Category: San Francisco Giants

by Michael Duca

OAKLAND–With the exception of certain pitchers in Japan nobody is perfect, occasionally pitchers will run into a stinker such as A’s starting pitcher Jesse Chavez on Tuesday night at the Coliseum when he surrendered three runs in the top of the first inning against the Seattle Mariners. His offense didn’t help him a whole lot.

Chavez really didn’t get a shot to stay in the game to see if he could hold the M’s who had a one run lead on Oakland going to the sixth. Chavez got lifted in the middle of the sixth inning after getting charged with four runs all earned. MLB.com came out with the pitcher power rankings and they had the Giants at number one and the A’s number two for best pitching in the majors, ironically for Tuesday night the both teams lost.

A’s outfielder Yoenis Cespedes has time to lift his .257 average, he was largely underschooled when he arrived in the Oakland. He’s been learning a lot of his craft at the Major Leauge level and he’s a major challenge and can be a force and as time goes by he will learn what pitchers are doing to try and get him out.

Cespedes banged out his fifth home run and 19th RBI against the M’s on Tuesday night.

Giants update: One thing about instant replay I’ve talked to several team coordinators and they’ve already began to realize you don’t challenge your plays that are close but you challenge your plays that are obvious. In the case of Giants catcher Buster Posey’s tag on Pirates runner Starling Marte there was nothing to lose on Tuesday night’s game as the Bucs challenged the play at the plate.

The other thing the players have to figure you have the umpires making these calls back in New York off TV, and the interesting thing is at the other three bases they determined whether or not somebody is on the base or not with his hand or his foot or whether or not the base deflects. You can’t do that with home plate.

Whether or not Posey regrets it regarding the replay rule, it’s a rule that people have to adjust to, in fact truthfully it’s not a change. The only thing that’s a change is adding language to the rule that a catcher has to leave a lane around home plate for the runner. The bigger change is to the runner and the catcher himself, the runner is not allowed to contact or push through to get home.

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

by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

ANAHEIM–I’m glad to be back in the wonderful World of Disney, the New York Yankees are paying a visit at Anaheim opening up Monday night. The Yankees are on tour on the west coast it’s going to be the Bronx Zoo here in Anaheim. The Yankees Derrick Jeter is going to have a tribute in every town he goes to outside of New York he’s going to get a tribute becuse this is his last season in the big leagues.

Jeter is one of the best, everytime I look at Jeter it’s hard to believe this is the one stat on Jeter, how can you figure it out but it’s true in the history of the Yankees there are so many mega stars, 27 World Series he’s the only Yankee with 3,000 hits so far thats incrdible.

Nobody but Jeter has 3,000 hits and that’s amazing he deserves the accolades so were going to dedicate the trivia at Anaheim to Jeter this week and the Yankees are right there in sunny, sunny California. You look at Jeter’s career, five World Series rings, count them five and he hit .300 in the playoffs and World Series.

He lived and worked for one team only in the biggest media market in the country and maybe in the world New York, he never was involved in any scandal, you never heard a rumor. You talk about something that’s not normal these days. You play in New York your talking about Alex Rodriguez whose in the middle of a season long suspension.

Here’s a guy who played his whole career in the media capital of the world on the number one franchise in the United States the Yankees, here’s a guy whose never had any scandal, never anything, everything is positive about this man. That by itself is a story.

Cobb County residents moving forward with petition against paying for Braves stadium: The Atlanta Braves who are planning to move out of downtown Atlanta after playing in ten year old Turner Field plan to move to suburban Cobb County they are being met with some protests from tax payers where County residents are putting a petition together not to pay the $450 million in public money for the $672 million new Braves stadium.

The Braves and county officials say it’s all but a done deal the Braves have been met with some political pressure and the reason is very clear because of the demographics it’s more of an upper middle to upper class and it’s more white and they will support baseball and spend bigger bucks at the park on the game and more than the downtown stadium.

The few times when I traveled to their old park at Fulton County and their current park Turner Field, Turner is actually a wonderful facility. The Giants just got done sweeping the Braves in a three game series over the weekend and there is nothing wrong with Turner but it’s just about the money with their planned move to Cobb County.

The Braves think they can do better in Cobb County, I really don’t know if there is enough momentum to stop them from moving because that’s a franchise decision. If Major League Baseball apporoves it it’s going to be very tough for anybody to stop it.

Turner Field was built for the 1996 Olympics and the Braves wanted some upgrades done with Turner but Fulton County didn’t provide the subsidies and so the Braves began to look elsewhere espeically after they were approached by Cobb County officials about a new site.

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

by Michael Duca

The A’s who open up a three game set on Friday night in Fenway Park in Boston are coming off a very successful two city trip after splitting a four game series in Houston and sweeping the Rangers in Arlington.

One of the keys to the A’s success during their five wins out of seven games on this last part of this trip is surprising pitcher Jesse Chavez. Chavez on Wednesday threw a one hit shutout in seven innings of work against the Rangers, the win helped the A’s sweep the Rangers.

Chavez at the beginning of the year was no where near what A’s General Manager Billy Beane or A’s manager Bob Melvin would expect out of his right hander as Chavez came to the A’s with a career 5.48 ERA in 234 2/3 innings which he accomplished over 191 games.

After both pitchers on Oakland’s staff A.J.Griffin and Jarrod Parker both were lost to Tommy John surgery for the season Chavez has stepped up and in his last six starts he’s been 1.89 ERA with the best record on the team in strikeouts at 9.7. He’s averaging 5.1 strikeouts versus walks.

The A’s are also complimented by Sonny Gray (ERA 1.76) and Scott Kazmir (ERA 2.11). The A’s offense against Ranger starters Yu Darvish, Martin Perez, and Robbie Ross had rocketed 22 runs in 11 1/3 innings against.

Giants update, Panda struggling to meet the standard: Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval’s asking price to the Giants is $90 million for five years worth of work which works out to what teammate Hunter Pence is getting.

Sandoval has been told by the team that he must reach a certain plateau on the stat sheet before the Giants would consider paying such a contract. Sandoval’s agent has said that negotiating a new contract now would be in the Giants best interest and that the Panda is worth the investment.

Giants General Manager Brian Sabean and Giants Manager Bruce Bochy disagree and have said that there are certain things that Sandoval needs to do in order to get what he wants, hit for average around the high .290s into the .300s, his run production and RBI production must be in the upper tier of the Giants pack.

Also Sandoval’s fielding must be top standard, errors down and put outs up. So far Sandoval has a lot of work in front of him as he’s hitting well under .200 at .177 entering Friday night’s action at Turner Field against the Braves with 11 runs, six RBIs and two homers.

While the goal standard Pence is hitting .262 with 18 runs, nine RBIs, and two home runs. While those might not be exactly Babe Ruth numbers Sandoval needs to match or pass those to keep his pace and case so at the end of the year he might be able to get what he wants.

As far as Gustavo Vazquez Sandoval’s agent is concern the Giants and Vazquez are at a standstill and are not discussing Sandoval’s contract, Sandoval is seeking upwards to $100 million for five years, he’s 27 years old and will be 32 at the end of such a deal, Sandoval has been an All-Star twice, carries high notoriety with the fans and selling of Panda merchandise.

He’s not in the best shape but trying to get a tad leaner he’s struggling at the plate and some say he might be pressing under the circumstances of trying to make the grade in a contract year.

Michael Duca does Giants and A’s commentary each week for Sportstalk

by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

SAN FRANCISCO–The jury is still out for me regarding if the Oakland A’s are not going to move to San Jose they can only play at Oakland. The Giants say you can play at AT&T Park while their building a new park while their building a new park in Oakland. It would probably would make sense that the A’s would have to talk to the Giants and coordinate all of this. The City of Oakland wants to keep the A’s but their going to lose the Warriors who are gone, they’re going to build a nice place south of AT&T Park.

The Raiders, no worries only ten home games per year but their probably are going to be gone too. The City of Oakland needs the A’s more and the A’s need the City of Oakland. The ten year deal is possible although it’s just posturing now unless A’s owner Lew Wolf says no right away. Right now it’s more positioning and were not sure if it’s going to happen quickly.

This is a like a domino effect that things will fall into place that might as well happen, it’s a very weird situation and I don’t see why Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig doesn’t meet the A’s and Giants in the same room and say to them it’s for the better of the game let’s do a deal here.

The A’s can approach Giants president Larry Baer and ask him, “do you want $100 million?” so the A’s can go to San Jose and get terriorial rights back. The A’s gave the Giants territorial rights to San Jose under former A’s owner Wally Haas. San Jose was not the headquarters to Silicon Valley and it was just another city. It’s a very confusing situation and Wolf is not getting any younger and maybe he could sell the team and maybe somebody at Clorox or Dreyers might be able to come in and buy the team.

The A’s are not worth a lot of money now, their a bargain at $300 million in baseball terms, I wish I had $300 million and you could probably buy the A’s for $350 million. San Jose is a warm market town and it’s a warm weather baseball town. San Jose Mercury News reporter Mark Purdy says that San Jose has the population to support the A’s.

Remember it’s in the Bay Area and people who support the Giants don’t only live in San Francisco but they can come from Alameda, Marin, Palo Alto, and San Jose and former Giants owner Bob Lurie did a study a few years ago on who goes to Giants games at Candlestick, a lot of people during the Candlestick era said they came from the South Bay.

I hate to say it if you build a brand new ball park in downtown San Jose in a town with that kind of income and those people down there make good money. It’s the most properous area the Silicon Valley. It was named by the census that these kids down there are making six figures and they support the Sharks and it’s 41 home games and not 81 home games like in baseball.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for A’s baseball and does News and Commentary each week on Sportstalk

by Michael Duca

SAN FRANCISCO–Right now the word weakly means the Giants offense right now despite dropping a 12 spot on the Rockies on Wednesday it’s pretty clear it’s their still scuffling to put some runs together and it looks like Hunter Pence is starting to come out of it but maybe Pablo Sandoval will decide that’s it’s a better idea to just forget about everything and go hitting and not worry about contracts.

As of this morning a new issue came up Angel Pagan in his diognostic research on his knee we all saw it last year what it’s like not to have him in the line up maybe he got a little soreness that he can heal up and clean up. Also this one is concerning pitchers, if a pitcher has Tommy John surgery in the first place you have a mechanical problem, if you have a second Tommy John surgery you have a coachability problem.

You didn’t learn a thing from the first one, you went out and did things the same way and despite the fact their able to wrap the tendons, put titanian screws and their stronger than an original tendon was, it’s still possible to destroy it if you don’t go out and use proper bio mechanics in pitching.

It is beyond me how Major League teams can invest in a quarter of a billion dollars in a pitching staff but their unwilling to spend $100,000 a year on someone with a masters or a PhD in bio mechanics to be on staff to make sure that investment actually pays off.

Giants manager Bruce Bochy says he doesn’t want to have anything to do with Giants thrid baseman Pablo Sandoval’s agent, Sandoval changed agents last season and the agent has been fairly pushy in terms of trying to get the Giants to take a look at the new reality and understand what Pablo is probably going to be worth in the open market if he goes out there.

He was asking for five years for $90 million total, at $18 million a year average, honestly in this current market place considering that gives you fiscal certainty for a five year period forward. The only thing that you have to decide before you agree to a deal does Pablo have the discipline to maintain the weight and conditioning that he put himself through this year?

A’s pitcher Scott Kazmir getting $22 million is going to be a bargain, the world changed about a year and half ago, when this latest round of TV contracts came in and teams started reeiving upwards of $35 million a year and the national contract will grow to $60 million a year over the course of the contact. You add in things like the Dodgers with their local contract signed for $3 billion over a 25 year period.

These are just ludcrious numbers,now paying $11 millon a year for a pitcher who can go out and give you 30 starts is nothing. Thats a bargain rate your going to see very soon people signing contracts in the range of $200 million over their lifetime for maybe five or six seasons, it’s not far away.

Michael Duca does commentary on A’s and Giants each week for Sportstalk radio

by Michael Duca

If you talk to San Frnacisco Giants TV analyst Mike Krukow about the Giants offense he wouldn’t complain about it but his broadcast partner Duane Kuiper complained about the offense about guys who need to do some timely situational hitting which is a real issue for the Giants. Krukow started a little bit of a firestorm on Friday night when he said during the telecast that Giants catcher Hector Sanchez is not a Major League quality catcher and there will be repercussions coming down for that remark.

Krukow may actually be correct and it’s a serious issue for the Giants, the club needs a second catcher for those two days a week when they want to get Buster Posey out of the line up for a rest. Back up catchers are not considered to be offensive personalities but you really want them to defend. The pass ball that wound up costing Giants starter on Friday Matt Cain his first run on Friday night was just an utterly sloppy effort by Sanchez.

There was no two ways about it, its the same guy who won a game for them earlier on the homestand with a 12th inning single gave that game back in the standings on Friday night. The Giants faced a decent pitcher in Padres starter Tyson Ross who pitched four innings surrendered eight hits and no runs. Ross always had great potential he was a great pitcher at Cal and was a solid pitcher in San Francisco but he just never found a spot to break into on the Giants rotation.

Ross was pitching well in San Francisco and it looked like he got a spot to slide into in the rotation when he injured himself on the first batter and went out for three weeks and when he got back he never got that opportunity back. He’s always had the potential He’s a big tall pitcher and had trouble harnessing the mechanics, had trouble harnessing the leverage of his body and it could take him longer to mature to quote “get it” and now it looks like Tyson got it.

Oakland A’s update: When you get four walks from the opposing pitcher in the opening inning which happened when the A’s faced Houston Astros starter Jason Cosart in the opening game of this series Friday who pitched one third of an inning and surrendered seven runs and three hits and they managed to get four walks from Cosart and the A’s managed to match all of them with home runs this is an opportunistic offense who makes the job of the pitcher much easier. Go ask A’s pitcher Sonny Grey how easy it was for him to throw the last five innings with a seven or eight run lead.

We saw this on the last homestand in San Francisco when Tim Hudson was throwing 62 percent strikes to start a game and when they expanded the lead for him from 2-1 to 5-1 he started suddenly throwing 75 percent strikes he went out and started challenging the strike zone and saying “I hit it I got seven guys behind me a and one in front of me who will catch it.”

That’s what pitchers have to do, that’s what pitchers don’t seem to be able to do with the lead until they become very mature is to understand you don’t need to pitch for strikeouts and stats anymore with a four or five run lead and you pitch to make them contact the ball and make them hit the ball at people.

It was Josh Donaldson bobblehead day at the Coliseum on Saturday and you have to admit that his head is the only thing that bobbles. Donaldson has a .247 average, three home runs and ten RBIs and he owns the tarp, nobody defends as well as he does in the Coliseum. He scuffled a little bit to begin the season. He was struggling at the plate. It’s happens guys who are on fire in Arizona and all of sudden cool off and then it’s vice versa guys who couldn’t buy a base hit to save their life in the desert come up to the regular season and start hitting, it’s always interesting to watch.

Michael Duca does commentary on Giants and A’s weekly for Sportstalk radio