Michael Duca's A's and Giants Q&A

By Michael Duca

June 18, 2008
 
 



Giants question: Bengie Molina the Giants catcher has been concerned ever since General Manager Brian Sabean said he had his eye on #5 draft pick Buster Posey and that Molina's "clock is winding down" to quote Sabean. Will Molina end up pressing since he knows that Posey could be the Giants poster boy for the future catching position?

Duca: It is odd ever since Posey was drafted Bengie's been in a slump. Molina is an extremely streaky hitter 17-21 and then 0-19. That result is pretty good it could be frustrating to watch the down part of the streak. Molina is a very proud man and a very tough competitor.

It’s very difficult for me to imagine anyone trying to motivate him more. No matter who you pick at number five it's going to make someone on your roster uncomfortable, if it's not then it's going to make somebody in your player development uncomfortable and if you don't pick somebody at that level that potentially has an almost immediate impact on your team.

Posey might well wind up winning the Johnny Bench Award he might wind up winning the Golden Spike Award. He's the best hitter in college baseball. Posey is going to have an impact on people in San Francisco he's going to push people.

How fast will Posey push people? Like I said when they get him signed, he'll probably go to Connecticut and play at double AA and we'll see from there.


A's question: The A's have proven that they can score a runs and they came out like lighting against the Diamondbacks in the opening game of the series.

Duca: I'm going to have a chat with some of these managers; my fantasy team is taking a terrible beating in the last two nights. Brian Wilson coming into a non-save situation last night Bob Melvin thought it would be a good idea to take Branden Webb who hasn't been scored upon in his first week of April and put him into a 9-1 ball game in the 9th inning.

I'm not sure what makes people think this is a good idea. If a guy needs work, put him out in the bull pen and tell him to throw hard. This is not a wise situation for people to get into. For some reason, the A's just seem to hit the heck out of the ball in that ball park.

The A's have dominated the Diamondbacks in all of the three visits. The then rookie Tim Hudson just crushed Randy Johnson with the Diamondbacks in 1999. The A's beat Curt Schilling the last time in Chase Field the A's kind of ended all the questions about Branden Webb or Tim Lincecum about who should start the All-Star game for the National League.

Webb might be a hell of a pitcher in the National League. Apparently, American Leaguers find his offerings to their liking.


MLB Question: Willie Randolph got an unorthodox way of getting fired from the Mets after Sunday's game owner Omar Manya assured Randolph he wasn't going to get the hook. Upon flying cross country with the team to Anaheim Randolph and pitching coach Rick Peterson were fired by Manya under the cover of past the New York deadline.

Duca: This was underhanded and another way of putting this, sleazy, to send somebody all the way across the country and blow them up after the first game of a road trip and then wait until 12:15 AM past the tabloid deadline in New York to tell people by email.

There is a whole lot about this that doesn't seem to me to reek about class and Omar Manya has a reputation of reeking of class. It's kind of an interesting thing. Bob Bowman of MLB.com I think expressed it the best when he said that "if you'll excuse a little bit of a rural analogy for a very urban situation the tracker's broken let's kill the farmer."

Michael Duca does Giants and A's Q's and A's each week for Sports Radio.

 

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