Category: San Francisco Giants

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

by Michael Duca

SCOTTSDALE AZ–The ball that hit Giants outfielder Hunter Pence that fractured his left arm came at the area where all the wrist bones come together. It should not be a major issue on his throwing arm and if his wrist had been bad by the injury he should be able to roll that bottom hand and have the strength to pull the bat through.

It’s a set back there’s no question about it, this is a guy who’s the only person in Major League Baseball whose played every game since mid 2012. He led the Giants in games played, hits, runs scored, RBI’s, stolen bases, and a home run. Other than that he hasn’t contributed much.

Realistically Pence will be out of commission for the next six to eight weeks and the last week of it will be rehab, it will probably take about four weeks in a cast for it to fully heal. He’s going to miss all of spring training and he’ll spend a couple weeks to rehab at Triple A Sacramento to get himself into hitting condition and for him to get used to seeing live pitching.

I’m sure he will stay shape, he will work on his running, he will practice throwing but I’m sure he will not be able to throw it back because his catching hand will be in a cast. With him not being in the line up it will bring the Giants to another time when the Giants remembered what it was like not to have catcher Buster Posey out when he had a broken leg.

Oakland A’s pitcher Barry Zito likes his performance in camp: A’s pitcher Barry Zito has been working with a pitching coach for about seven or eight months now. He said that he squared up his delivery a little bit and he’s getting back to the way he’s been throwing when he was with the A’s years ago.

He never did have anything remotely like throwing an overpowering fastball but he doesn’t need one, he didn’t have to throw 90 MPH and you can ask former Mariners veteran Jamie Moyer who lasted so long with a very successful pitch that didn’t require much velocity and neither did former Braves pitcher Greg Maddox.

For Zito it’s just a matter of placing the ball where you want it and keeping it off the center percussion of the bat and throw some off speed stuff and keep hitters off stride. Zito needs to try to keep the ball from the hitter squaring up and if he does so he’s going to have very successful results. There’s never been a question about his results or his commitment to succeed.

What Zito did on the Giants in 2010 was perhaps the greatest act of sportsmanship that any big league teammate could have done since I’ve been following the game in my lifetime covering or watching MLB. Zito was a healthy scratch for the 2010 post season and sucked it up and supported his teammates. You can rival it with Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum in 2012 who learned everything about that from 2010. Zito was the first guy out on the field in all three rounds of those playoffs and World Series in 2010 and was the last guy to leave the field after the World Series win.

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

by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

Attention baseball fans! Coming to your city! Better get used to them! There will be six(6)new rules this 2015 season in order to “speed up” the game.

1.Hitters must keep at least one foot inside the batter’s box at all times, barring exceptions like foul balls, wild pitches, or if the umpire grants him time out.

2.Pitchers must throw a pitch within 20 seconds of receiving the ball. Clocks posted in each dugout will count down the 20 seconds.

3.There will be a maximum break between innings of 2:05, with a clock keeping track. Hitters must be in the batter’s box by 1:45. If the hitter’s not ready, the umpire can call a strike. If the pitcher doesn’t throw a pitch by 2:05, the umpire can call a ball.

4.Teams will have a maximum of 2:30 to change pitchers, with the clock starting as soon as the reliever enters the playing field.

5.Teams are limited to a maximum of three mound visits per game, not including pitching changes. This applies to trips to the mound by managers, coaches, and catchers.

6.Pitchers no longer have to deliver four balls for an intentional walk. The manager can simply signal to the umpire.

The average MLB game lasted three hours and eight minutes in 2014

I agree with the first five, but I have a disagreement on number six. I think the pitchers should still deliver four balls when the manager calls for the intentional walk. With men on base there is always the opportunity that the pitcher might throw a wild pitch, while delivering the four intentional balls; I believe that takes away from the game.

As a traditionalist, I do not believe in many changes to the game of baseball, which it is after all, a unique game, unlike any other, unlike basketball and football and soccer and hockey where the arenas are all the same dimensions in each city, baseball is the most colorful and different, each park has its peculiarities, Fenway Park in Boston and Coors Field in Denver are as different as day and night, and that is what makes the game of baseball(among other nuances)a great game.

This was bound to happen, in a world of fast communications, little patience and quick answers baseball doesn’t conform to these modern models in the sports world. When I was a kid growing up, I learned how to score a game, most kids going to baseball games today have absolutely no idea on how to score, or how to follow game, but they can Twitter around the world, and text the person sitting in the next seat.

Baseball faces those challenges. There was a time where baseball was the national pastime, today Football has passed baseball, thanks to television(NFL is made perfectly for television)and other sports are not far behind. The new Commissioner indicated he is open to ideas of a shorter season. Less than 162 games, and that I think it will eventually happen, and very soon.

It will be interesting this season, the first with these new rules. Everybody is going to have to adapt to it, veteran players might have a harder time, than younger players, meanwhile it is also a learning process for all the managers.

One of the things that always separated baseball from the rest, is the lack of clocks. Obviously that is changing. However, extra innings will continue, for those than missed double headers and want more baseball, so we can always find the glass half full…or half empty.

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 on http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

All the 30 Major League teams are in full work-out mode during this 2015 Spring Training and within days of the first exhibition games will take place in Arizona and Florida. We remember the glorious history of Spring Training baseball. In 1942 the Brooklyn Dodgers held their training in Havana, Cuba, and with frequency the Cincinnati Reds during the 1940’s and 1950’s legendary players like Jackie Robinson visited Cuba during this time of the year.

The Detroit Tigers played a series of games against a Cuban national team; with the Detroit Tigers there was the great Ty Cobb. Babe Ruth played a series of games in Cuba as he was added to a New York Giants team under manager John McGraw, during the exhibition. Great Cuban black players like Cristóbal Torriente and Jesús Méndez played against McGraw’s stars and after one game John McGraw said: “I wish I could paint Méndez and Torriente white, I would take them with me to the Major Leagues”, while Babe Ruth said while in Cuba: “with Torriente and Méndez on my team, we will win the pennant in September”.

Cuba had teams in the US professional leagues, like the New York Cubans and the Cuban Stars, teams of the US Negro Leagues. Later regular teams in the International League like the Havana Cubans, and Cuban Sugar Kings. In 1959 the Cuban Sugar Kings(an affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds)won the title in the International League.

Today, the possibility is there for Major League teams to return to Cuba and have their Spring Training there, according to Tony Clark, President of the Major League Players Association the US and Cuba are in negotiations to allow MLB teams to travel to Cuba in the future for Spring Training, once diplomatic relations are re-established between the two nations.

These two countries have traditions in baseball unlike any other. Three years after the first baseball game was played in Cuba(December 27,1874)between the Habana and Matanzas teams at Palmar del Junco Stadium, an international event was organized with a US team, who visited the Port of Matanzas on a ship, and on the 29th of December Cuba’s professional league was inaugurated in a game between Habana and Almendares.

These two teams had the greatest rivalry in Cuba and where instrumental in the developing of baseball in the country. Later on the Cuban Winter League had two more teams, Cienfuegos and Marianao, they would play every weekend. This reporter as a kid saw players in Cuba(play in that league)like Orestes(Minnie Miñoso), Brooks Robinson, Jim Bunning, Camilo Pascual,Bob Shaw, Cookie Rojas,and many others that also played here in the US big leagues.

Prior to the eradication of professionalism by the Cuban government in 1961, there was a great connection and brotherhood between Cuban and American players. Not only Cuban players wore the uniforms of many Major League teams, but also many American players would travel to Cuba to play in the Cuban Professional Winter League, considered then, as the best baseball professional league outside the Major Leagues.

Oakland-born Bill Werle(1920-2010)who was a pitcher for the Pirates,Cardinals and Red Sox, once told me: “I used to play in Cuba in the winter league, it was the best league after the majors, and everybody wanted to go and play there, because they also played the best”.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for the Oakland A’s and is the Spanish TV voice for the L.A. Angels on Time/Warner Communications and does That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary on http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

The news of former Chicago White Sox great Minnie Minoso’s death is deeply felt by the White Sox organization, the Sox plan to have a dedication for Minoso 92, before their first pre season game which is scheduled this Wednesday March 4th against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Cuban born Minoso in his first at bat with the White Sox hit a two run homer and became the first black man to play for the White Sox in that at bat in 1951.

The Cook County Coroner said that Minoso had passed away on Sunday morning at 1 AM at a filling station he reportedly was found in his car in the driver’s seat and had died of a heart attack due to clogged arteries this was determined after Minoso had a autopsy that found he died from a torn pulmonary artery. Minoso earlier Saturday evening had celebrated a friends birthday and had stopped off afterwards at the gas station. Minoso broke into the majors with the Cleveland Indians in 1949 but was later traded in a three man deal to the White Sox before the 1951 season. In 17 seasons he played 12 of them were with the Sox.

Minoso also hit for average with a .307 average, 135 homers, and 808 RBIs, in 1983 the White Sox retired Minoso’s number 9. The Sox placed a statue of Minoso outside of U.S. Cellular Field. There is one photo of Minoso talking to his statue during the dedication, Minoso was decked out in a fancy suit for the occasion. He was quite honored at the dedication of his statue.

Minoso was a right handed hitter and while it’s very rare for a player to get a first at bat home run when they make their first appearance for a club Minoso did it in his first at bat with the Sox in 1951 when he hit one for a two run dinger off New York Yankees righty pitcher Vic Raschi. Minoso was mostly a leftfielder and was known as the “Cuban Comet.”

Minoso played in five different decades and was one of two major leaguers who played in five decades. Minoso in 1976 at the age of 53 got his final big league hit. In 1980 at the age of 57 Minoso he came to bat twice going 0-2 in 1980 in his final big league appearance. White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf said of Minoso, “when I watch Minnie Minoso play, I thought I was looking at a Hall of Fame player. I never understood why Minnie was never elected.”

Minoso won three gold gloves and was elected to the MLB All-Star game nine times, he finished fourth four times as the top A.L. vote getter for an MVP award. Minoso also is ninth on baseball’s all time hit by pitch list he was hit 192 times. Former Cincinnati Reds first baseman and Cuban born player Tony Perez said that ever since he was a kid he wanted to be like Minoso, “Every young player in Cuba wanted to be like Minnie Minoso and I was one of them. The way he played the game, hard all the time, hard. He was very consistent playing the game. He tried to win every game. And if I want to be like somebody and I picked Minnie you have to be consistent.” said Perez

Listen to Amaury’s podcast below regarding Minnie Minoso right here on http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

The Oakland A’s have a ambidextrous pitcher with Pat Venditte and the Giants are trying to stay a winner for this 2015 season. It’s going to be a great spring training, Barry Zito is back as a non-rostered invitee with the A’s Zito a former Cy Young Award winner over a decade ago. Everything looks good. Like I said in spring training 30 teams are in first place.

Every team is talking about “we have a shot” whether your the Astros, Phillies, A’s or one of the worst teams in the Majors spring is the best time of the year for baseball. Even if someone struck out multiple times everyone is happy to be at spring training, spring training is a great time to go down to Arizona.

I have been going to Arizona when there were only four or five teams it was the A’s, Cleveland, Brewers, Cubs, Giants, and Padres before the 1977 expansion. Now you have 15 teams in the Cactus League. You have half the teams in MLB that train in the Valley of the Sun as the former A’s announcer Bill King used to call it.

Things have changed a lot in Arizona for example in downtown Phoenix I remember going to the Pink Pony, it was a water hole for the media and guys like Billy Martin who did some interviews there. You could drive into Phoenix and I would fly out of a Bay Area into Phoenix and during those early days you could come into town and get a hotel room.

You can’t do that any more, if you want a decent place you had to make reservations several months in advance because everything is sold out. Right now there are thousands of people there planning their vacations around spring training, then you have the Giants who have won in recent years. There was a time when people could careless about the Giants, now the Giants sell out every game in Scottsdale.

I remember with the A’s the same thing, there was a good size amount of media and fans who would make the trip to Arizona, but now you have thousands and thousands of fans. This is good news for the Arizona economy as the Phoenix economy is thriving now and this is one of the best times of the year for baseball. Remember they had the Super Bowl in Phoenix at the first part of the year and has been a very good one with fans coming to Arizona spending their money.

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

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