by Michael Duca

SCOTTSDALE AZ–In the last year Arizona made accessing to Surprise more accessible I guess when you win the American League title (Kansas City Royals) your ball park gets treated better. For the Chicago Cubs it’s whole different kettle of wax out there that’s an absolutely gorgeous stadium. The place looks like Wrigley Field and I got to go out there once last year and I was really impressed and I loved the exposed iron work.

They made the gates baseball green, it’s a really lovely location, it’s a lovely stadium, they did have the brickwall not of ivy but of vines, I don’t remember what kind of vines they are, but they don’t grow very well in 175 degree heat when you get down here in August. You can water all you want but there’s a limit.

Giant relievers to the rescue: Hunter Strickland comes off that unforgettable World Series where he almost started a brawl after yelling at Royals baserunner catcher Salvador Perez who actually took steps towards the mound and was intercepted by the plate umpire. Strickland comes cheap and he throws hard and was a strike thrower in the minor leagues.

If he’s able to tuck his postseason mishap away smile about it everytime he looks down at his World Championship ring and forget about it otherwise, he’ll be just fine. That’s what you look for in a relief pitcher is the ability to forget about the bad outing. They all happen every single one of them has an outing like those he just had the misfortune of having his on the biggest stage.

Former A’s third baseman Eric Chavez joins the A’s broadcast booth: Winner of six Gold Gloves former A’s third baseman Eric Chavez will be joining the Oakland A’s broadcast booth. The media will certainly enjoy having Chavez around the pressbox where he can share some of his insight and expertise into the game.

We will have the opportunity to sit down and chat with him and he’ll talk about third base play and how it’s done. One thing that I pride myself as an official scorer that I get to go to some of the outstanding fielders and ask them to give me tips on how the position should be played. Things to look for so I can do a better job at judging players who might misplay a ball.

Former Giant J.T. Snow taught me a whole lot about foot work around the bag at first base and who better to learn about playing shortstop than from former Giant shortstop Omar Vizquel. I picked his brains for all I could. I will do the same with Chavey. This is a guy who played that position at the highest possible level for a better part of a decade.

Michael Duca is covering the Giants and A’s in spring training listen to his podcast below at http://www.sportsradioservice.com