Author: lleonardbw

That’s Amaury’s Podcast, News and Commentary: MLB now allowing fans to use social media to decide player awards on line

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

photo credit bleacher report photo of MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred

OAKLAND–Everything in baseball is moving towards social media and now MLB is allowing fans to vote on different categories for players who achieved top status. This is a great move by MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred who is presiding, baseball as long as we know has been through a lot of changes with the clocks, in between innings, the replays. Baseball is going through a transformation and it’s good that their going through it with social media. That’s the way to do it now and that’s the way of the future.

Can the Angels get back in the race?: The Angels who are four games out of the first place spot for the wild card have a very interesting line up. Except Seattle and Oakland, all the other adversaries are teams that are ahead of them. Right now the Angels are in Seattle. Then after the series in Seattle they go to Minnesota for four games.

The Angels need to beat Minnesota because the Twins are ahead of them in the wild card standings. Then after Minnesota they go to Houston which they took two out of three. I got to broadcast the worst loss for the Angels it was last Sunday. The Halos had a three run lead with two outs in the top of the ninth and Houston Street whose leading the American League in saves with 35 was pitching.

Street got blown up as the Astros scored five runs unanswered in the top of the ninth and the Angels lost again on Monday night in Seattle 10-1. I said this on the air and I hate to say it and you want to be positive on the air when you broadcast for a team. We mentioned that loss as fatal for the Halos.

The Angels could have swept the Astros they had a terrific homestand, they could have swept the Astros a first place team and with two outs and two strikes and there was a three run homer by former A’s Jed Lowrie a pinch hitter none the less. In the end the Astros scored five runs off the Angels. The Astros beat the Angles, the Angels control their destiny because their playing teams that are on top of them but they can’t afford to lose them.

Anaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for the A’s, the Spanish TV voice for the Angels, and does News and Commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

San Francisco Giants podcast with Michael Duca: Giants enjoying the string of home cooking with wins over the Reds and Padres

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by Michael Duca

photo credit bing images Padres announcers Dick Enberg and Mark Grant

SAN FRANCISCO–If you watched Saturday’s game in which Giants pitcher Mike Leake was going you had to ask yourself if Leake was going to be able to outscore Mike Leake. Leake helped his own cause in the Giants victory 10-3 with his first home run of the season and his eighth hit in 62 at bats. He did serve up three runs to the Padres on Sunday and once Leake got the lead he settled down.

For Friday Giants starter Madison Bumgarner nearly pitched a perfecto going into it with two outs in the eighth inning. Mad Bum had faced 23 straight hitters before the no-no was broken up by the Padres Melvin Upton Jr with a single up the middle. BJ Upton was 0-10 against Bumgarner but Melvin Upton Jr is one for one. The name change served him well.

What’s unfortunate on this leg of this homestand is the Giants are losing so many players and I worked over the weekend covering the Padres and Giants series in the TV booth with Padres TV announcer the great Dick Enberg helping him provide stats for the Padres and Enberg said “after 50 years of the game you know that every team has injuries” but Enberg could not recall a club that has had as many significant injuries as the Giants have had.

Three fifths of the Giants starting rotation has been out at one point, all of their starting outfield, their starting double play combination and their third baseman who started the season Casey McGehee was off the roster for the rest of the year. It’s remarkable given what they’ve done all things considered.

Basically the Giants had the best road team in baseball to start the season but once they got out on the road with only three clubs in the bag but as of today the Giants road record is 34-41. Also with Hunter Pence who also has been hurt most of the year. With a Pence in the line up the Giants are 42-21 in two out of three game series that he plays.

That’s just an astonishing number for one guy to have that kind of impact and he’s basically five or six games over .500 right now to be 21 games over .500. That means their 14 games under .500 without him. It’s a huge difference with one player. It speaks to what he is on the field and what he could do in the outfield. What Pence could do with his arm and with his legs and what he could do with his bat.

Michael Duca does the Giants podcasts each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to Miguel below

Oakland A’s podcast with Charlie O: A’s focusing on who they like down on the farm and their shoring up pitching for 16

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by Charlie O Mallanee

photo credit google images (Sean Doolittle A’s pitcher)

OAKLAND–The A’s in the middle of a ten game road trip now in Chicago after completing three games where they dropped two to Texas we know going into this it was going to be difficult for multiple reasons. Number one there is a lot of travel involved including going back to Texas to play in Houston on Friday night for three games.

Then they play two teams in this mix that are in the playoff hunt, you have Texas right now who is day to day who can get in as a wild card, you got first place Houston in the AL West and a team that is looking to win the division. So the team that will not be in post season on this A’s road trip is the Sox with the four games in Chicago.

Really this is where the A’s need to take care of business right now and it could result in a two game split and winning two games and losing two games in Chicago would be a great outcome for them right now on this ten game road trip. For 2016 the A’s being some 16 games out right now and are looking at improving their pitching staff and to see what that’s going to do for them.

Their considering getting reliever Sean Doolittle in there again and starter Aaron Brooks and they’re kind of looking at it asking what are they going to need when it comes to starting pitching next season. The A’s also are looking at their pieces that they could move in the off season. Obviously the one glaring area for the A’s is going to be that they need to get some relief pitching.

Right now everything is centered around relief pitching to improve for Oakland and that’s been their demise all season long. So your trying to see who your going to have and take a look at pieces that you have. Young players that the A’s might want to keep, young players that you might want to move. It’s almost like spring training all over again in some ways with some of these September call ups and also who the A’s are considering in the farm system. The A’s are really looking onto next year and that’s what their weighing everything on because it’s about next year.

When you got a guy like A’s catcher Stephen Vogt out of the line up it’s devastating especially for a team that doesn’t possess anymore power than the A’s have right now. The fact that Vogt has been such a leader on and off the field that’s been devastating. I really like catcher Josh Phegley right now and he’s the number two catcher. Phegley is showing some promise that he might eventually become the number one catcher and the A’s might move Vogt over to first base.

Charlie O does the A’s podcast weekly for http://www.sportsradioservice.com like Charlie O on facebook

NCAA Podcast with Michelle Richardson: Michigan St edges #7 Oregon; BYU in 7 point thriller over Boise; Irish just gets past Virgina

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by Michelle Richardson

photo credit yahoo sports (Michigan St after game with Oregon)

Michigan State (2-0) 31 Oregon (0-2) 28: This was a very good win for Michigan State and it was a strong one for Michigan State who is number five and Oregon is number seven. This was a close game by two evenly matched teams. Oregon had the confidence but Michigan St never gave up both schools never gave up in this one and proved to be confident.

On first downs Oregon had 26 first downs and Michigan State had 21. The Spartans were trying to use the clock to their advantage. At least they had 33 minutes and 26 minutes. Oregon had 432 total yards to Michigan State’s 389 total yards that was pretty comparable. What was there in this game turnovers, turnovers, Michigan State had one turnover and Oregon had two.

This was one of my favorite games to watch as these two teams were evenly match as this game was a Michigan State and they played that well and that said a lot about Oregon and what is going to happen in the Pac 12 this year. Oregon Ducks quarterback Vernon Adams Jr threw for 22 completions, 309 yards, one interception and two touchdowns. Adams does not see the field as well as former Duck quarterback Marcus Mariota did last year. This is a system at Oregon that Adams can grow into.

BYU 25 Boise State (1-1) 24: BYU (2-0) quarterback Tanner Mangum threw for a 35 yard touchdown with just 45 seconds left in the game against Boise State. Ironically Mangum just came back from Chile after three months of LDS missionary work for the Mormon Church and had a banner game for the Cougars.

One of the things that BYU always had in their favor is they have much younger players, one of the things about BYU for having younger players they never get caught up in the moment they come out of these missions and their a little older and a little more mature. Boise State is coming out of the Mountain West where BYU was before and now is an Independent. Boise State were going to see what their made of now they have a new coach Bryan Harsin. Former Boise head coach Chris Peterson is the one who built up this team and is now over at Washington.

Notre Dame (2-0) 34 Virginia (0-2) 27: Both schools played a very tight and exciting game and the Irish who were led by quarterback Deshone Kizer who came in for the injured starter Malik Zaire who rolled his ankle. It was Kizer who threw for a game winning touchdown pass 39 yards for the game winner with 12 second left to win it for the Irish on Saturday.

Despite all the cheering for Notre Dame they lost their starting quarterback Zaire, they chose this young man to start over Everett Golson whose led the Seminoles to two straight victories and is most importantly healthy. Now with Zaire out they have their back up quarterback Kizer filling in but this was a large hit for Notre Dame.

Notre Dame was expected to be moving forward and their other injuries as well but when you lose your team general, your quarterback that’s a tough way to go. It was a great game and the Cavaliers by no means are no slouch and look for them in the ACC and they still have time to definitely still make things happen but they’ve got to get on the good foot themselves.

Michelle Richardson does the NCAA podcast each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to the podcast below

San Francisco 49ers podcast with David Zizmor: Hayne should make regular season debut this Monday night at Levis

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by David Zizmor

photo credit google images (Jarryd Hayne)

SANTA CLARA–Return specialist Jarryd Hayne might be inactive on a game day and why they still do that that’s beyond me. Everybody on the 53 man roster should be eligible to play but that’s besides the point. There is no reason why he shouldn’t play the reason he’s kept on this team is because he’s a great return man and the Niners really can use every advantage that they could get in the return game.

Using Hayne for punts and kickoffs would be to their benefit and being used for special teams player on those plays so he would be able to get in on the 46 man game day roster without too much question. He’s proven himself in the preseason and he made the team relatively easily based on his performance and he was able to get on the active roster.

The Niners don’t have too many outstanding issues with injuries right now and there’s no reason why Hayne can’t play and we’ll have to see what the Niners think. He’s a return guy and he’s on special teams and he can play running back. He’s not going to get much time there at least initially. He showed in the pre season that he can get his C legs in that department.

Since he’s going to be a big special teams contributor he’ll get in there, remember when he’s not on the return side but on the coverage side he’s considered the wedge buster that’s not an easy position on special teams. A lot of guys already on special teams aren’t able to play the position of the wedge buster and Hayne should be active on Monday against the Vikings.

If Hayne succeeds it would be a much better story to focus on with the 49ers rather than dwell on their many off field problems in the off season with all the suspensions and retirements and craziness that’s been happening. Hayne might be a great story but it ultimately comes down to how the 49ers perform down on the field.

If Hayne has a nice game but the Niners lay a big egg against the Vikings on Monday night with a national audience there’s going to be a lot more talk about how poorly they played than what Hayne had done in the ball game. Frankly if Hayne gets a lot of touches the Niners aren’t doing too well your returning a lot of kickoffs and that means the defense isn’t helping. If Hayne ends up getting a lot of kickoffs that means the defense isn’t helping.

David Zizmor does the 49ers weekly podcast for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Oakland Raiders podcast with Jeremy Kahn: Can Aldon Smith overcome his demons this time as he signs deal with Raiders

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by Jeremy Kahn

photo credit SB Nation (Aldon Smith)

ALAMEDA–The big question now goes to Oakland Raiders GM Reggie McKenzie and did he do his homework in acquiring former San Francisco 49er offensive linebacker Aldon Smith in a one year deal. Smith who has three DUIs and was arrested and later but was not charged among other legal problems for saying he had a bomb to TSA officers at the Los Angeles Airport in April 2014. Immediately after it was announced that Smith was a Raider questions from the media basically asked “do the Raiders know what their getting into?” The Raiders said that Smith is available to see action as soon as this Sunday against Cincinnati.

Smith was released from the 49ers on August for hit and run vandalism at the time of the inquiry by the media outside of the San Jose Police station he said he was not DUI and “that the truth would come out.” In 50 games and 30 starts for San Francisco Smith put up some impressive numbers with 44 sacks with 19.5 sacks he went to the Pro Bowl in 2012.

Smith has not been suspended by the NFL for the August charge but he was suspended for nine games in 2014, Smith who made his home in San Jose during his time with the 49ers and was considered being picked up by the Jacksonville Jaguars, Tampa Bay Bucaneers, or St.Louis Rams but decided on playing with Oakland.

Opening day on Sunday with the Cincinnati Bengals at the Coliseum: The season is finally here as things get started on Sunday, practice is going well for the Raiders so far as they get ready for Cincinnati on Sunday. Also as far as Raider fullback Marcel Reece is concerned the Raiders expect a lot out of him this season blocking for Latavius Murray. Reece can go out there and stop somebody with his skills this Sunday.

The Bengals great wide receiver AJ Green is somebody that the Raiders will have to contain, Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton wants to execute his game plan against the Raiders and their front four for this Sunday. Now with the addition of Smith from the 49ers it’s going to be huge. In addition to Smith with a combination of Kahlil Mack and Justin Tuck it’s going to be phenomenal. Also don’t forget 18 year veteran Charles Woodson.

The four captains selected for this season for the Raiders quarterback Derek Carr, defensive end Justin Tuck, safety Charles Woodson and Reece. The captaincy is a big thing with the Raiders and those four are four good names to be named co-captains. Woodson, Tuck, Reece and Carr are very good players and are the faces of the Raiders organization.

Jeremy Kahn is an Oakland Raiders beat reporter and can be heard right here in his weekly podcasts at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Excellent decision by A’s GM Billy Beane

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–Billy Beane, General Manager of the Oakland A’s announced that Bob Melvin has been extended with a contract for two more years. This is a brilliant decision by Beane. But then again, my question is: what else could he have done? It would have been the “injustice of the century” in baseball to fire Melvin, since he is just the field manager and he can only manage the talent he is given, and, (often, under this system), taken away from him.

So we can expect the Athletics to re-tool during the winter months, after this 2015 lost season, which more than likely they will finish in the cellar,with the worse record in the American League, hard to believe for a team that just a year ago was considered the best team in baseball. But not hard to believe if you are winning a car race but you take the engine away in the middle of the race. Such is life with the Oakland Athletics. Only God knows what team will the Oakland Athletics field when they open the 2016 season, that would be a discussion for another day.

I do admire Bob Melvin, and he is very well deserved to have received that two year extension. Some say that most people do not get what they deserve; well in this case Bob Melvin did get what he deserved. The Toronto Blue Jays Josh Donaldson will win the American League Most Valuable player this year with the Toronto Blue Jays, all-of-a-sudden Yoenis Cespedes is in the discussion(now with the New York Mets)to win the MVP. I do not believe that Cespedes will win it, but he is definitely in the discussion and we can make a very good case that since he arrived in New York the Mets took off and are looking like a real playoff team. Then there is lefty veteran Scott Kazmir (with the A’s until a couple of months ago) who will probably be pitching in the postseason and is on that very good Houston Astros pitching rotation .

Bob Melvin is one of the best managers in Major League Baseball, not because he has won the award of Manager of the Year twice, in Arizona and in Oakland, but because he is truly a baseball man that is respected by everybody in the game, and players show up to play hard for him all the time. This is no coincidence, he has the ability to get the best out of his players.

We remember another guy with the A’s with that ability, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame at Cooperstown a couple of years ago, his name is former A’s manager Tony LaRussa. And yes, for many of you that say, “wait a minute Amaury Tony LaRussa had the talented players”, you are correct, but he also won the World Series in the National League with the Cardinals and previously with the Athletics in 1989. He is one of only two managers in history to have won World Series managing teams in both leagues, the other one was my all-time-favorite manager, Sparky Anderson who did it in Cincinnati and Detroit. But truth-be-said, a manager needs the players just like jockeys needs good horses to run, Russell Baze won over 10,000 horse races, more than any other jockey in North American, he could not hold that record if the horses were slow.

I applaud the decision by Billy Beane in this case, 100 X 100.

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

NFL Podcast with Tony Renteria: Focus will be on Brady for opener; Fantasy Football bounty worth $1M;Raiders-Bengels this Sunday

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by Tony Renteria

OAKLAND–Thursday night was opening night for the NFL as Tom Brady and the New England Patriots opened up their season with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Brady’s home record is unbelievable and Vegas has the Patriots up by seven and so you can look forward to a great game between the two teams in New England. The media will be focused on Brady after the game he’ll say he’s glad to be back and that he was not suspended.

Videogate is back: The thing that is going to go forward is NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is the NFL owners face and voice and they are supportive of Goodell but the more it goes forward the playing field is not fair this may hurt Goodell’s credibility a little bit. It’s questionable where this is going to get legs this is going to come from the owners not the media. Videogate is something that happened years ago and it’s all water under the bridge we’ll have to wait and see what happens.

Fantasy Football is mainstream news and count on it each week: Fantasy Football has brought the NFL mainstream. There has been talk about the NFL getting involved in legalized gambling. The NFL does a great job of marketing itself and trying to pull the dollar from everywhere. Your talking about Goodell and what he’s done, imagine Fantasy Football you could play on the NFL website.

Fantasy Football is a huge area of gathering fans who are not into football themselves and getting them to get involved in the game. So Fantasy Football is not going to slow down I see it gaining momentum. A couple of years from now your only going to be able to play Fantasy Football through the NFL your only going to be able to watch the NFL on NFL Network.

Raiders kicks off with Bengals this Sunday: Vegas has the Bengals picked by four for this upcoming Sunday’s game with the Raiders and former Raider head coach Hugh Jackson is coming back with the Bengals as assistant coach and it’ll be his first time in the Coliseum since he was head coach. Raider head coach Jack Del Rio has a different mind set and this should be a good turn around year for the Raiders.

Tony Renteria does the NFL Podcast each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com catch the podcast below

Cal Bears Podcast with Morris Phillips: Will San Diego State deliver a pass rush to challenge Goff this week?

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by Morris Phillips

photo of Cal receiver Kenny Lawler courtesy of Bing photos

BERKELEY–Kenny Lawler is the Cal Bears returning receiver whose been incredible with the highlights and the goal line catches last season. He was not completely in line with his coaches who felt he needed to do more homework to practice harder, needed to be more consistent and you got to see this what you saw last Saturday against Grambling with quarterback Jered Goff in the first half of the game he caught three touchdowns.

You can see the talent that was there last season is now being married with the effort and the consistency with the coaches that they were so much craving for Lawler to provide. It’s another good sign for Cal, in terms of the ball being thrown and caught you may not have a better team in the country in terms of their quarterback and the crew of receivers.

Head coach Sonny Dykes who was know for his offensive success at Louisiana Tech and now he’s here in the Pac 12 and he has had some success with Tech and he’s needing and had some success recruiting better players and better players to play in the Pac 12. He’s had NFL caliber type players at some point and he’s starting to see that happen on both sides of the ball and with some depth which is also crucial at this level of college football.

You got to have depth and you got to have talent and Cal is hoping that some of the other schools that are in their same boats will drop back a step. We saw that in week one. Stanford and Arizona State both ranked and they both lost. This might be a good sign for Cal going forward and they could sneak into a bowl game to an upper division finish in the Pac 12. Right now Cal is really focused on trying to understand what San Diego State does in preparation for this Saturday’s game at Memorial Stadium.

Defensively San Diego St plays five defensive backs on most snaps and try to confuse the offense in terms of whose coming and whose dropping into coverage and you would expect with a team much better than Grambling that they would have some success getting to Goff. How often they get to him and if they’re able to put him on his back that remains to be seen.

That’s really the issue for Cal that their prepared for this unusual San Diego St run. So from San Diego State’s prospective they need to get off the field. They know that Cal can explode offensively and they’re going to try and run the ball and run the ball successfully to minimize Cal’s opportunities.

Morris Phillips is a beat writer for the Cal Bears at http://www.sportsradioservice.com catch the podcast below

That’s Amaury’s Podcast, News and Commentary: Met’s can win NL title if they can get the Harvey situation fixed

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

LOS ANGELES–The New York Mets star pitcher Matt Harvey said that he would stop pitching if the Mets put a pitch count on him. Team executive Sandy Alderson said he would try to reach a compromise with Harvey on Tuesday night. The goal of the Mets is to win their division and go to the World Series.

The Mets have one of the best young pitching staffs in the Majors. With Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, and old Bartolo Colon whose still winning with a record 13-11 ERA 4.18 at 42 years old. Harvey should be able to pitch and years ago pitchers used to throw in the big leagues and then they would go to Latin America and then they would pitch again in the winter leagues.

All these guys made a lot of money and they don’t need another job in the winter, the only people who play in the winter are the rookies or the people with experience and gather their knowledge and come back the following year and come back to the diamond. The way I see it the Harvey situation is ridiculous.

Harvey said on twitter that he will pitch in the playoffs and it’s hopeful that he does. Putting a pitching limit on Harvey is not going to work for him. It’s become impossible and he’s going to pitch and that’s what he’s there for. He’s getting paid to pitch, Harvey is a good pitcher, he’s number one in that rotation.

We now know the pitching coach is telling the starter to give the club just six good innings. OK what’s going to be next? “Give me six good innings but don’t make it more than 70 pitches” is baseball going to generate to a six to seven man pitching rotation. Nobody can go more than six or seven innings?

People get tired after pitching 290 innings, it’s ridiculous and it’s hopeful that he can pitch as long as he wants. I only wish Harvey the best of luck. The Mets fans have to be up in arms and asking “what’s going on, were in first place and we want to win but our number one pitcher says he won’t pitch” and keep in mind this is happening in the number one TV market in the country so this situation is under a microscope.

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