Silvestre's numbers could make history

By ED HARBOUR
Valley Press Staff Writer

This season, left fielder Juan Silvestre could potentially do the unthinkable. Silvestre could finish 2000 leading the league in home runs, batting average and runs batted in, in what would be the third Triple Crown in the Cal League's 56-year history.

Heading into play this weekend, Silvestre leads the league with 109 RBI. He is second with 23 home runs, one behind leader Ryan Ludwick of Modesto. And Silvestre is eighth among active Cal Leaguers with a .320 batting average, 11 points behind leader Shane Hopper of Rancho Cucamonga.

"It's an amazing accomplishment for any player, at any level," Lancaster manager Mark Parent said of the Triple Crown. "I don't think that's Juan's focus though. He knows he has to work on other things and if that happens, it happens."

It may sound as if Parent, a man who's seen his share of baseball accomplishments, is trivializing Silvestre's legitimate run at a Triple Crown, but he's doing anything but that.

Parent, the rest of the coaching staff and Silvestre's teammates understand that for any player to reach any of baseball's mythic goals, whether in the major or minor leagues, requires great discipline for the individual.

For Silvestre, those season-long goals take a back seat to the ultimate goal.

"I want to play in the big leagues," Silvestre says matter-offactly. "If I get hot and win the Triple Crown, great. But before that, I want Seattle to see what kind of player I can be."

This season, he's not just showing Seattle, but everyone in baseball.

In the 90th game of the Cal League season - because of an injury, it was only Silvestre's 77th game - Silvestre drove in his 100th run of the year, making him the first player in organized baseball to achieve that plateau in 2000.

Now, Silvestre's name appears in almost every issue in the national publication, "Baseball America," as he's been tagged as a upand-coming player to watch.

But in his first three years of professional ball in the United States, it wasn't always that way for Silvestre.

"This is my fourth year in the United States and I felt that this is the year I have to produce," Silvestre said. "I go out every year to play well but now, in my fourth year, I feel that I have to produce for them to notice me.

"I try to do the best that I can every day so they can see what I've got. My dream is to be in the big leagues, so I work every day hard to show Seattle what I've got."

After spending 1995 and 1996 with the Mariner teams in the Dominican, Silvestre ran the gamut in the Seattle system, playing in Rookie-level Peoria, Ariz. and short-season Class-A Everett and in Class-AAA Tacoma.

Silvestre hit better than .300 at both Peoria (.341) and Everett (.315) and hit .250 in eight games with the Rainiers.

"That first year I never really got settled," Silvestre said. "Being in Wisconsin the next year, I kind of let it get to me."

Silvestre trudged through the 1998 year, hitting .250 with 15 homers and 56 RBI in 106 games.

His future with the Mariners looked cloudy after he was assigned to the Timber Rattlers for a second season in 1999.

But he responded by picking up his average 38 points from the previous year, slugging 21 homers and driving in a system-high 107 runs.

"I've seen Juan go out there every day for the past two years," said Lancaster third baseman Bo Robinson, who himself has benefited from hitting behind Silvestre with 102 RBI last year. "He's a great player that's worked hard to be where he's at."

Entering his fourth year, 2000, with the Mariners, Silvestre was determined to improve his offensive numbers and the glaring holes in his game, namely his lackluster defense and his strikeout numbers.

"Coming into this year," Parent said, "everyone told me what a liability Juan was going to be on defense and I just haven't seen that. I know he works hard on that part of the game, especially this past off-season.

Silvestre points to his work with the Dominican club Pollos this past winter with helping his defensive game.

"The last couple of years, everyone's talked about my defense and that I strike out too much," Silvestre said. "I'm working hard in the off-season in the Dominican so I can be better and get better at that."

As for the strikeouts, even though he has raised his average more than 30 points from 1999, Silvestre is actually striking out at a higher clip than last season's .92 strikeouts per game. He's at 1.04 this season.

"I think I'm making better contact this year but I still have bad days," Silvestre said. "But I know I'm getting better every day.

"The coaches here are great, they're helping me a lot with that. They know a lot about the game and all of the situations I need to know about."

Over the past month, Silvestre's average has dropped 10 points and with former teammate Willie Bloomquist leading the batting race by more than 40 points, a Triple Crown seemed out of the question.

But with another hot streak at the plate and Bloomquist's promotion to Tacoma, an inevitable run at the elusive crown could be in the making.

"(The Triple Crown) isn't something I've thought about," Silvestre said. "I don't want to think about. I've got too many other things to think about.

"Right now, at the plate, things aren't going like I want. I don't even want to think about the Triple Crown."

The stress of year-round play is beginning to take its toll on Silvestre's body and even he admits it's bleeding over into his play.

"It's the end of the season here, and I'm starting to get a little tired but I have to push through and just work harder," Silvestre said. "I have to be careful not to push too hard at the plate because it won't happen then. It's hard."

For now, the Triple Crown talk is on the back burner. The JetHawks are prepping for a playoff run and wrapping up their final Northern road swing of the year. But as the season winds down and his name remains near the top of those leaderboards, it'll be harder for him to avoid the talk.

Uploaded July 31, 2000