01-24-2020, 11:50 AM
(01-23-2020, 10:57 PM)lex24 Wrote: Posey was both a great and a feared hitter. As evidenced by his leading the league (as a catcher, first in NL since Ernie Lombardi) in hitting and winning an MVP award in ‘12. He was never a great HR hitter. Power alley guy with the ability to go the other way. He was also generally the one guy in that lineup that opposing managers didn’t want to let beat them. Catching every inning of every playoff game, coupled with a medical staff that let him play with a hip injury far too long robbed him of his lower body. He still hit for a relatively high average in 18 with nothing but his friggin hands. He couldn’t turn on the ball. If you were watching then, you saw it. They should have shut him down around June 1 and let him get the very serious hip surgery he had around November. Might have given him a shot to actually be ready for ‘19. The guy is one tough dude. Stayed behind the plate when he could have moved to first base (and put up much better numbers. The injury in 2011 was damn near career ending. At one time he was hitting around.360 when he played first. Part of that was he usually did that against lefties. And he killed lefties at one time. I realize it’s now fashionable to denigrate him. Cause it’s always what have you done for me lately. But next to Willie Mays and Barry Bonds he’s the most important Giant in SF baseball history. He has 3 rings to prove it.
I’m betting on him (literally) to rebound next year.
Numbers from ‘10-17.
‘10. 305/357/505/862
‘11. Hurt
‘12. .336/.408/549/957
‘13. 294/371/450/821
14. 311/364/490/854
15. 318/379/470/849
16. 288/362/434/796
17. 320/400/462/861
Pretty flipping good numbers for a catcher. One might even say great. Right?
Buster should be renamed "slappy" as he is now just a slap singles hitter. Saying Buster has no power is being generous.
The only difference between Buster and your more typical slap-singles hitter is that the prototype usually has some speed. How many DPs has Buster hit into in his career? Those might be HoF numbers . . .
Don't take the above as too critical. Buster has had a good career and has been a great Giant (probably Top 25 in my lifetime). But he's just not a Hall of Famer . . . no shame in that.
And I also agree that the injury he suffered was brutal and a gratuitous shot by a 'roided out player just trying to stick in the Bigs (okay, I have no clue whether that's true, but it's my story and I'm sticking with it!). Without that injury, I have no doubt Buster's numbers would look a lot better, including his power numbers.