Category: San Francisco Giants

by Michael Duca

SAN FRANCISCO–Giants starter Tim Lincecum has been there before with success and he certainly has found that strength again and since pitching his no-hitter he looks to be in Cy Young Award form again. Lincecum is in a very good stretch there is no other way to put it. He’s not walking people, he’s mixing up his pitches, he’s spotting his fastballs, he has got a wicked curve ball that breaks on the hitters.

Lincecum has got through any previous rough patch and that he’s a version of former Braves star pitcher Greg Maddox. He’s developed that level of pitching and Maddox didn’t have that in the beginning of his career and Timmy is a fastball pitcher and a power pitcher since the beginning of his career.

Strangley enough Giant starter Tim Hudson is a mini me Greg Maddox he shows up and through eight turns through the rotation Lincecum is reborn. Maybe it’s a coincidence maybe not. On Lincecum’s recent success is this a matter of the guys are playing hard behind him or is the line up getting runs for him or is it a matter of Major League hitters being bad for five straight days?

It used to be if there was one guy in the rotation it’s was always Matt Cain which led to the phrase “getting Cained” now that only Cain get’s cained the last time starter Ryan Voglesong had a run scored behind him the United States was undefeated in the World Cup. I’m serious and these things happen in a cycle and it’s true and Vogey is starving for a win and he has six wins in 27 games.

Oakland A’s update: The Seattle Mariners are now six and half games out of first place in the American Leaague West and it’s funny we talk about Seattle being six to seven and half games out and we talk about the Angels who are a game and half back as though coming right down the A’s throat. If the Giants are a game out they’d be dead in the water and they are a game out.

We’ll see where this race goes I like Seattle’s chances and they’ve been up there and I also like the agressiveness of A’s general manager Billy Beane who said, “it is easier to find position players than it is to find established solid pitchers.” You have to realize the A’s are a game in half in first place with baseball’s best record and have lost 40 percent of their starting rotation in spring training.

It is amazing that the A’s have been able to compensate for that and Beane was able to shore up the rotation. The shock was he was able to with newly acquired pitchers Jeff Samardzija and Josh Hamels to shore all of the rotation and fill up two spots. Beane might have had the foresight to see the Mariners and Angels making a move on the A’s in the standings.

The M’s and Halos have snuck up on Oakland and the M’s could cut the A’s lead over them to five games and the Angels could tie the A’s for first place. Those organizations are sharp enough to know what’s going on. The A’s have compiled the best record in baseball with a lot of timely hitting up and down the line up and with a lot of good fortune after they lost pitchers A.J.Griffin and Jarrod Parker during the season and replaced them with Drew Pomeranz who broke his hand and then there’s left hander Brad Mills who got picked up for a bargain basement deal.

Michael Duca does commentary on the A’s and Giants for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

LOS ANGELES–Don Mattingly,. the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers will have his job on the line, after the All Star Break. There is no doubt, no team in the National League West has more talent that the Los Angeles Dodgers. The San Francisco Giants collapse during the month of June (losing a 9 1/2 game lead over the Dodgers in 21 days) are up to some changes on their roster, but even before the collapse, most people inside the baseball world predicted they were the team to beat.

Many went as far as picking the Dodgers to win the 2014 World Series. I was not among those, but my pre-season predictions were the Dodgers would finish first and the Giants second in the West, with the possibility (for Giants) to make it as a wild card team. It was easy to predict, the Giants biggest two signings were a good pitcher that was injured, in Tim Hudson, and a slugger that can be extremely inconsistent in Mike Morse. I know, I know, in the Bay Area to predict the Giants anything but for first place is forbidden under the Giants world of propagandists.

If there is a case for a team missing a leadoff hitter, that would be the Giants, who without Angel Pagan have played under .500 ball. On the other hand, the Giants have not played good baseball, and to lay such a bad streak on one single player magnifies the weaknesses on this team. The Giants might have to start the second half without Angel, so in the Giants case (and although Marco Scutaro is returning) the best option for the Giants would be to trade for Phillies outfielder Ben Revere,(Philadelphia) he is fast, and could provide some needed help as a lead off for this team. Marco Scutaro is coming back, but how good would he be? Therefore, the best option for this team would be super-utility and basically second baseman Ben Zobrist from Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay is selling and it would not be cheap to get Zobrist. David Price is out of equation for the Giants. unless they are ready to break this team and rob a bank.

The Oakland Athletics (who will bring their 1989 World Championship team to Oakland for a reunion on July 19th) are already reminiscing their beating of the Giants in that historic earthquake ’89 World Series,after taking three out of four games this week against their cross bay rivals. While the Giants where going down in flames, the Dodgers were rising up and up to pass them in the standings. Yet, the Dodgers have not opened a commanding lead on the Giants. But the Giants better show some urgency here; I do not think the Dodgers are going to do in this in the second half what they did last year after bringing up Yasiel Puig, winning 42 of 50 games, but they could take over this division in a hurry if the Giants do not wake up.

The Giants payroll is tight to a bunch of star players, like catcher Buster Posey, pitcher Matt Cain, pitcher Tim Lincecum (among others) and I do not believe they are going to be making a blockbuster trade soon, before the deadline July 31, but they have to tune up this team quickly, or the engine could blow up.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish TV voice for Angels baseball and does News and Commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

ANAHEIM–This is the New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter’s last season and you look at Jeter’s numbers and you look at the White Sox shortstop Alexei Ramirez’. Ramirez has better numbers and the Angels shortstop Erick Aybar also has much better numbers than Jeter. Jeter is going to be among those with 3,000 career hits and its going to be tremendous and Jeter will be a first ballot Hall of Famer.

The Oakland A’s have seven All-Stars participating in next week’s All-Star game, second baseman Josh Donaldson,outfielder Yoenis Cespedes, catcher Derek Norris, first baseman Brandon Moss, and pitchers Scott Kazmir and Sean Doolittle, and latest Athletic pitcher Jeff Samardzija. A lot of credit is desereved to A’s manager Bob Melvin he’s the perfect manager for the A’s and Cespedes he’s an All-Star again and he’s from Cuba and he came from a different culture and he made something of himself with this team.

There are other great players who are not going to the All-Star game from the A’s like Brandon Moss, Coco Crisp, by the way Crisp had a second career this season and most people thought that he was at the end of his career. Crisp is one of the best hitter in baseball right now. Billy Beane the A’s general manager not only gets a couple players for his team he gets two of the best pitchers from the National League and from the Cubs.

Samardzija and Josh Hammel had great ERAs for a last place team, now you put them in the middle of his rotation with the A’s but you hate to make a predictions but the A’s are starting to look like a potential American League Championship winner and they could be an amazing World Series team. Something that people in Vegas might feel confident to bet on. I have to go back and A’s manager Bob Melvin has to get a lot of the credit.

The funny thing about this is when was the last time that you saw a pitcher selected for the National League and then gets selected by the American League for the All-Star game in the same year? That’s whats happening to Samardzija he was selected to represent the Cubs and now he going to represent the A’s. The A’s in trading for Samardzija feel like they have the best pitching in the show right now.

The A’s are going to start Hammel this week against the Giants and Hammel is a very good pitcher and it’s really exciting news around baseball and the biggest story is the A’s right now. Now the A’s are not only getting one great pitcher but they ended up trading for two great pitchers. It was the biggest surprise that they were able to get the two top pitchers from the Cubs. You would think they would be able to only get one pitcher but they ended up getting two.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish TV voice for Angels baseball and does News and Commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

In the history of the All Star Game, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Stan Musial hold the record with 24 selections. Following are Mickey Mantle 20, Ted Williams 19 and Cal Ripken Jr. 19. Among all active players today, Derek Jeter, NY Yankee shortstop (who will be starting for the American League next Tuesday) has the most All Star appearances with 13.

The American League Oakland Athletics, with the best record in baseball, placed six players on the roster for the first time since 1975. Josh Donaldson will be the starting third baseman.
The San Francisco Giants will have two players( N.L reserves)Hunter Pence and Madison Bumgarner.

National League Milwaukee will send four All Stars for the first time since 2007.

Also, 25 first time All-Stars and 24 foreign-born players were announced. Rookie Jose Abreu (Cuba)of the Chicago White Sox and pitcher Masahiro Tanaka(Japan)of the New York Yankees, are among the first timers. Abreu with 27 home runs leads both leagues, and Tanaka with 12 wins leads all pitchers.

The Home Run derby competition which began in 1985 with Cincinnati Dave Parker as the winner, will have three Cuban-born stars; Yasiel Puig(Dodgers) for the National League and Jose Abreu(White Sox)and Yoenis Cespedes(Oakland)for the American League, among others. Because of sports television networks, the Home Run Derby has become a popular event televised worldwide. Last year’s winner was Oakland A’s left fielder Yoenis Cespedes.

The first Major League Baseball All Star Game took place July 6, 1933 at Comiskey Park, Chicago.

Target Field, Minneapolis Seating Capacity 39,500. Game will be televised nationally by Fox.

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

by Michael Duca

Giants update: The San Francisco Giants got a home run from Brandon Belt who hasn’t hit one all year for a game winner on Saturday night in San Diego and then they got a home run from Gregor Blanco who hasn’t hit one this season, and then another home run from Michael Morse who hasn’t hit one in five weeks for his 14th of the season. Anyone of those would be a nice shot in the arm for the Giants but the three of them together would give a big dose of hope to that locker room.

Most people who haven’t been in a professional sports environment they think the players love to be at home and they have home cooking and they could be with their family and spend time with their kids and what could be worse than that. It’s terrible that their on the road, but that’s not the way it is. You have to remember that professional athletes are basically frat boys for rest and development.

So when the players get out on the road they have the opportunity to bond with each other and they don’t go their own separate ways. After the game they can stick together and when you have a team like the Giants struggling like they have, the road is a good place for them to relax. If they start having fun they’ll start winning and having fun and having fun winning reoccurs.

Oakland A’s update: I don’t know if the A’s are playing the best baseball or are the best team in baseball right now, they are the most complete club in baseball. Whether or not that translates to post season you just can’t be sure. Your going to have face Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer the Tigers pitchers eventually.

They’ll face Detroit in a five game series in post season and when that happens all bets will be off the table. However the move the A’s made this week in obtaining from the Cubs Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel. The deal shocked everyone in baseball and how long will these guys end up staying in Oakland and if Samardzija had to leave Chicago one place that was very high on his list was Oakland.

We’ll have to find out because Samardzija said he loved pitching at AT&T in San Francisco which he might have an opportunity too. Were going to find out how much Samardzija can go with this series against the Giants. I will be following Samardzija and the A’s from about 80 feet away during the Giants series because I’m working behind the screen and how well that translates for the A’s to get to post season that’s just a matter of time and the Giants are a decent team.

The A’s will open a two game series in Oakland with the Giants on Monday and then they go to San Francisco to play the Giants on Wednesday. One of the local journalists predicted that the Giants would sweep the A’s in all five games, I don’t think so. There is one thing that you could be sure of when these two teams get together and thats there are so many factors coming into this series with their line ups and how guys are hitting and pitching and let’s not forget these are two first place teams.

Michael Duca does A’s and Giants commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Right now Belt is on a pac

by Jerry Feitelberg

OAKLAND–Members of the Oakland City Council will vote on Thursday to approve a ten year lease for the Oaklnad Athletics at the Oakland Coliseum. Last week four members of the board did not vote on the lease and did not show up at City Hall for the scheduled vote which forced a forfeit because their were not enough coucilmen for a quorum.

The reason for the sit out was city officials were concerned there was not enough protections and incentives in the lease agreement. The A’s last lease allowed them to give one year’s notice if they wanted to leave the Coliseum. Under the new agreement the A’s would have to give the city two years notice if they were going to leave Oakland and they would be on the hook for the remainder of the entire ten year agreement if they left the Coliseum.

If the A’s however considered building a new stadium inside Oakland city limits then the A’s would be free of the ten year obligation and the two year notice wouldn’t matter because it would take that much time to build a new stadium.

With that in mind the discussion of a waterfront stadium was brought up at Howard Terminal at Jack London Square. 15 business leaders in Oakland last March had been in discussions with the Port of Oakland about constructing a 38,000 seat waterfront stadium, the business leaders which consist of CEOs from Dryer’s Ice Cream, Clorox, the son of Senator Barbara Boxer Doug Boxer who is a Oakland business consultant, Mike Ghielmetti of the Signature Development Group.

Lew Wolf the A’s co-owner has expressed in past discussions that he has no intentions to move the team to Jack London Square and his only thoughts on any new stadium plans for the A’s were in two choices, choice number one move to San Jose or number two build a new stadium at the current Coliseum location.

The San Jose idea is still in limbo as the city of San Jose is suing Major League Baseball for the A’s rights to move San Jose.The San Francisco Giants who hold territorial rights in San Jose would more than likely sue baseball if the A’s are allowed to move to San Jose. MLB is waiting for the judges decision on how the San Jose suit against them would proceed. If the judge says the team would be allowed to move to San Jose the Giants most likely would file suit in a higher court to appeal the ruling.

28 judges vote to allow Bonds to appeal obstruction charge: The Federal appeals court said on Tuesday that a majority of it’s judges (28) have voted to allow former Giants outfielder Barry Bonds a new hearing to remove the obstruction charge that a San Francisco jury voted Bonds guilty of in 2011. Bonds because he gave evaded a question as to if his trainer Greg Anderson injected Bonds with steroids.

Rather than answer the question Bonds became evasive and talked about being the child of a celebrity (his late father and former Giant Bobby Bonds), asked about his friendship with Anderson and if he injected him with steroids Bonds said to a federal prosecuting attorney, “I don’t get into other people’s business.”

Bonds lawyers at the time said that Bonds answered the prosecutions questions truthfully and that Bonds answered all the questions flatly, that Anderson never injected him with steroids. Bonds lawyers later appealed the obstruction charge which was upheld by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston who heard the case. Illston at the appeals hearing said that Bonds answer was not relevant to the question prosecutors were asking and indeed it was obstruction.

A hearing to proceed with the appeal and also based on the 28 judge vote to proceed will be heard in mid September. The Babo/BALCO steroid case now has a new life to it and if Bonds wins his appeal he could be back in the good graces of the Giants again. There is a good chance that MLB and the court of popular opinion may still reject Bonds and think of him as a cheater.

Jerry Feitelberg does sports commentary for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by Michael Duca

SAN FRANCISCO–The reason why the Giants manager Bruce Bochy has gone to committee in his bullpen is because he demoted his closer Sergio Romo and it’s a move to insure that you don’t have any hurt feelings for the rest of your staff because somebody didn’t get an opportunity.

As long as your experiencing failure you might as well let everybody try out for the job. Giants reliever Jeremy Affeldt got his shot on Sunday and Santiago Casilla will get the next shot in this week’s series against St.Louis. It wouldn’t even surprise me at some point if Jean Machi would get a shot.

However, when this is all said and done and September rolls around the closer is going to be Sergio Romo. Until then the team is going to do what they have to do and Romo is going to be moved to an eighth inning reliever. Bochy is trying to get him a little confidence built up.

Bochy would like to get Romo into situations where he can face three hitters and it could be done. Closer by committee in general does not work and when your saying your doing it what your really doing is putting a happy face on “were hosting an open try out.”

Oakland A’s update:Before A’s reliever Sean Doolittle gave up a walk off grand slam to former Athletic Rajai Davis of the Detroit Tigers on Monday night for a 5-4 win Doolittle had a 56-1 strikeout to walk ratio which is unheard of. Doolittle is the first pitcher since 1900 to strikeout 45 guys before walking his second batter.

Doolittle still has not walked that second batter, I’m reminded of one of the glory years that former Athletic reliever Dennis Eckersly had and he actually allowed more home runs than bases on balls, he only allowed four home runs that year and he walked three guys the whole season.

Sometimes you get in that groove the best thing that I can say there is nothing from watching Doolittle pitch that makes you expect this to happen he doesn’t throw 100 MPH. He doesn’t have a slider that disappears or has no dot. He doesn’t throw a curve ball that falls off the table.

Doolittle basically comes out and says “I’m going to throw the ball 94 MPH up under your hands and you can’t do anything about it” and he proceeds to do that pitch after pitch after pitch. Also here’s a kid like A’s pitcher Jesse Chavez whose coming in and doing the job.

The A’s bullpen is doing very good and has confidence and nobody talks about A’s pitching coach Curt Young and hitting coach Chili Davis and Davis does a terrific job with that team and he doesn’t get any media coverage. Young is one of the brainest and quietest pitching coaches in baseball and doesn’t get any credit. But look at the success of he A’s bullpen.

Michael Duca was joined by SRS writers Jeremy Kahn, Amaury Pi Gonzalez, and Morris Phillips for this week’s A’s and Giants commentary on http://www.sportsradioservice.com