‘Wouldn’t it be something to get to the seventh or eighth inning with a no-hitter, just to see what it feels like?’ ” Martinez said.

Martinez retired the side on three pitches in the eighth. He got the first two outs of the ninth on a fly ball to left and a ground ball to third. Martinez walked the next batter before getting the final out on a fly ball to right.

“It was a great feeling, especially since it happened in front of my relatives,” said Martinez, who hopes to move up soon to double-A Midland in the Texas League. “That’s the kind of thing that can make you feel healthy pretty quick.”

Rough draft: Following in the footsteps of former Valley-area high school players Roger Salkeld and Mike Lieberthal, Rio Mesa’s Dmitri Young is expected to be a first-round choice in Monday’s baseball draft.

At one time, Young was considered a likely No. 1 pick in the entire draft, with the New York Yankees first in the pecking order. Now, however, that distinction apparently goes to Brien Taylor, a left-handed pitcher from North Carolina who could become the first high school pitcher taken with the top pick since the Texas Rangers selected David Clyde in 1973.

Other Valley-area high school players who could be drafted early include Burroughs pitcher Mike Rossiter, who had 103 strikeouts in 60 2/3 innings, and Channel Islands outfielder Jacob Cruz, who batted .443.

Back on track: After missing 18 games because of a dislocated shoulder incurred in a home plate collision, Kevin Farlow returned to the lineup this week for the Waterloo Diamonds, the San Diego Padres’ affiliate in the Class-A Midwest League.

Farlow, a 6-foot-4, 175-pound shortstop from Granada Hills, is playing his first full season and adjusting to life in Waterloo, Iowa.

“It’s a shocker,” Farlow said of the small-town atmosphere and April temperatures. “At the start of the season, we were playing in 30-degree weather. Now, it’s humid. You come out of your room and you’re sweating.”

Farlow, 22, no longer frets or sweats about his future.

At Kennedy High, he was burdened with trying to live up to the success he enjoyed as a sophomore when he hit a game-winning home run in the Golden Cougars’ 10-9 victory over Banning in the 1985 City Section 4-A Division championship game at Dodger Stadium. Farlow began his collegiate career at USC but struggled for three seasons. He transferred to Cal State Fullerton for his senior year and helped the Titans gain a berth in the College World Series last season.

The Padres drafted him in the 15th round and he went on to bat .243 with three homers and 31 runs batted in in 68 games for Spokane in the Class-A Northwest League.

“One of the most important things to deal with (in professional baseball) is overcoming adversity,” Farlow said. “There’s a lot of guys who have never faced that much failure. I have experienced it and know how to deal with it.”

Postgraduate work: Sam Vranjes earned a degree in marketing from USC last year, but his education as a catcher is just beginning.

Vranjes, a Glendale native who played at St. Francis High and USC, signed as a free agent with the Seattle Mariners before the season and is playing for Class-A San Bernardino in the California League.

At USC, almost every pitch was called from the dugout. In the minors, Vranjes is charged with making the call.

“It was kind of strange at first, not having to peek over to the dugout after every pitch,” said Vranjes, who is batting .164. “I’m expected to call the right pitch for the right situation. I’m learning a lot. It definitely keeps your head in the game.”

Recommended reading: With baseball season in full swing and the summer about to begin, you might be looking for some reading material for the beach, pool or between innings of a ballgame.

If you’re not in the market, you should be. There are several outstanding new baseball-theme books and, of course, some classics. Since the focus here is the minor leagues, we’ll be offering a weekly scouting report on the best in baseball prose.

Leading off, David Lamb’s “Stolen Season” ($20, Random House).

Lamb is a veteran foreign correspondent. He spent eight years covering Africa and the Middle East for The Times and has written insightful books about both regions. He has been a Pulitzer Prize nominee several times and, after reading this account of his 16,000-mile journey through the minor leagues, the reader knows why.

Last year, Lamb bought a used mobile home and traversed the United States. Minor league baseball--the players, towns and peripheral characters--is the vehicle that drives what is part travelogue and part autobiography for Lamb, whose first journalism job was as a 15-year-old sports columnist for the Milwaukee Journal.

As he takes you to El Paso, Tex.; Pulaski, Va.; Peoria, Ill.; Helena, Mont., and points in between, Lamb meets up with several of his former heroes from the Milwaukee Braves, including Warren Spahn and Eddie Mathews. The encounters are one of this book’s many highlights.

If you’re going to read only one book this season, this should be it.