A Pocket Full of Poseys

     Buster Posey was kind of the name of the Giants from 2010 all the way through his last season in 2021. He was an extremely talented ball player, and this fact showed across his entire career. He'll be on the Hall of Fame ballot in 2026, and I must ask these questions; should he get in, will he get in, and when will he get in? (A spoiler; most of the time, my cards and photos are gonna be off by a year or two.) 

     

Posey's last base card, as shown on my blog bat-around post

    Gerald Dempsey 'Buster' Posey III debuted in 2009 after an amazing minor league stint in which he batted .327 in 125 games. In '09, Posey batted .118 in 17 at-bats. He was shipped back to the minors for a brief while. 

    Down at the farm in 2010, Posey needed just 47 games (.349/.442/.552 slash line) to gain another look at the big-league level. He took off. In his 108-game rookie campaign, the Buster belted 18 home runs and batted .305, not only winning the Rookie of the Year award, but also helping the Giants to their first World Series victory ever in San Francisco. The hot 23-year old catcher batted cleanup in the postseason and thrived (.288 batting average in the 2010 postseason).

    2011 was an interesting, and rather painful season for Buster. He played in only 45 games this year. In the twelfth inning in a game against the Marlins, Scott Cousins slid into Posey and both fractured his fibula and tore some ligaments in the catcher's ankle. The footage of this is a bit painful to watch in itself. Of course, Posey was out for the rest of the season, and the Giants would miss out on the postseason. Posey's injury did merit a rule change however, commonly known as the Buster Posey rule. You can find MLB's definition of the rule here, but in short, a baserunner can't go out of his way to run into the catcher, or collide with a catcher when the runner could have slid to avoid said collision. A violation of the rule results in the runner being out and a dead ball. Definitely a good rule. I'm sure plenty of injuries to both catcher and baserunner have been spared due to the rule change.

    Posey was back in 2012, and I think it's an understatement to say that there was some uncertainty with the 25-year old backstop. He was a rising superstar coming off a potentially career-devastating injury. But he seemed to be fine. Posey raked in 2012, winning the batting title at a .336 mark, belting 24 homers, driving in 103, and leading the Giants to their second World Series title in three years. Buster won the MVP award, getting 422 vote points and a 94% share of the vote. He also made his first of seven All-Star appearances and won a Silver Slugger award. 

    They say 13 is bad luck. Posey only hit 15 home runs in 2013 and drove in a respectable 72, but not the 103 of the year before. He couldn't complain too much though; he batted .294 and was an All-Star again, playing in as many games as he did the year before. It was bad luck for his team though, as they fell to 76-86 after winning it all the year before.

    2014 was a great year for Buster. Not only did he manage 147 games (just one off of the two last seasons), but he put up the second-best offensive year of his career. Posey slashed .311/.364/.490 with 22 bombs and 89 RBI. This landed Posey another Silver Slugger award, and he finished sixth in MVP voting, as the Giants would go on to win another World Series; three in five years. 

    2015 was another great year for the catcher who had quickly become the face of the franchise. He batted .318 with 19 home runs, winning another Silver Slugger and finishing ninth in the MVP voting. He was an All-Star for the third time in his career. He only struck out 52 times in 150 games this year; good for an 8.4% strikeout rate. Buster never struck out much, but this is getting ridiculous!

    2016 showed another All-Star season. Buster batted .288 with 14 homers and 80 RBIs. He stole a career-high six bases that year and also came home with the Gold Glove. The Giants would make the postseason for the last time until 2021 this year. Now something about my cards; the Bunt 16 Posey card is one of my favorite cards in my whole collection, hence the reason I threw off the cycle of one card followed by one photo. I wanted the card to match with the year, you know, for sentimental reasons.

    Posey made his third straight All-Star appearance and fifth career appearance in 2017. He batted a monster .320, though he only hit 12 home runs in 140 games. Nonetheless, his impressive .320/.400/.462 slash line was enough to get him his fourth Silver Slugger award. He tied his career in high in steals with 6 too.

    The Giants catcher was an All-Star yet again in 2018, though he only played in 105 games. He had a solid, though not very Posey-like campaign in which he slashed .284/.359/.382 with just 5 home runs and 41 RBIs. 

    2019 saw me starting fantasy baseball. And let me say that I had minimal baseball knowledge (let's just say that I drafted Dylan Cozens in the third round, if y'all even know who he is). But I did draft Posey first overall. Heck, he was my favorite player, what can I say? Posey legitimately struggled in 2019 though, slashing just .257/.320/.368 with 7 home runs. He missed out on the All-Star Game and his team missed out on the playoffs. 

    Man, I just love Buster. Posey opted out of the 2020 season. He and his wife had just adopted premature twin girls and didn't want to take a risk with both the health concerns of the nation and the babies. It's really a wonderful instance of getting your priorities straight. 

    Alas, Buster's last season was in 2021. I drafted him first overall again for his last year. He did not disappoint whatsoever. In fact, he over-achieved. After taking the year off, Posey only started about two-thirds of the games in 2021, playing 113 overall. He batted .304 with 18 home runs and a .304/.390/.499 slash line. This season won Posey his seventh All-Star Game appearance and a fifth Silver Slugger award. The Giants were the best team in the MLB, with a record of 107-55 on the year. Though they would bow out in the NLDS, it was still a very amazing end to a very amazing career, an career which pained me to see an end. Ever since I paid attention to baseball and really gathered what it was, Posey was there performing for me. He was really the only player I knew for so long.

    In the last game he ever played in the big-leagues, Game 5 of the NLDS, Posey would do this on a 3-0 count:

    This home run would give the Giants a 2-0 lead over their rivals, which they could not keep. Made me go berserk at the time though, so that was cool.

    In my eyes, Posey is a sure-fire Hall-of-Famer. Considering he is my all-time favorite player I may have a little bit of bias. Both his offense and defense certainly seem worthy of the Hall, but the only problem is that his career was so short. Posey played only twelve seasons, including the 17 AB year in 2009.

    In 1371 regular season games, the catcher racked up 1500 hits, 158 home runs, 729 RBI, and a .302/.372/.460 slash line. He has a very nice resume of awards helping his case, including 7 All-Star selections, 5 Silver Slugger Awards, 3 World Series championships, a Rookie of the Year Award, an MVP award, and a Gold Glove. This doesn't even count his two Comeback Player of the Year Awards (2012 and 2021), his 2012 Hank Aaron Award, his two Wilson Defensive Player of the Year Awards (2015 and 2016) and his 2019 Lou Gehrig Memorial Award.

    All of these awards are nice, and could help him in his Hall-of-Fame case, as well as the rule change named after him, which may be a big factor in his chances. But what do y'all think? Buster will be on his first Hall-of-Fame ballot in December of 2026. I would personally vote him in, although it's not up to me, and short careers don't tend to bode too well with the sports writers. All I can do is hope and wait.

    But while I'm waiting, y'all have a good one and happy collecting! (I had so many more cards of him that I could not find for this post. I think I posted at least one of the others before though)

    Adieu Buster Posey, adieu.