Larry Brown Sports

Buster Posey is heading into 2012 with a new job description. As an MLB catcher, it was once Posey’s job to block the plate if it was the only way he could make an out on a tag play at home. After suffering a gruesome injury by blocking the plate last season, Giants manager Bruce Bochy has ordered his star catcher to find other ways to apply the tag this season.

“I don’t want him blocking the plate right now,” Bochy said Sunday according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “I’ve already talked to Buster about this. There are ways you can make the tag without blocking the plate. I’ll take it out of Buster’s hands. As a manager, that’s my job. I certainly don’t want people to think he’s backing off on his own. It’s something we’ll work on him with this spring.”

If you ask Buster, however, he will tell you that blocking the plate wasn’t what got him hurt last season. While he says he accepts the fact that Marlins outfielder Scott Cousins has apologized for the play, he is still not speaking to him.

“I want to make it clear I wasn’t blocking the plate in the first place,” Posey insisted.

Posey is a competitor, so something tells me if the game is on the line and he thinks he has to block the plate to save it, he’s going to do what his catching instincts tell him to do. That being said, I certainly understand Bochy’s concern.

When catcher Buster Posey was steamrolled in May and broke his ankle, the Giants were outraged. GM Brian Sabean blasted Marlins runner Scott Cousins for trucking Posey. Posey’s agent was livid that his golden ticket got injured and lobbied MLB to change its rules. The question quickly became a talking point amongst sports fans for the next week. But guess what? The Giants continued to win games, remain in first place, and all was mostly forgotten. Even in the MLB offices, apparently.

Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News included this note in a column posted Thursday:

As I understand it, there’s been little response from Major League Baseball on the Giants’ request to look at making rule changes designed to protect catchers from being targeted by baserunners when they aren’t blocking the plate. MLB vice president Joe Torre doesn’t believe any changes are warranted, and for all the Giants’ passion over the issue, it doesn’t appear it will gain much traction.

Good. It shouldn’t gain much traction. We may not be pleased with Torre’s reluctance to proceed with instant replay in baseball, but at least he has the right idea here. Why change 100 years of the way the game’s been played because one promising young player got hurt? Do we need to outlaw inside pitches because players get injured from that? Of course not. The outrage from San Francisco was extreme and misguided. Would they have lobbied for the same changes had Eli Whiteside been hurt? Of course not. I’m glad MLB doesn’t appear to be caving.

Showtime’s new show The Franchise: A Season with the San Francisco Giants debuted on Wednesday night. On Tuesday, Showtime released a clip of the show that we saw at SI Hot Clicks, and it mostly dealt with Buster Posey’s recovery from his ankle injury. If you watch the video, you can see his ankle was swollen, discolored, and disfigured at the time of the filming. Check it out:

Our buddy The Sports Hernia termed the ankle “grotesque” and that seems appropriate. Not only is it plain to see that Posey has a long way to go in his recovery, but it’s clear his views on catching have completely changed.

The most interesting part of the video came at the end when Buster said there was “no way, no chance” he would let his child become a catcher. Maybe if Buster had played third base like his sister, he would feel differently.

When we see an injury like the nasty one Buster Posey suffered at home plate on Thursday night, we are reminded that at certain times baseball can be as physical as football — without any of the protection.  Fans love to see players who aren’t afraid to go all out and truck the catcher.  We also love to see a catcher who isn’t afraid to put his body on the line for an out even if it means getting run over.  The only question is: Does baseball need it?

Posey’s agent, Jeff Berry, said on Thursday that he plans to contact Major League Baseball and raise the idea of a rule change on plays at the plate.

“You leave players way too vulnerable,” Berry said. “I can tell you Major League Baseball is less than it was before [Posey's injury]. It’s stupid. I don’t know if this ends up leading to a rule change, but it should. The guy [at the plate] is too exposed.

“If you go helmet to helmet in the NFL, it’s a $100,000 fine, but in baseball, you have a situation in which runners are [slamming into] fielders. It’s brutal. It’s borderline shocking. It just stinks for baseball. I’m going to call Major League Baseball and put this on the radar. Because it’s just wrong.”

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Giants prized catcher Buster Posey suffered an awful break Wednesday night when he was injured on a collision at the plate. Marlins pinch hitter Scott Cousins tagged up from third on a fly ball in the 12th and launched into Posey to score the winning run. Posey’s left leg was planted in the ground and his body was bent backwards, likely injuring his ankle or leg. It was a brutal injury and an extremely difficult break for such a good young player.

Though we don’t want to minimize how much this could set back Posey — team officials would only say that the injury was “not good” — the Giants are still the NL West leader and need a replacement. Eli Whiteside is their only other catcher on the roster, so they’ll likely call up Chris Stewart from the minors. But maybe another name familiar to Giants fans can end up in San Francisco: Bengie Molina.

Molina has been out of baseball this year because he did not receive a contract offer in the offseason that he deemed satisfactory. The Red Sox reportedly had contacted him earlier in the month, but now that Jarrod Saltalamacchia has started to hit, their interest may be limited.

We have no idea what kind of playing shape he’s in, but Bengie is familiar with the Giants having played there since ’07 (they traded him to the Rangers mid-season last year). If any opportunity could make him come back to baseball this would be it. If it does happen, he’ll probably need several weeks of minor league action before being ready for the Giants, but the wait would probably be worthwhile.

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez

Hitting apparently runs in the Posey family. Buster Posey won the NL Rookie of the Year last season with the Giants and helped lead them to the World Series title. His younger sister Samantha Posey is also a slugger, leading her Valdosta State D-II squad with a .468 average, eight home runs, .909 slugging percentage and .512 on-base percentage. The younger Posey grabbed national headlines for her amazing performance on Monday.

In a double-header against Albany State, Samantha went 5-for-7 with four home runs and 11 RBIs. Her team swept the two games by a combined 29-0, but the real story was that Samantha hit for the home run cycle, knocking out a solo home run, two-run home run, three-run home run, and a grand slam. I haven’t seen her hit but it sure looks like she has a similar swing to her wildly successful brother. Now all we need is to see her get drafted to compare the two at the professional level.

Valdosta State is ranked 4th in the country with a record of 31-6 on the year and Posey is the team’s top hitter.

Photo Credit: Yahoo! Sports

The tally for rookie of the year voting balloting came in Monday and, shockingly, for the first time in recent memory, the East Coast sporting bias did not rule the day. The National League award went to San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey, the spark plug for the eventual World Series champions. The American League trophy went to Texas Rangers closer Neftali Feliz, who broke the rookie save record with 40 and helped his team reach the World Series.

Although the credibility of all postseason awards took a blow with the preposterous selection of Derek Jeter as the Gold Glove winner for the second straight year, Posey and Feliz were the obvious choices for ROY. And that was despite the tremendous media pressure — ESPN included — for the honor in the senior circuit to go to the young player hyped as the savior of baseball, perhaps the next Hank Aaron, Jason Heyward.

Heyward had a terrific season, batting .277 with 18 home runs, 77 RBIs and 11 stolen bases, but he was not the best rookie in the National League this year. That distinction belonged to Buster Posey by far.

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