That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary

PHOENIX–Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Brian Wilson will not be the Dodgers closer this season he’s coming off that surgery from last season and is now working with throwing the knuckle ball. Wilson won’t be pitching in the ninth he’s not that power guy he was when he was with the Giants when they won that first World Series in 2010.

Wilson is still a good pitcher he throws strikes, he’s a character, the fans love him in L.A. with his beard and haircut. He’s working with a change up and the knuckle ball and Wilson is reinventing himself and he’s coming out with a new pitch where he can develop a change up he could be a very useful pitcher for the Dodgers.

The Dodgers are loaded the oddsmakers are picking the Dodgers to make the World Series this season forget the division and the league championship. They do have a great team and their free of injuries and their bullpen is a great bullpen and for Wilson the plan is for him to pitch in the eighth inning.

Maybe he would spend sometime in the seventh depending on the game situaton but he’s not a power pitcher or the workhorse that he was when he was with the Giants, he’s not a closer. He might close a game here and there but not like he did when he was in San Francisco.

It’s always good to develop and reinvent yourself especially for a reliever because most relievers have one or two pitches and I always refer to the greatest relief pitcher of all time which is former Yankee closer Mariano Rivera. Rivera retired last year and has more than one World Series ring.

Rivera has over 600 saves he cornered the fast ball and stayed with it for his career but that is a freak of nature, that doesn’t happen to relief pitchers forever, and they talk about the Giants Tim Lincecum being the Freak, how about Rivera, he’s a real freak. He was in baseball for 20 years and had one pitch and he was in over 600 games.

Besides Rivera most relievers try to be a closer and have at least two or three pitches, a change up, a slider, but Rivera was the exception. Wilson has the change up and now he’s adding a knuckle ball to his repertoire. He wants to prolong his career and he wants to help himself.

Former Giant pitcher Guillmerio Mota retired this week: Mota did well during his career, he had 14 years in the big leagues. That sounds like a very nice pension and good for him. That’s important, it’s tough to retire in baseball. With all respects to the NBA, the NFL, and the NHL, there are contracts in baseball this is a fact that guys have signed for $200 million.

The Seattle Mariners Robinson Cano signed for $240 million, no quarterback in football, no one in basketball or hockey has signed for that much yet. Baseball pays the largest salaries and that’s my point a lot of these guys get the big bucks. Former Yankee Jorge Posada the catcher in the glory days and former Yankee manager Joe Torre who got the team to the World Series asked Posada if he was going to retire and Posada said “I don’t know I have to talk to my agent”

Posada admitted to me “if I played another two years I could have made another $20 million” I would do the same if I could have two more years and make $20 million why not. My point is this is what happens to baseball players the money now is so large in baseball. Players are thinking they can stay another season and make another $10 million.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for Oakland A’s baseball and does News and Commentary each week for Sportstalk radio