Buster Posey
I know that we talked about the San Francisco Giants yesterday about how they moved up Conor Gillaspie up to the Majors but we continue with our coverage of the Giants minor league system with an article about Buster Posey. He was added to the San Jose Giants roster for the playoffs where he made his first appearance on Saturday evening where the Giants picked up a 5-3 victory in Game 1 of their playoff series against Stockton. Posey went 1-3 with a walk and threw out a baserunner in his debut. The Giants have had Posey on three different teams in the last eight days where he started in Rookie Ball in Arizona then promoted to short-season A ball in Oregon before being promoted to San Jose.
The most interesting thing about Posey moving to San Jose was that he received the number 49 which was formerly worn by San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Tim Lincecum. The jersey dates back three seasons where Lincecum was a member of the team so it should be a hot item at the end of the season auction which the team will have with the old jerseys.
I tend to believe that the Giants are moving Posey up there system way too fast and he could get overloaded real quick especially calling pitches. We checked out Posey this past season and our full report is available by clicking here. According to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, there is a ton of pressure on Posey to deliver on the field and off:
But for the Giants, he is absolutely a defining player. Because of the organization’s inability to cultivate many everyday players in the past decade, the anticipation and anxiety about Posey’s development has inflated to proportions usually reserved for an NFL draft pick. Posey grew up a Braves fan, and though he studied Giants history after they chose him, he said he was unaware of this particular shortcoming.
Besides, it appears that he is a natural at filling gaps for a team.
A freshman All-America shortstop at Florida State, Posey agreed to become a catcher when his coaches pointed out that they needed someone there. He made the transition without inhibiting his offense, a fairly remarkable achievement for someone who had not caught before.
But like most college catchers, Posey didn’t call pitches. It’s assumed that he will adapt well because he was a good student; the finance major said his college grade-point average was close to 3.8. But pitch selection, and the psychological care and feeding of pitchers, rarely come immediately to a young player.
San Jose manager Steve Decker, a former catcher, planned to step in and call pitches for Posey if necessary, but after the game, he said he didn’t need to do much of it. Decker said that Brian Harper, a roving catching instructor for the Giants, had done some research on developing young catchers and confirmed what they both suspected. The most successful catchers tend to spend at least 300 games in the minors before they make the move to the parent club.
The full article is available here.
