Pitching staff moves on without Molina By Ken Gimblin and Joe Cronin July 3, 2010     SAN FRANCISCO--Giant catcher Bengie Molina is a competitor and plays hard for the Giants and Lincecum and the other pitchers on the staff will credit him with a lot of help. Molina certainly helped the team last year but he slowed down defensively this year and there is no question he's a little off compared to last season. Molina's hitting is also off this season and his defensive skills have slipped for the Giants and the Giants wanted to put catcher Buster Posey back there and give him more time because he's the catcher of the future for the Giants. Molina with his departure had pitcher Matt Cain saying the club must move on and the responsibility falls mainly on the pitcher. Cain added that they’re the ones who have to call the game so it was the right time to deal Molina. There were balls getting by Molina that shouldn't have gotten by him. Molina had slowed down tremendously and they have a young catcher in Posey there and it was time to move Molina and put Posey behind the plate. Molina had slipped in recent months offensively and they need hitting in there and Molina was not providing it. Owner Bill Neukum ready to enforce territorial rights: Neukum emphasized just recently that the Giants do not want the Oakland A's in their competition for the South Bay. The A's owner Lew Wolf had said he wanted to move the team to San Jose and had met with MLB officials to discuss the matter but the issue is still in the talking stages with very little movement for an A's new stadium in downtown San Jose. Other sports will be in competition for the sports dollar in the hard hit economic South Bay like the Sharks, soon to be Santa Clara 49ers and the San Jose Giants. The A's would have to compensate for that if a deal was ever struck. The territorial rights are a huge advantage for the Giants and forcing the A's to stay in the east bay. Tim Lincecum's performance: Lincecum has struggled in his last few outings and it could be mental rather than physical from the stand point someone pointed out his salary could be forcing him to press to win games, before Lincecum would go out and play the game and have fun now it's win. Lincecum has got to go out and do a good job and he's having trouble with his fast ball and location. Obviously he's having problems with his fast ball than the other pitchers and the other pitchers are not going to be quite as effective. The Giants are still not sure why Lincecum is having location problems, pitching coach Dave Righetti has said it might be his delivery, also could it be the added pressure with the added salary to win and press. One thing for sure they want Timmy out their pitching like the way he was for the last two years. Happy Anniversary Rags: Righetti celebrates the 27th anniversary of his no hitter he pitched as a Yankee on July 4th 1983 against the Boston Red Sox in a 4-0 victory. Ken Gimblin and Joe Cronin cover Giants baseball each week for Sportstalk Radio

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