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		That's Amaury's News and Commentary: With Smith developing job # 1 it's still on his shoulders August 2, 2008

	SAN FRANCISCO--San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith is key to the success of this team. Smith is still a young guy and is still developing and the 49ers can go to the back ups and so forth and in a perfect world that's what the 49ers want to do. In football the quarterback is essential and as they say in baseball you can not win without pitching, in football you can not win without a good quarterback it's impossible and all the road signs point to Alex Smith who should be a good quarterback in the tradition of Steve Young, Joe Montana and Jeff Garcia, and so many greats that have played for the Niners. All the 49ers can do at this point is hope for the best and their going to need Smith's input this year. The 49ers start their exhibition season against the Raiders on Friday and will start putting Smith and quarterbacks Shaun Hill and J.T. O'Sullivan to the test immediately so we'll see on Friday night who looks good. Amaury's Raider chalk talk: When the Raiders released LaMont Jordan his agent was told by Raiders owner Al Davis that there was an unwritten agreement that Jordan would not be signed by the Patriots or the Broncos. The following day after Jordan's release Jordan became a Patriot. Jordan's agent said that no such agreement was ever made and that Jordan being a free agent was free to sign with whichever club wanted him most and that team was the New England Patriots. Davis couldn't fathom the thought that Jordan would also help boost New England's wide receiving corp after Randy Moss bolted before last season and helped the Pats with another successful season. On Al Davis he might be at the end of his long life in pro football in the way he manages the organization. In the old days you couldn't do that to Davis but things have changed. It's part of the game and look what’s happening to Brett Favre and Aaron Rogers of the Green Bay Packers. With the Pack saying that Rogers is going to be the quarterback and Favre will be paid to retire for $20 million over the next ten years. Favre who may not take the offer could show up in camp and still wind up being the back up quarterback. Favre doesn’t want to be a back up quarterback and he might end up signing somewhere else namely Minnesota. So this is all part of the game and Al Davis has a huge ego and as we know Davis is Mr. Raider and Mr. Commitment to Excellence and I'm sure he's very steamed about Jordan bolting for the Pats. With only one trade Giants enter a mystical August: All of July there was lots of talk that Giants veteran shortstop Omar Vizquel, catcher Bengie Molina, and infielder Rich Aurilia were all going to be dealt somewhere but by he looks of things all three will remain in the San Francisco for the rest of the season. Outfielder Randy Winn was almost assured he would be safe and has stayed on with the club with the only deal sending veteran infielder Ray Durham to Milwaukee summing up the Giants trade excitement for July. The Giants need some great prospects that can play right away but Giants General Manager Brian Sabean didn't turn up any all of July. The Giants can't turn to their farm system as the minors are all decimated. They don't have a lot of quality players there to turn to that can come up and play at the big league level. The Giants are in a conundrum here and if they had traded a Randy Winn who’s a guy who is a contact hitter and is a very decent outfielder could have helped a team like a Milwaukee whose contending the Giants will need prospects who are getting ready to play. Molina was shopped by the Yankees last month to replace an open spot on the roster at catcher after Jorge Posada went down with a shoulder injury knocking him out for the rest of the season. If that had happened Molina would be catching with his brother Jose on the Yanks. But the Yankees had their eye on Pudge Rodriguez who got dealt from Detroit and now he's the number catcher. Bengie is a better catcher than Jose and is a better hitter although Jose is an excellent defensive catcher. The thought at that time was if Bengie went to the Big Apple the Yankees would have sent some quality prospects but that deal never was finalized. A's will shore up prospects from Cubs deal: A few weeks ago after Rich Hardin left the A's for Chicago the A's will be keeping hopes alive that the players that they picked up from Chicago will provide dividends in the long run in Oakland. The A's were also rumored last month that they were going to deal closer Huston Street another deal that never materialized. With A's General Manager Billy Beane you never know what he's going to do. Also Mark Ellis was being shopped last month and surprisingly he's a great second baseman and an established star he could have left also. But with no deals done except for Hardin and pitcher Chad Gaudin being dealt to Chicago, that deal will go down as the only thrills the team had during a month which Beane wanted to push his fire sales. Trying to deal Street last month was difficult because of the tough season Street is having and he's not closing games like the Huston Street of the past. Amaury Pi Gonzalez does News and Commentary each week for Sportstalk Radio.