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		Michael Duca's A's and Giants Q&A By Michael Duca August 18, 2008

	A's question: After the exodus in July the A's have fallen and fallen some more needless to say the season is a write off and the A's might could finish 2008 30 games out in dead last is this what Lew Wolf and Billy Beane had intended? Miguel: The less pitching the A's have the less they hit. I had a chance to speak to Frank Thomas this past weekend and he's been helping the 12 rookies that the A's have used this year, getting them to understand the flow of the game, that players will go through bad patches with hitting and just can't do certain things and sometimes the bad patches last a month. You can't start doubting yourself and your abilities, you can't doubt an organization's that draft and develop you to where you are. You just have to go out and tough your way through it. That's what the game is like. It's one of the many ways that it tests you and what people mean when people say the game is a marathon and not a sprint. Giants question: Giants future draft choice catcher Buster Posey was signed to a deal for over $6 million what future impact will this signing mean to the organization? Miguel: You can not any longer grouse about the fact that team isn't willing to go out and spend money. Whether you talk about the Giants signing the largest free agent contract out there with the Barry Zito signing or if you talk about the fact that the Giants have now paid the largest bonus in the history of the Dominican Republic and now the Giants have paid the largest bonus in the history of the June first year player draft. Posey got $6.2 million a whole lot less than the $10 million that he was asking for and a little bit more than the $6 million than the Giants were allegedly asking for but even still you can understand why they waited until an hour after the signing period close to announce the contract and let people begin to figure out what the numbers are. Because the numbers would not have been very popular in some other MLB offices if people have learned about them. Even though Posey is a Golden Spikes winner and probably be worth the kind of money they offered him never the less you are paying $6 million which is the equivalent of what all 15 of all the rookies they called up this year will earn. Posey hasn't played one pitch of professional baseball yet. So it's a gamble, there is no question about it. But it certainly looks like he's worth taking the bet on. He's a solid hitter, his catching skills ahhhh not too sure about that, because he hasn't been a catcher all the way through his high school and college career. Posey is a converted catcher so it remains to be seen how well those skills develop. Posey certainly has the throwing skills and if he can develop the foot work and the game calling skills at the high professional level than I think they've got themselves a bargain. Michael Duca does A's and Giants questions each week for Sportstalk radio.