Buster Posey: National League Rookie of the Year!

The Giants have a long and storied history of players making dramatic entries into Major League Baseball. Willie Mays led a dramatic comeback by a Giants team that culminated in the "Shot Heard Round the World" by Bobby Thomson in 1951 with Mays hitting his first major league HR off Warren Spahn. In 1959, Willie McCovey went 4 for 4 with 2 triples in his first major league game. Juan Marichal pitched a 1 hit complete game shutout in his first game. Bobby Bonds hit a grand slam HR to beat the Dodgers in 1968. Dave Kingman went nuts in his first MLB weekend against the Pittburgh Pirates in 1971. John "The Count" Montefusco bragged about beating the Dodgers and then backed up his words by actually doing it in 1975. Will "The Thrill" Clark took Nolan Ryan deep in his very first major league AB. Against that backdrop, to be the first Giant to win NL ROY since The Count in 1975 is quite an accomplishment. I was pleased to see that Buster paid homage to that history in his conference call after the award was announced.

Buster did not have quite the dramatic first game that some of his predecessors had, but his impact on the Giants winning their first World Series in 56 years and their first ever since moving to San Francisco cannot be overstated. His performance in Milwaukee coming off that horrifying 15 inning loss to Colorado might have saved the season right there. The 21 game hitting streak was equally impressive and impactful. My own moment to remember came in Los Angeles in a game I attended. The Giants were trailing the Dodgers 4-0 in the 7'th inning and Buster got their first run with a towering blast 2/3's of the way up the LF pavilion in left-centerfield. For those of you familiar with Dodger Stadium, that is one impressive blast! That HR gave me a glimmer of hope that the Giants might come back to win that game and the Giants must have felt the same way because they did just that with 3 more HR's capped by Juan Uribe's 2 run game winner in the 9'th inning.

It wasn't just the hitting either. Posey carried himself like a leader from day one, not in an arrogant way but with quiet confidence. After the trade that brought Chris Ray to the Giants, he was standing kind of alone in the Giants dugout, like he wasn't sure he belonged. Buster made it a point to walk over, stick out his hand and introduce himself. He wasn't afraid to go out to the mound to calm down a shaky pitcher. On defense, there was the obvious cannon for an arm gunning down runners. A whole folklore sprang up among Giants fans with a video from his college days making the rounds showing him gunning down a baserunner then appearing to mouth the words "I ain't havin' it!" Buster denies having said that, but the legend lives on.

Whether or not a catcher's game calling and receiving skills make a difference in pitching performance is a hotly debated subject. Buster has turned me into a believer. Of course, the Giants pitchers might have gotten stronger as the season progressed no matter who was catching, but the difference was so noticeable, so dramatic with the trend starting within days of Buster taking over the starting catcher job. I'll just mention some things I noticed that may explain the difference. Bengie Molina almost never called for "climbing the ladder" calling for the high fastball with 2 strikes on the batter. Buster loves climbing the ladder. You can see him fairly bursting with excitement as he comes up a bit out of his crouch and holds that glove up in the strike zone! It's a great strategy, especially given the skills of the Giants pitchers. Specifically with Brian Wilson, Buster gives him a better target, especially on the outside corner to LH batters. Bengie used to set up clear outside the strike zone while Busters puts his glove right on the edge of the plate. All Brian has to do is hit the glove to get the strike. When Wilson puts that 98 MPH bad boy on the black, lefthanded hitters are overmatched!

2010 was an exceptional year for rookies. There may have been as many as 10 performances worthy of ROY in many other years. Buster's own teammate, Madison Bumgarner, was outstanding and got stronger as the season went along. Pittsburgh had Pedro Alvarez, Neil Walker and Jose Tabata. The Cubs had Starlin Castro. The Cardinals had Jaime Garcia. The Braves had Johnny Venters. The two standouts were Buster Posey and Jason Heyward of the Braves. Some observers felt that Heyward should get the award because he played the entire season, whereas Buster wasn't called up until May. Heyward was certainly a worthy candidate. I've been a huge Jason Heyward fan since I wanted the Giants to draft him ahead of Madison Bumgarner in 2007. As it turns out, I was wrong about Bumgarner, but having Buster and Jason Heyward come up in the same year would be mighty sweet too! I just don't think Heyward took over the Braves the way Buster took over the Giants. Make no mistake, even with all the incredible pitching talent, and veteran leadership of Aubrey Huff and Juan Uribe, the Giants became Buster's team the day Bengie Molina was traded. I know intangibles are laughed by many analysts these days, but when you combine almost identical offensive output with the defense at a premium position and yes, the leadership, Buster was the National League Rookie of the Year! Pretty easy call, actually.

Congratulations, Buster Posey!!