San Francisco Giants’ Buster Posey ready for bigger role in 2011
While the San Francisco Giants are busy preparing for the 2011 regular season in Spring Training, the club is also working out issues tied to young catcher, Buster Posey.
The talented ball player was immensely influential last season and the club doesn’t want that to change in the coming months as the new season kicks off in April. Posey was a phenom during the second half of the 2010 season for the Giants and his .288 hitting
average in the playoffs earned him a lot of respect in the clubhouse.
Manager Bruce Bouchy, also a former catcher himself, understands what Posey will be going through entering the new season and wants cover for the youngster. Not many players have the stamina to last in the catcher’s position and the manager doesn’t want
to exert unnecessary pressure on the youngster.
Some of the best catchers in the game put up good performances last year but Posey is too young to fulfill his responsibilities in that position. St. Louis Cardinals’ catcher Yadier Molina featured in 130 games last season. That is a feat Posey cannot achieve
in the coming season given that he is just 23 years old. Nevertheless, he does want to play as many games as he can.
Posey told reporters, "I think I'd like to play as much as I could to where I was going to be fresh enough to make contributions. I'd like to be out there as much as I can. I'm not in any way going to put a number on how many days I'm going to have off.
I guess it'll kind of be a 'feel' thing. I don't know how much I'll have a say in it."
Buster however, started to lose his edge in September last year, which is a major concern for Bouchy. Posey also admits he has had a dip in form but attributed it to the number of games he played. He said, "I was starting to feel it a little bit toward the
end of the season. It was such a grind those last couple of weeks. The intensity of the games probably played into that a little bit." Posey added with a laugh, "Like the playoffs aren't high-intensity."
If the Giants want to play it right with the youngster, they have to utilise Eli Whiteside as a catcher in the supporting role when he returns from injury.
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