MINOR LEAGUES / GARY KLEIN : Seefried Can Swing With Best of Them

Tate Seefried entered this season hoping to avoid the slow start that turned a potential great year into only a very good one in 1992.

Seefried, who was drafted by the New York Yankees in 1990 after a standout senior season at El Segundo High, batted .242 with 20 homers and 90 runs batted in last season for Greensboro (N.C.) in the Class-A South Atlantic League.

This season, he broke spring training with Prince William (Va.) of the Class-A Carolina League, had a strong start and now is within striking distance of the club’s home run record.

With 34 games remaining, Seefried, 21, was batting .280 with a league-leading 19 home runs and 71 RBIs. Hensley Muelens holds the Prince William home run record with 28 in 1987.

“Everything has gone pretty much as well as planned,” said Seefried, a left-handed hitting first baseman who was The Times’ South Bay player of the year in 1990. “Lately, I hit kind of a small skid, but I haven’t had any long slumps.”

A few weeks ago, Seefried hit two home runs in the Carolina League All-Star game. Baseball America magazine recently named him the top power-hitting prospect in the Carolina League.

“I don’t worry too much about hitting home runs,” Seefried said. “I just want to keep hitting the ball hard. If it goes out, it goes out.”

The 6-foot-4, 205-pound Seefried, is making a steady climb through the Yankee organization. He played in the Gulf Coast Rookie League in 1990, at Oneonta (N.Y.) of the Class-A New York-Penn League in 1991 and in the South Atlantic League in 1992.

Seefried hopes his play this season will earn him an invitation to the Instructional League and a winter league.

“For me, the best thing would be to get an invitation to big league camp next spring and then go to double A,” Seefried said. “I just need to keep doing the things I’ve been doing this year.”

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Former Loyola Marymount basketball standout Terrell Lowery took a break from professional baseball last season to concentrate on his NBA aspirations.

After he failed to land a job in the NBA, Lowery returned to the Texas Ranger organization this season. He batted .300 with three homers and 36 RBIs for Port Charlotte of the Class-A Florida State League and was promoted to Tulsa (Okla.) of the double-A Texas League June 19.

Lowery, an outfielder, is batting .243 with three homers, four doubles and 11 RBIs in 38 games and is regarded as one of the organization’s top major league prospects.

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Although shortstop Royce Clayton is having an outstanding season for the San Francisco Giants, his older brother, Royal, is having a good season on the mound for Columbus (Ohio), the Yankees’ affiliate in the triple-A International League.

Royal Clayton, a 6-2, 210 pound right-hander, is 6-4 with a 3.49 earned-run average. He has appeared in 37 games and has eight saves in 90 1/3 innings.