by Michael Duca

If you talk to San Frnacisco Giants TV analyst Mike Krukow about the Giants offense he wouldn’t complain about it but his broadcast partner Duane Kuiper complained about the offense about guys who need to do some timely situational hitting which is a real issue for the Giants. Krukow started a little bit of a firestorm on Friday night when he said during the telecast that Giants catcher Hector Sanchez is not a Major League quality catcher and there will be repercussions coming down for that remark.

Krukow may actually be correct and it’s a serious issue for the Giants, the club needs a second catcher for those two days a week when they want to get Buster Posey out of the line up for a rest. Back up catchers are not considered to be offensive personalities but you really want them to defend. The pass ball that wound up costing Giants starter on Friday Matt Cain his first run on Friday night was just an utterly sloppy effort by Sanchez.

There was no two ways about it, its the same guy who won a game for them earlier on the homestand with a 12th inning single gave that game back in the standings on Friday night. The Giants faced a decent pitcher in Padres starter Tyson Ross who pitched four innings surrendered eight hits and no runs. Ross always had great potential he was a great pitcher at Cal and was a solid pitcher in San Francisco but he just never found a spot to break into on the Giants rotation.

Ross was pitching well in San Francisco and it looked like he got a spot to slide into in the rotation when he injured himself on the first batter and went out for three weeks and when he got back he never got that opportunity back. He’s always had the potential He’s a big tall pitcher and had trouble harnessing the mechanics, had trouble harnessing the leverage of his body and it could take him longer to mature to quote “get it” and now it looks like Tyson got it.

Oakland A’s update: When you get four walks from the opposing pitcher in the opening inning which happened when the A’s faced Houston Astros starter Jason Cosart in the opening game of this series Friday who pitched one third of an inning and surrendered seven runs and three hits and they managed to get four walks from Cosart and the A’s managed to match all of them with home runs this is an opportunistic offense who makes the job of the pitcher much easier. Go ask A’s pitcher Sonny Grey how easy it was for him to throw the last five innings with a seven or eight run lead.

We saw this on the last homestand in San Francisco when Tim Hudson was throwing 62 percent strikes to start a game and when they expanded the lead for him from 2-1 to 5-1 he started suddenly throwing 75 percent strikes he went out and started challenging the strike zone and saying “I hit it I got seven guys behind me a and one in front of me who will catch it.”

That’s what pitchers have to do, that’s what pitchers don’t seem to be able to do with the lead until they become very mature is to understand you don’t need to pitch for strikeouts and stats anymore with a four or five run lead and you pitch to make them contact the ball and make them hit the ball at people.

It was Josh Donaldson bobblehead day at the Coliseum on Saturday and you have to admit that his head is the only thing that bobbles. Donaldson has a .247 average, three home runs and ten RBIs and he owns the tarp, nobody defends as well as he does in the Coliseum. He scuffled a little bit to begin the season. He was struggling at the plate. It’s happens guys who are on fire in Arizona and all of sudden cool off and then it’s vice versa guys who couldn’t buy a base hit to save their life in the desert come up to the regular season and start hitting, it’s always interesting to watch.

Michael Duca does commentary on Giants and A’s weekly for Sportstalk radio