Pain-Free Silva Fares Well for Blue Jays

The pain is gone, Jose Silva says. As mysteriously as it first appeared 1 1/2 years ago and lingered through last summer, it is no longer.

Silva, a right-handed pitcher in the Toronto Blue Jays’ organization, first noticed the sharp twinge in his right forearm on April 3, 1991, while pitching for Hilltop High School.

He didn’t know what was causing it, and he wouldn’t precisely for many more months. He only knew that it was there, and that it was keeping him from delivering his 90-plus m.p.h. fastball and hard-breaking curveball.

But those days are apparently over. For the Blue Jays’ entry in the Gulf Coast Rookie League at Dunedin, Fla., Silva (2-4) has posted a 2.55 earned-run average in nine starts this season and has 57 strikeouts and 16 walks in 42 1/3 innings.

“He’s doing fine,” said Daren Engelmier, the club’s general manager. “He just needs to work on keeping the ball down. Otherwise, he’s doing real well. We have him on a pitch count (of 70), but his arm is holding up nicely.”

Said Silva’s father, Jose Sr., who visited his son last month: “They’re really taking care of him. They’re really watching his innings, and he’s getting excellent care. I’m glad he went with the Blue Jays. They really have high hopes for him.”

As a junior at Hilltop in 1990, Silva had gone 9-4 with a 1.10 ERA and a county-leading 118 strikeouts. He began his senior year similarly, going 3-1 with a 1.13 ERA and 56 strikeouts in 31 innings before pulling himself out of a game on April 3 because of the pain in his forearm.

It wasn’t just any game--Silva was pitching against his longtime friend, Benji Gil of Castle Park, that day and had nine strikeouts in the first three innings, including fanning Gil twice, before removing himself two pitches into the fourth inning.

“It’s too bad he got hurt,” Castle Park Coach Bob Korzep said at the time. “The way he was throwing, he could have had 21 strikeouts.”

As it was, Silva wouldn’t record another strikeout for another 12 months.

Touted as a possible first-round pick before the injury, Toronto selected Silva in the sixth round of the 1991 draft and sent him to their rookie-league complex at Dunedin for rehabilitation.

The problem was, they weren’t quite sure for what.

One doctor in San Diego had told him the injury was a muscle strain in his forearm, but others had diagnosed everything from ligament damage to bone spurs.

It wasn’t until Silva tried to pitch again last August that he really found out what was wrong with him.

Feeling stronger, the Blue Jays had Silva throw in a game but told him to be cautious. He only threw a couple of pitches. That was it. The next day they sent him to see Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala.

Andrews, Bo Jackson’s physician, concurred that Silva’s injury was indeed musculatory, so he prescribed a series of exercises for Silva to help strengthen the muscle. That seemed to do the trick. As Silva progressed with the exercises, he soon began throwing again, free of pain.

“I think he’s back to normal now,” said Jose Sr., adding: “He does those exercises all the time. You should see him now. He’s got one Popeye arm and one Wimpy.”

No longer wimpy: In high school, Silva was 6-feet-5, 180 pounds. He’s now 6-7, 200, and he won’t turn 19 until December.

Make a wish: Celebrating his 22nd birthday on Aug. 4, Brent Hansen picked up his first professional victory, complete game and shutout.

A UC San Diego and San Dieguito High product now pitching for the Boston Red Sox’ Class A team in Elmira, N.Y., Hansen threw a five-hit shutout on his birthday and had nine strikeouts and no walks in a 4-0 victory over Jamestown.

Hansen was 10-0 with a 1.98 ERA for UCSD this spring.

Perfect pros: In their first season of professional baseball, pitchers Scott Karl and Jeff Matranga have yet to be beaten this summer.

Karl, a 1988 graduate of Carlsbad who went on to become an All-American at Hawaii, is 5-0 with a 1.77 ERA after seven starts and 45 2/3 innings at Helena (Mont.), a rookie-level team in the Milwaukee Brewers’ organization.

Matranga, a Santana High graduate who later pitched for U.S. International and Arizona State, is 3-0 with a 3.91 ERA in 25 1/3 innings for the St. Louis Cardinals’ rookie team in Johnson City, Tenn. A reliever for all but one game, Matranga also has one save, 33 strikeouts and eight walks.

Both Karl and Matranga finished their high school careers in championship games. Matranga, despite being cut as a sophomore and a junior, yielded only one unearned run but lost to Helix, 1-0, in the 1988 3-A final. Karl, rebounding from a broken leg that kept him off the mound for a good portion of the year, went one for four in Carlsbad’s 7-4 victory over Grossmont in the ’89 2-A final. Karl had pitched a three-hit shutout over Crawford in the semifinals.

K-men: A month ago, Rigo Beltran (Point Loma High/St. Petersburg Cardinals) became the first minor-league player to reach 100 strikeouts this season, and two weeks ago, Sean Rees (Mission Bay High/Peninsula Pilots) also reached the milestone.

On Monday, Steve Phoenix became the third area pitcher to top 100 and three others--Gino Minutelli, Steve Loaiza and Mike Bovee--are closing in.

Phoenix, a Valhalla High and Grossmont College product now pitching for the Oakland Athletics’ double-A team at Huntsville, Ala., struck out four in a 9-5 victory over Knoxville on Monday, giving him 103 strikeouts in 140 innings. Phoenix has also only walked 31 batters--he’s hit seven--and has a 9-5 record and a 2.96 ERA.

Minutelli, a 1982 graduate of Sweetwater who also played at Southwestern College, has 96 strikeouts in 134 innings for the Nashville Sounds, a triple-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds.

Loaiza, also from Sweetwater, is at 94 strikeouts after 107 1/3 innings for the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Class-A team in Augusta, Ga. Loaiza is 7-7 with a 4.86 ERA.

Bovee, a 1991 sixth-round draft pick by the Kansas City Royals out of Mira Mesa High, has 90 strikeouts (36 walks), an 8-8 mark and 3.47 ERA for the Appleton (Wis.) Foxes, the Royals’ single-A team in the Midwest League.