Giambi got “run down” by A’s
Posted By Jeff Fletcher on September 16, 2009 7:38 pm
Jason Giambi is in town with the Rockies, and the other day we talked about his new role as a pinch-hitter. Anyway, of interest to A’s fans is what he told me about why his season with Oakland went so badly.
He said he had prepared himself to DH, not to play first base.
“With all those guys getting hurt I wasn’t prepared to play first base every day,” Giambi said. “I think I just got run down. I was really ready to DH.”
Giambi didn’t admit that this was an issue while he was wearing an A’s uniform. Whenever I asked him about it, which I did at least twice, he said that he felt fine, his legs were strong, yadda yadda. So now that he’s out of there, the truth comes out. It really isn’t much of a surprise. Playing first base is not as easy as you’d think. I remember having a discussion with some Giants people, including J.T. Snow, about Barry Bonds moving to first, and the consensus was that he’d never last there because you actually have to move around a lot more than you do in the outfield. You may run farther in the outfield, but not nearly as often as you are bouncing off the bag at first, setting up for cutoffs and relays, etc.
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