MINOR LEAGUE NOTEBOOK / MIKE DiGIOVANNA : Linton Hoping His Third Time in Syracuse Will Be the Charm

There is no pain in Doug Linton’s arm, and that certainly has eased the pain of spending a third consecutive season at triple-A Syracuse, where the Toronto Blue Jays and the major leagues are just a hop, skip and a phone call away.

Three summers in one minor league town is enough to frustrate most players, and even Linton, the former Canyon High School and UC Irvine pitcher, concedes, “It would be nice to have a little change of scenery.�

But a change in performance and health has been enough to buoy the right-hander, who took a 7-6 record, 3.70 earned-run average and 76 strikeouts into the weekend.

“For the first time in two years I can say I’m at 100%,� said Linton, 27, who had shoulder surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff in August, 1987, and missed most of the 1988 season.

“It’s nice to pitch with strength again. Last year I had nothing on my fastball and spent the season trying to trick batters. Now I can reach back and challenge them. I feel no pain. I don’t even ice my arm after I pitch.�

Linton’s fastball, which dipped to 83 m.p.h. last season, is back in the 87- to 90-m.p.h. range. His slider and curve are sharp.

“I was flipping the ball up there and hoping to get guys out last year,� Linton said. “This year, my pitches have more bite.�

As a result, opposing batters haven’t been chomping on them as much. Linton, who went 10-12 with a 5.01 ERA last season, has lowered his ERA considerably and has thrown three complete games.

Linton, a 1983 Canyon graduate who played three seasons at Irvine, said his arm began to bounce back during winter league seasons in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.

He didn’t allow a runner past second base in his first 16 innings of spring training ball with the triple-A Chiefs and threw two scoreless innings as a Blue Jay against the Cincinnati Reds, including a strikeout of Barry Larkin.

“He’s no slouch,� Linton said. “I know the talent is there. It’s just a matter of getting the opportunity.�

When the Blue Jays broke camp, Linton accompanied the team to Montreal for a final preseason tuneup against the Expos, Canada’s version of the Freeway Series. He threw one scoreless inning, but that’s as close as Linton has come to the big leagues.

He is not on Toronto’s 40-man roster, and the first-place Blue Jays are not about to shake up one of baseball’s best starting rotations, which includes Jack Morris, Dave Stieb and Juan Guzman.

“My agent and I have asked for trades, but they’ve said no, so I guess they like me,� Linton said. “Toronto is stacked with pitchers, so there’s not much you can do. You just have to keep putting up good numbers, because you never know what can happen.�

Add Linton: A late-bloomer, Linton had mixed success in three seasons (1984-86) at Irvine, going 14-19 with a 5.85 ERA. Toronto drafted him in the 43rd round in 1986, but Linton elected to go to the Alaskan League with a new pitch, a slider, taught to him by Anteater Coach Mike Gerakos and pitching coach Rob Driesler.

After earning co-most valuable player honors in Alaska with former Cal State Fullerton pitcher Mike Harkey that summer, Linton’s stock rose sharply, and he signed for a $17,000 bonus the August before what would have been his senior year.

“There were some flashes of brilliance,� Gerakos said. “It was a matter of maturity and confidence. We went through some growing pains with him, but he moved on before we could enjoy the fruits.�

Linton said he was stunned when he heard Irvine had dropped its baseball program as part of budget cuts this spring.

“I couldn’t believe it,� he said. “There’s always ribbing around the clubhouse about where guys played in college, and we have a guy here named Ray Gianelli who went to New York Tech. I’d always say to him, ‘New York Tech? What kind of program is that?’ Now he’s all over me.�

Comeback trail: Harkey, The Sporting News’ National League Rookie Pitcher of the Year for the Chicago Cubs in 1990, is on rehabilitation assignment after missing most of the 1991 season because of a shoulder injury.

The former Titan standout, who was the fourth player chosen in the 1987 draft and reached the major leagues in his second professional season, had two starts at class-A Peoria, going 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA and 17 strikeouts in 12 innings.

But the 6-foot-5, 220-pound right-hander had trouble in his first start for the triple-A Iowa Cubs, allowing three earned runs in five innings against the Denver Zephyrs last Wednesday. He hit three batters, walked four, threw one wild pitch and allowed a homer.

“I was shaky until I got my triple-A butterflies out of the way,� Harkey quipped to the Des Moines Register. “I was trying to do too much early in the game. . . . It was a tough day and I learned a lot of things. It seems to be the same scenario each game. Like in Peoria, I got stronger as the game went along and was throwing my best when I left the game.�

Harkey, who went 12-6 with a 3.26 ERA for Chicago in 1990 but made only four starts last season, is scheduled to start for Iowa again tonight and will spend an indefinite period of time with the triple-A team.