by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–Former A’s third base coach Mike Gallego was one of those guys who used to give you the run down on the team. He’s a very quiet but a very smart guy and it was surprising that the A’s let him go. What was it? was it a personal thing? was it a philosophical thing? was it a couple guys getting thrown out at the plate this past week?

I thought that Gallego did a terrific job at third base with the A’s not only as a third base coach but as a coach guiding and teaching the younger players. There’s a thing in baseball now when I was a younger kid most guys who made it to the big leagues they could play the game. Now there’s a lot of these guys that I’ve seen here in Oakland well Marcos Semien he’s got 31 errors.

How can you have 31 errors when your playing everyday? That’s why the A’s brought in Ron Washington who was the next third base coach for the A’s a well known guy. Semien had the job at shortstop and there are two positions in baseball that you have to field the ball there at defensive position onne is shortstop and the other one is catching.

Those two positions in baseball there might be some exceptions but they might find themselves a good defensive catcher like former Dodger Mike Piazza who hit more home runs than any other catcher in history that’s an exception. What I find in Semien he’s a pretty good hitter if he was hitting .230 he wouldn’t be close to a MLB team the man has to learn how to field.

So that’s why they brought Washington in I’m not surprised that this is a good move that Washington comes back to the A’s but what I don’t like that they let go of Gallego but they couldn’t make room. There’s two guys at one position so the ownership and A’s general manager Billy Beane had to make a decision and they made a decision to retain Washington who they hired for a few weeks to instruct Semien.

Semien had to learn how to field the ball and throw. The A’s promoted Washington to third base coach and Gallego was the odd man out and I’m very sadden by that news because like I said before and I mean it Gallego was a good guy, a good friend, that’s the way the ball bounces.

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