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Posey Paying Immediate Dividends

All year long, actually ever since they drafted him in 2008 really, Giants fans have been anticipating the arrival of top prospect Buster Posey. He got his feet wet in September of last year in a brief stint, but this time, it looks like he's here to stay.

Posey arrived at AT&T Park in time for Saturday's game vs. the Diamondbacks and Billy Buckner. The 23 year-old catcher turned first basemen went 3-4 in his 2010 big league debut and drove in 3 runs in the process. Coincidentally, the Giants scored a season-high 12 runs in the ballgame as well. The offense just seemed to click with Posey in their in the fifth spot behind Pablo Sandoval and Aubrey Huff. Buster followed up his 3-hit, 3-RBI debut with another 3-hit game, including 2 doubles and an RBI vs. Ian Kennedy on Sunday. With Posey in the lineup at first base, the Giants have decided to move Huff out to left field for the time being and their lineup has improved drastically. Unfortunately they were shutout on Monday, which ended their 4-game winning streak as Ubaldo Jimenez bested Tim Lincecum in a matchup of the two best right-handers in the NL West. I can't get too down on the Giants for a loss to a guy who's far and away the NL Cy Young favorite at this point, as Jimenez is now 10-1 with a gaudy 0.78 era. They will have to get back on pace Tuesday night against Jason Hammel though, because if they lose tonight, they will fall back one spot in the division into 4th place.

Since Posey has "officially" arrived, their is going to be a ton of pressure on him to help carry the Giants offensive load. There was an article in Sunday's Chronicle that talked about how good the Giants are going to need Posey to be in order for them to be contenders as the season wears on. Then, there are some people that are wondering what is going to happen to Posey once Mark DeRosa returns from the DL. DeRosa just started his rehab assignment Monday, and if all goes well with him, the Giants will be expecting him back within a 7-10 days. It's not so much the roster spot I'm concerned about, it's going to be the division of the playing time. Posey has obviously shown his value to the Giants lineup, and I don't see how they could just remove that type of production. Granted, it's only been a few games, Posey looks like he's got the same type of magic in his bat that Pablo Sandoval had when he first came up and this lineup needs that type of production. Then there's Andres Torres, who has caught fire and solidified the top of the Giants order. He's earned a starting spot too, and the Giants are going to have some real tough personnel decisions to face over the next couple of weeks.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Rowand needs to sit in favor of Torres... If the Giants want to win, they need to play their best players.
1:55 PM
Tony said…
Nice article.

The elephant in the room is that Rowand is taking up a valuable outfield spot and is nearly an automatic out. Let's just hope that his big hit last night indicates he may be getting back on track.
10:18 AM
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