SAN DIEGO MINOR LEAGUE NOTEBOOK : Anthony First to Get a Chance

To a minor league baseball player, there are few signs more encouraging than your parent club going to a youth movement.

Consider, then, the Houston Astros organization, which is redefining the phrase in the early 1990s.

With the Astros in fifth place in the National League West, a number of San Diegans could land major league jobs in the next few weeks.

One just did.

Outfielder Eric Anthony (Mt. Carmel High) was called up Tuesday after tearing up the Pacific Coast League pitchers for the Astros’ Triple-A affiliate in Tucson.

Pitchers Randy Hennis (Patrick Henry) and Dean Wilkins (Mira Mesa, Mesa College) also are having outstanding seasons for Tucson, which has won 14 of 15 games and is in first place in the PCL’s Southern Division.

Second baseman Mark McLemore (Morse), who started the season in Houston after hitting a team-high .488 in spring training, hit .357 in 14 at-bats for Tucson in a rehabilitation assignment because of a hamstring injury. Former Padre pitcher Calvin Schiraldi struck out 12 and retired 14 in a row in a Toro victory last week and has a 3-1 record with 39 strikeouts in 41 1/3 innings.

“We’re obviously interested in those guys,� said Astro pitching coach Bob Cluck, a San Diego native. “We’re a club in transition.�

General Manager Bill Wood spent time in Tucson last week to check on things and decided to recall Anthony, 23, who was the Astros’ 1990 opening-day right fielder.

Consistency was Anthony’s problem last year, but a recent 12-game hitting streak, .348 average, eight home runs, 17 doubles and 46 RBIs in 50 games are convincing numbers.

Anthony, who did not play varsity baseball in high school and wasn’t drafted until the 34th round in 1986, led all minor league players in home runs in 1988 (29) and 1989 (31, not counting four with Houston).

“He’s a great kid, and the boy can hit ‘em a mile,� Cluck said. “We need him. We need a little offense.�

Hennis, 25, the last player cut in spring training, is 4-0 with a 3.30 ERA and 40 strikeouts in 60 innings for Tucson.

Called up in September, Hennis went nine innings in three appearances for Houston before allowing his first major league hit. Ron Oester of Cincinnati doubled off him in the sixth inning to break up Hennis’ no-hit bid on the final day of the season.

“He was throwing great,� Cluck said. “(Umpire) Doug Harvey, another San Diegan, was behind the plate, and I told him to give (Hennis) a break. Turns out, he didn’t need any.�

Drafted out of high school by the New York Yankees, Hennis was one of only seven high school players drafted in the first four rounds in 1984 to forgo signing a contract. Instead, he went to UCLA and was later drafted by the Astros in the second round.

As a sophomore in high school, Hennis, 6-feet-6, was the starting center on the Patrick Henry basketball team that won the San Diego Section 3-A championship in 1982.

Wilkins, 24, was picked up in December from the Cubs, where he split time between Chicago and Triple-A Iowa for two seasons.

A right-handed reliever, Wilkins is 4-1 with nine saves, a 3.20 ERA and 31 strikeouts in 39 1/3 innings.

Earlier in his career, Wilkins set an Eastern League record with 26 saves in 1988 and was 9-0 in his rookie season (1986) in the Yankee organization.

McLemore, 26, who is trying to revive an injury-riddled career, spent parts of five seasons with the California Angels and played in eight games in September for the Cleveland Indians before being released in December.

More Astros, Class A: Wally Trice, 25, a former Mar Vista High and U.S. International pitcher, is 2-2 with 11 saves and a 1.57 ERA in his first season as a reliever at Class-A Burlington, Iowa. He also has 36 strikeouts and only six walks in 28 2/3 innings. Two years ago, Trice was 16-4 as a starter.

More Astros, Class AAA: San Diegan Bob Skinner is the Tucson manager, former Padre Brent Strom is the pitching coach and Crawford High alumnus Dave Engle is the hitting coach.

Skinner was the Padres’ manager in 1967 and 1968 when the club was a Triple-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies in the Pacific Coast League. He was also 1-0 with the major league Padres in 1977. Skinner’s son, Joel, who played at Mission Bay High, is a catcher for the Indians.

Strom came to the Astros after nine years as a coach with the Dodger organization.

Engle, the brother of Crawford High Coach Roger Engle and the brother-in-law of Boston outfielder Tom Brunansky, is in his first year of coaching after a nine-year major league playing career.

More Astros, A+: Houston’s San Diego area scout, Bob King, was a principal for nearly 10 years at Helix High and an associate superintendent of the Grossmont Union High School District for seven years before retiring in 1989.

No more Astro ribs: Cluck, a former pitcher at San Diego City College and San Diego State and the founder and part-owner of the San Diego School of Baseball, also owned an El Cajon restaurant, B.J. Bar-B-Que, for five years.

Cluck “sort-of helped� run the restaurant with his wife, Teri, and daughters, Jennifer and Amber, until he sold it two weeks ago.

“My wife said, ‘Get out of baseball or sell it,’ � Cluck said.