Buster Posey is hitting .345 and hit his 5th HR yesterday. However, according to GM Brian Sabean, he is not ready defensively for major league duty behind the plate.
However, this is a guy who played all nine positions in one game for Florida State and arrived on their campus as a SS. He has demonstrated the ability to use other gloves.
Additionally, Sabean took a backhanded slap at Posey's early success with the bat by saying:
"Triple-A baseball isn't very good, I'm going to tell you that right now. Especially from a pitching standpoint. Anybody who can pitch is in the big leagues."
So he knocks the Giants most prized prospect--casting doubts about Posey's defensive prowess that will still be there in the mids of the staff of the big club when Posey is brought up. Nice move, slick.
Sabean said the 23-year-old is "still learning how to catch. Some of that is game calling. Some of that is the consistency that he'll need as, we hope, an offensive catcher."
Sabean's quotes are from Andrew Baggerly of the San Jose Mercury news:
http://bleacherreport.com/tb/b45qb
The Giants had a similar dilemma a couple of years back with a young catcher who was not glove-ready, but who seemed to rake wherever he went. And now, Pablo Sandoval is a All-Star.
If Aubrey Huff's bat is keeping Posey in AAA, that would be a crime. If service time is the reason, that would be equally criminal.
I understand that they want Posey to be the catcher for this franchise for the next ten years or so. Unfortunately, they may wait until they begin to slip out of first place and use a call-up as a spark to light a fire under the team.
Last nights performance by the Cubs Starling Castro ( 3 E's yesterday, 4 E's in 4 games ) may show the futility of that approach.
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