by Michael Duca

OAKLAND–In Friday’s 1-0 shutout there were a lot of pitches that were spoiled that weren’t hit like 70 of them, seven-zero, a few of those pitches could have landed in the stands and could have been hit off the great pitching of Royals starter Jeremy Gutherie. A’s starter Sonny Grey pitched well enough to win but your never going to win a game if your team can’t score.

The A’s will miss Yoenis Cepedes because when he would run into a ball it would turn into instant runs, the truth is if you look at Cepedes’ numbers the best year he had was his rookie season his offensive production was on a steady decline since his first year, his on base percentage was below average this season, and that’s not a Billy Beane (A’s general manager) type player.

Beane wants guys who will work the count, take some pitches, and someone who can make the opposing bullpen work hard to try and get someone out, Beane’s idea of game success is not a 1-0 three hour loss. The A’s would like to win these games but that doesn’t always happen. The long at bat usually don’t go in the hitters favor it goes in the pitchers favor.

It seems to be more physcological than actual and Cepedes doesn’t seem like he can give you 150 games per year, the team is going to get some injuries and it’s questionable if he was producing (.256, 17 homers, 67 RBIs) in games rather than home run derbys at the level that people think he was and at the level the A’s were paying him.

SF Giants update: Regarding pitcher Matt Cain’s bone chip surgery is relatively benign if you remember correctly former Giants infielder Rich Aurilla was out after surgery for six week. Obviously each player reacts differently according to each surgery and this isn’t something you take in a cavilier fashion. All things being equal when your big horse is down which Cain is with the elbow the last thing you want to hear is surgery.

When you do hear the word surgery and you hear it’s bone chips you could recover from it, it’s not a one year rehab like Tommy John surgery is. Having bone chips is not going to cause permanent damage to the elbow. So if he guts out the pain and misses some of the season he will rest and come back in September and get him a roster spot and stretch him out a little.

Cain could get six or seven days spot starting him and have him available to a post season spot if the Giants make it that far. On the other hand what it should do everybody is looking at this thing saying “oh my God” the Giants opening day starter for a number of years has gone down with an elbow injury “oh dear oh dear whatever will we do.”

Cain is out but it’s not like he died he’s still a presence in the Giants clubhouse, he’s there he’s in the clubhouse he’s around the team, you can find him, but whatever he’s a non physical presence in the rotation. In terms of the rotation they only missed him for only one turn, he’s done a credible job in the one turn that he pitched and then they replaced him with Jake Peavy whose able as Cain and is a disciplined pitcher.

Michael Duca does commentary on the A’s and Giants each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com