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Buster the Batting Champ

Wednesday marks the last day of the regular season all across baseball, and it's a big day for the Giants in particular.

Not only did San Francisco find out their NLDS opponent Wednesday, but they also have a player of their own trying to lock down a pretty big accomplishment. Unless there's a miracle for Andrew McCutchen in this final day of the season, it looks like a Giant will be walking away with the NL Batting Crown this year after all. Melky Cabrera was in optimal position to run away with the award before he went down with his infamous suspension, but thanks to Buster Posey's epic second half, the award will be coming home with a Giant. Buster is in the lineup for Wednesday's game, though he'll likely only see a couple at-bats before Bochy removes the starters and he has a comfortable 10-point lead over the Pirates' star outfielder, so although it won't be official until after play Wednesday, it's a lock. What also could be a lock is Buster's campaign for the NL MVP Award. With him taking the batting crown, and with the way he's handled this pitching staff taking on 148 games after his gruesome injury that ended his 2011, he's got plenty of factors in his favor. What does it for me ultimately, is his .388 average, 1.110 OPS, 14 HR and 59 RBI since the All-Star break and how he carried this team on his shoulders since Cabrera's departure.

Besides Buster putting the final touches on a potential MVP season, the Giants round one opponent for the upcoming NLDS became official Wednesday. As many suspected, it'll be the Cincinnati Reds rolling into AT&T Park this weekend to kick off the best of 5 series with the Orange and Black. Both teams' game one starters have already been announced and neither comes as a surprise. Matt Cain will take the hill for the Giants, and Johnny Cueto will toe the rubber for Cinci, but after that things are still uncertain on the Giants part. As I said about a week back, my guess is Boch will roll out Cain-Bumgarner-Lincecum-Vogelsong in that order, but Bochy hasn't hinted at much beyond game one. The Giants also still have to determine which 25 players they'll take into the NLDS. I think the position players are pretty much set already, but Bochy is still deciding on exactly which relievers he's going to want to roll with. I think the only surprise we'll see is the rookie Francisco Peguero getting the call as sort of the 25th man. Boch likely won't feel comfortable with just Xavier Nady as the backup to all 3 outfielders, and could use the strong defending Peguero as insurance and as a pinch runner.

Comments

Buster Posey, hands down NL MVP.
MVPosey!!!!

Can't wait until Saturday!
Ty Warren said…
OK, this is going to be a great series. The Reds have all those power hitters, and the Giants have all the pitching. Guess we'll really see if great pitching beats great hitting!
Anonymous said…
I normally agree with Bochy on a lot of his moves but not sure I agree with using Sanchez at catcher for Lincecum. Buster is a weapon back there and shuts down the running game and is a gold-glove caliber defender. When he gets moved it hurts the whole defense.

Sanchez is a nice young catcher but Buster is an MVP (fingers crossed) catcher!
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