Sports Radio Service


		Zito can be key to Giants season By Ken Gimblin and Joe Cronin May 11, 2010

	SAN FRANCISCO--Just a bit of National League news first, to answer the question whether former Giants manager and now Reds manager Dusty Baker or Cubs manager Lou Piniella will get the ax after this season. Piniella is a character and as a manager he's definitely old school. He believes that you yell and scream at the players but basically leave them alone. With Dusty it is the opposite he's very positive and he's with the players and he knows what’s going. We have a lot of respect for Dusty, he's a tremendous individual and we consider him a friend and in addition to that an excellent manager. This is his second year in Cincinnati, so we don't see how the Reds management can hold him accountable and this is the second year in a three year contract. On Piniella Cub fans are disappointed and they were disappointed when Dusty was there too. They expect a winner, the Cubs are not sure they could have done any better. Piniella is not our type of manager from the stand point of the players. We would go along with Dusty in the contemporary approach to things. Piniella is a good manager and certainly gets respect from the players and he's kind of a character and they've told stories about him but as a baseball manager he's pretty good. When we interviewed Piniella for a post game show for the Mariners radio network when he was managing the team they wanted to make sure there was no profanity involved in the interview. So Lou is a real character but overall a pretty good manager. We have high respect for Dusty and he hasn't been there long enough you've got to give him a little bit more time. Giants need this series against Pads: Anytime you do four out of six on the road and the Giants did that, that's pretty good and number two they were playing a good team in New York. Conditions at Citi Field were similar to old Candlestick Park. You had fly balls that fell in for doubles and triples and should have been outs. Looking at the situations for the Giants had the weather been a little better the Giants might have been successful in all three games with the Mets. They had a good series and they opened up against the Padres on Tuesday night. This is a key series against the Padres, the Padres who are now the surprise leader of the National League West although we don't see them out there in September but who knows. The Astros are coming this week as well and they've been horrible this year but the Padres are off to a real good start. When the Giants went to San Diego the Padres won all three games and we'll see what happens up here at AT&T. The Giant pitching should hopefully give them a good shot and maybe they can take two out of three or all three games. The pitchers were not a 100% sold on is Todd Wellenmeyer the Giants should have spent a little more money and brought back Brad Penny. He would have made a great fifth starter and the team would have been a lot better off, the other player that's had a great year and is highly respected because in spite of the negative things he certainly worked hard and that's Giant pitcher Barry Zito. He probably is one of the hardest working pitchers on the Giants staff and right now is off to a great start so you have to include him right now at the present time with that great pitching staff of the Giants. Ken Gimblin and Joe Cronin cover Giants baseball each week for Sportstalk radio