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		Michael Duca on A's and Giants By Michael Duca July 4, 2010

	Sportstalk: The Giants are going in a different direction with the trading of catcher Bengie Molina to Texas and starting catcher Buster Posey everyday. Is this move the right time by the team and obviously pitchers Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain felt they had chemistry going with Molina behind the plate? Absolutely the right move and the right time. Posey has had success as a hitter, has shown he has defensive chops, and had earned an everyday role. All that being said, he would probably not have been worth first-round money but that he was drafted as a catcher, a notoriously difficult position to field. Meanwhile, Bengie's once-solid skills behind the plate had fallen off dramatically -- he was, to be honest, a liability behind the plate with Zito and Sanchez pitching, as well as with Sergio Romo, Brian Wilson and Jeremy Affeldt -- all of whom rely on filthy breaking pitches for strikeouts. Bengie was just no longer able to move his feet and his body to block pitches, which subtly affects the aggressiveness of his pitchers. That's not a personal knock on Bengie, who was always a stand-up guy on the field and in the clubhouse, and who will be sorely missed as a teammate, but it's a sad fact that age gets all of us, and it has claimed Bengie Molina. Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain will adapt. They've successfully thrown to Eli Whiteside, and they will do fine with Posey once he's gotten the major-league experience of cataloging hitters. He's an enormously gifted player who has spent most of his time asking questions -- very coachable, as they say -- and who truly wants the knowledge he needs to have to be a success. Sportstalk: Owner Bill Neukom said this week that he wants to make it clear that the Giants are prepared to fight for their territorial rights in the South Bay. The A's owner Lew Wolff and MLB have been in discussions about moving the team to San Jose. Will Neukum be able to enforce those rights for territory or will MLB finally be able to tell the Giants surrender territorial rights to make way for an A's South Bay move? Well, Neukom has a pretty strong case. Most people think MLB granted those rights to the Giants, but they are wrong. Those rights were "granted" by Wally Haas when he owned the A's, doing what Wally always did -- thinking about the bigger picture, of how the area needed two successful teams. Since they were granted by the owner of the A's in his capacity as owner of the A's, that creates a legal situation that is fully enforceable in the courts and over which MLB actually has little or no say. I'm not a lawyer and I didn't even drive by a Holiday Inn last night, so I'm not certain what the legal theory is, but I think it's called promissory estoppel, and the fact it's been in place through two other sets of ownership in essence establishes it in the eyes of the law. Lew Wolff can discuss all he wants with MLB, but I believe they have to convince Neukom and his partners to voluntarily surrender something of value which they have an established right to own, and which they, in turn, purchased from Bob Lurie...and I just don't see Bud Selig having much of any power in that arena. Sportstalk: After Dallas Braden's famous Mother's day perfect game against Tampa Bay he has been shut down with elbow and arm issues. The A's struggled in June and have won two of three in July how much do the A's staff miss Braden in the their chemistry of things? I guess you could say, "not at all", since he hasn't won a start since Mother's Day. Or, you could make the case that June's stumbles were largely fueled by his relative absence from the rotation, at least in terms of impact. On the other hand, we have Trevor Cahill, basically out of nowhere. On the whole, I'm sure they'd rather have a healthy and productive Dallas Braden, but I don't think his absence has been that big a key to their slipping in the standings.