How They Got Here: The San Francisco Giants is a
one-by-one look at how each member of the 2012 World Series Champion San
Francisco Giants found their way to the squad. We'll look at all of the
players on the roster, as well as notable players who did not make the
postseason roster for whatever reason and the coaching staff and general
manager. Part twenty-three is about wunderkind catcher Buster Posey.
Gerald "Buster" Posey III was born on March 27, 1987, in Leesburg, Georgia. Attending Lee County High School, baseball was Posey's main sport, and for good reasons. Splitting time between shortstop and pitching, Posey set school records for batting average at .544 and runs batted in with forty-six in just his junior year. He also had a 10-1 record and 1.53 earned run average. In his senior year, he set a school record with fourteen home runs to go with a .462 batting average and forty runs batted in. He had a 12-0 record in thirteen starts, with a 1.06 earned run average and 108 strikeouts as well. His honors from high school include Georgia Gatorade Player of the Year, Louisville Slugger State Player of the Year, and EA Sports and Baseball America All-American nominations. Besides being great on both sides of the ball, he was also great in the classroom, finishing high school with a 3.94 grade point average, perhaps the most important statistic he could have from his student-athlete career. He was a 50th round selection in the 2005 draft by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, but he chose to attend college instead. Posey played college baseball at Florida State, and in his freshman year played shortstop. He was named a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American for his .346 batting average, four home runs, and forty-right runs batted in. As suggested by his coaches in 2007, he started playing catcher, and he was named the second best catcher in Johnny Bench Award voting. He hit .382 with three home runs and sixty-five runs batted in. The 2008 season was even better for Posey, where he won the Johnny Bench Award, hit a stunning .463 batting average as well as twenty-six home runs and ninety-three runs batted in, was named Collegiate Baseball Player of the Year, and achieved a very rare feat. On May 12th, he played all nine fielding positions, striking out two batters as a pitcher and hitting a grand slam in a 10-0 win over Savannah State University. His versatility was never more on display, and although that's not an achievement usually attempted a highly competitive environment, it is a feat worthy of praise. Posey was a first round draft pick in the 2008 draft, where he was selected fifth overall by the San Francisco Giants. Posey began his professional career with ten games in 2008, split between the Rookie-level Arizona League Giants, before moving along to the Class A Short Season Salem-Keizer Volcanoes of the Northwest League in Salem, Oregon. In the short stint, he hit .351 with one home run and six runs batted in. Posey was fast-tracked to the Class A Advanced California League in 2009, where he appeared in eighty games at catcher for the San Jose Giants, hitting .326 with thirteen home runs and fifty-eight runs batted in. He earned a mid-season promotion to the Class AAA Fresno Grizzlies of the Pacific Coast League. Posey hit .321 with five home runs and twenty-two runs batted in at this level. This earned him a short major league call up, where he played in seven games but struggled early on. Undeterred, Posey went to Fresno for the beginning of the 2010 season, hitting .349 over forty-seven games, while launching six home runs with thirty-two runs batted in before being recalled to the major league Giants on May 29th. He worked at first base for the first month of the season, before going back to catching after a June 30th trade that saw starting catcher Bengie Molina traded to the Texas Rangers. Posey's rookie season was a highlight reel, with a twenty-one game hitting streak, his first grand slam, and a bump in the lineup to the coveted cleanup spot. This was only July, and he proved a force to be reckoned with as the Giants hurtled to a National League West Division title. He closed out his rookie year hitting .305 with eighteen home runs and sixty-seven runs batted in. This earned him the National League Rookie of the Year award for 2010. He was an obvious choice for the postseason roster, where he hit .288 with a home run and five runs batted in, although there was not a particular defining moment as Posey helped the Giants past the Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies, and Texas Rangers for a World Series Championship. Sadly, Posey was a poster boy for the San Francisco 2011 season as well, when a controversial play on May 25th resulted in a season-ending injury for the sophomore catcher. The play, still fresh in the minds of many of us, was when Scott Cousins scored a winning run against the Giants and crashed violently into Posey, causing serious ligament damage as well as a fractured fibula. Posey came out publicly when threats were made against Cousins, denouncing such actions while stepping up to acknowledge the vast support he received. He ended the season with forty-five games played, a .284 batting average, and twenty-one runs batted in with four home runs. Uncertainty clouded Posey's 2012 campaign, but he quickly cast doubts aside. He was the catcher for Matt Cain's perfect game on June 13, 2012 against the Houston Astros, resulting in what Posey called one of his most nervous moments on a baseball field. He was an easy selection for the All-Star Game, his first, and at season's end, he won the Willie Mac Award for demonstrating the spirit and leadership that Giants great Willie McCovey showed throughout his career. He hit a major-league leading .336 batting average (as well as a majors best .433 against lefties), with twenty-four home runs and 103 runs batted in en route to the National League batting title (which he won when teammate Melky Cabrera took himself out of the running due to his performance-enhancing drugs suspension). He was a cornerstone for the playoff run by the Giants, appearing in every game. The iconic moment of Posey's postseason was in Game 5 of the National League Division Series, when he hit a grand slam against Mat Latos, and later turned a strikeout-throw out double play to help preserve a lead that allowed the Giants to advance to the National League Championship Series against the St. Louis Cardinals. Another key moment was his go-ahead home run in Game 4 of the World Series against the Detroit Tigers, which proved vital when Delmon Young hit a solo home run in the bottom half of the inning. Without those two home runs, Posey and the Giants may not have won the World Series, and because of his clutch power displays, Posey earned his second World Series Championship in three years. Additionally, Posey is the answer to the trivia question "Who is the only Giants player to be on the field for the clinching moments of both the 2010 and 2012 World Series?" Besides the previously mentioned awards, Posey won the following awards for his performance in 2012: National League Comeback Player of the Year, National League Silver Slugger at catcher, National League Hank Aaron Award for best hitter as determined by the fans and media, and the Baseball Writers Association of America National League Most Valuable Player Award. Despite playing a different position and in a different era, parallels between Posey and Giants great Willie Mays have already been drawn, including performance, leadership, and even years missed due to exterior circumstances. Hopefully, Posey can keep the comparisons going, as even with only three years to his name, he already looks like a Hall of Fame-caliber player.
Follow me on Twitter @KipperScorpion.
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