by Michael Duca

SCOTTSDALE AZ–The back pains of San Francisco Giants centerfielder Angel Pagan is a big bump in the road and definitely something to be concerned about. Pagan who had off season back surgery and has missed three pre season games this week said that he never felt better coming off the surgery but now the back problems have returned.

Back injuries do not heal that well and the only way you could find out if it healed well is to go out and try it out. If it’s not healed you make worse. It’s not good news for the Giants no matter how you slice it. Even without Hunter Pence whose out six to eight weeks. Also not having Pagan the Giants will have to go out and find another outfielder.

They will have to scrounge up an outfielder from somewhere that is released by another team their going to have to do something to replace Pence and Pagan. Pagan missed over the course of two seasons 157 games this is not good in anyway shape or form and the Giants have tried to rehab Pagan and you want this process to be smooth and uninterrupted and this is a pretty big occurrence with this injury Pagan at this juncture of the pre season.

Oakland A’s update: MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has been visiting several clubhouses and meeting with the players of each team and their union representatives to get a analysis on any concerns. Manfred visited the A’s clubhouse and asked the players about their thoughts on getting a new stadium. If Manfred showed up with $600 million in his back pocket he’s certainly entitled to have a majority opinion on that.

Baseball can decide if the A’s need a new stadium but until money appears the stadium won’t appear. It’s just that simple, it’s hard to get stadiums built in the state of California, it’s harder still to get something built with such limited usage to get built in the city of Oakland. At the same time Oakland is beginning to see itself in a different light as the east coast Brooklyn.

Oakland is the trendy place to be and it was named as one of the ten best places to vacation in the United States in the last year by one of the big travel magazines. So maybe under the new leadership, some leadership, or under any leadership from Mayor Libby Schaaf’s office maybe they’ll be able to figure something out.

Michael Duca is covering the Giants and A’s in Arizona during Cactus League play for http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to the podcast below