by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

The San Francisco Giants will be taking a look at leftfielder Nori Aoki in the leadoff spot as Angel Pagan moves down to the third spot in the line up as it stands now. Catcher Buster Posey looking forward to his usual clean up spot but the team is without Hunter Pence who can pile up the numbers offensively. Pence is expected back in six to eight weeks because of the broken left arm.

The Giants right now don’t have a lot of power outside of Pence and Posey and at first base no one knows who it’s really going to be as the Giants are looking at Travis Ishiskawa and Brandon Belt. After Pence broke the arm there is still talk some four days after Pence broke the arm that it’s a big blow for them.

It’s hopeful for Giants manager Bruce Bochy that Aoki can do the job in left and in the leadoff spot. Pence was very optimistic and he wants to return a little bit earlier but they all say that. That’s Pence talking they have to wait until his bones heal the fracture in the left forearm is not an easy thing for a ball player.

It’s going to take awhile for the Giants to see how this line up works out the first part of the season. When General Manager Brian Sabean acquired Aoki it’s very important that Aoki pays off with the bat and glove as they don’t have Pence in the first two months of the season. With Giants pitcher Madison Baumgarner pitchers like him throw so hard they have so much stuff and they always get injuries. Mad Bum is aiming to stay healthy and cash in again this season.

Oakland A’s camp in Mesa: The A’s have delegated without no competition Coco Crisp as the opening day outfielder if he stays healthy. Sam Fuld and Craig Gentry were competing for the left field spot but both have been told that the centerfield job is up for grabs as Crisp is expected to start there by opening night.

Last season Yoenis Cespedes who made his rounds in the American League after leaving Oakland for Boston and now with Detroit had a lock on left field as Crisp was starting in centerfield. Crisp is considered the better centerfielder than Cespedes at the time and now he’s looking at starting left. Cespedes at the time didn’t want anything to do with centerfield and insisted on playing exclusively left which was one of the reasons the A’s forced a trade for Cespedes to Boston

Crisp playing centerfield has a lot of ground to cover and the last few years if you check the numbers he hasn’t played more than 110-120 games. If they A’s are going to make any run this year they need a healthy Crisp and when he plays centerfield you have more opportunities to get hurt and cover more ground than in the corners in right and left so moving him to left that was a good decision by A’s manager Bob Melvin.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for the A’s and the Spanish TV voice for the Angels and does News and Commentary each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to his podcast below