Buster Posey
Gerald Dempsey "Buster" Posey III is an American baseball executive and former professional baseball catcher. He is currently the president of baseball operations for the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball. He spent his entire 12-year Major League Baseball career with the Giants, from 2009 until his retirement at the conclusion of the 2021 season. Internationally, Posey represented the United States. In the 2017 World Baseball Classic, he helped win Team USA's first gold medal in a WBC tournament.
Posey was born in Leesburg, Georgia. He played four sports in high school; in baseball, he excelled at hitting and pitching. He attended Florida State University, where he began playing the catcher and first base positions. He won the Golden Spikes Award and the Brooks Wallace Award in 2008.
The Giants selected him with the fifth overall pick in the first round of the 2008 MLB draft. Posey made his MLB debut on September 11, 2009. He and Madison Bumgarner both made their Major League debuts in 2009 and established a reputation as one of the best batteries in recent MLB history. As a rookie, Posey finished with a.305 batting average, 18 home runs, and 67 runs batted in. He caught every inning of the playoffs as the Giants won the 2010 World Series. He was named the NL Rookie of the Year. In 2011, after he was severely injured in a collision with the Florida Marlins' Scott Cousins at home plate, Posey missed most of the year. The collision is widely seen as pushing Major League Baseball to adopt rule 7.13 regarding blocking the plate prior to the 2014 season, informally known as the "Buster Posey Rule". Posey returned from his injury in 2012 and caught Matt Cain's perfect game, batted.336 to win the 2012 NL batting title and was voted the 2012 NL MVP. He won his second World Series that year, as the Giants swept the Detroit Tigers in four games. In 2013, Posey signed a franchise-record eight-year, $167 million contract extension with the Giants. He won his third World Series the following year as the Giants defeated the Kansas City Royals. Posey is the second player in MLB history, after Pete Rose, to win the Rookie of the Year, a League MVP, and three World Series championships.
Posey played in four no-hitters in his career, catching three of them. In 2016, he won a Gold Glove Award. In 2019, the Johnny Bench Award was renamed the Buster Posey Award, which honors college baseball's top NCAA Division I catcher. After opting out of the shortened 2020 MLB season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Posey led the Giants to a franchise-record 107 wins in his final season in 2021.
In September 2022, Posey joined the Giants' ownership group and two years later became their president of baseball operations.
Early life
Gerald Dempsey Posey III was born on March 27, 1987, in Leesburg, Georgia, to Demp and Traci Posey. He is the oldest of four children. He and his family grew up Methodist Christian. Posey has an uncle who is a Methodist minister and an aunt who is a camp minister for Duke University. His nickname, "Buster", came from his father's childhood nickname. Posey grew up a fan of the Atlanta Braves. He also played football, soccer, and basketball growing up, but baseball was his main sport.As a junior at Lee County High School, Posey pitched and played shortstop. That year he hit nine doubles, three triples, and seven home runs while setting school records for batting average and runs batted in . His pitching achievements included a 10–1 record and a 1.53 earned run average. In his senior year, he batted.462 with 40 RBIs while setting a school record with 14 home runs. In 13 starts as a pitcher that year, he had a 12–0 record with a 1.06 ERA and 108 strikeouts. In the Georgia AAAA State Championship, Lee County was defeated by Henry County High, for whom fellow future major leaguer Jason Heyward played.
After his senior season, Posey was named the Georgia Gatorade Player of the Year, the Louisville Slugger State Player of the Year, an EA Sports Second Team All-American, and a Baseball America All-American. He graduated with a 3.94 grade point average in high school, fourth in his class of 302 students.
College career
Posey played college baseball for the Florida State Seminoles under coach Mike Martin. He played shortstop as a freshman at Florida State in 2006, starting all 65 games for the Seminoles. He was named a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American. He finished his freshman season with a.346 batting average, four home runs and 48 RBI. As a sophomore, Posey moved to the catcher position on the suggestion of assistant coach Mike Martin Jr. He batted.382 with three home runs and 65 RBI. After one season of playing the position, Posey finished second to Ed Easley in Johnny Bench Award voting.In 2008, as a junior, he hit.463 with 26 home runs and 93 RBI, won the ACC Baseball Player of the Year, Johnny Bench Award, and garnered the Collegiate Baseball Player of the Year award. On May 12, he hit a grand slam and played all nine fielding positions in a 10–0 victory over Savannah State University; as a pitcher that day, he struck out both batters he faced. Posey was awarded the Dick Howser Trophy and the Golden Spikes Award at the end of the year.
During the college offseason, Posey started at shortstop for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox in 2006 when they won the Cape Cod Baseball League championship, and started at catcher in 2007 when they won another championship. He was named a league all-star in both seasons.
Professional career
Drafts and minor leagues
Although he was drafted in the 50th round of the 2005 Major League Baseball Draft by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, he chose to enroll in college instead of signing a professional baseball contract. Posey was considered by Baseball America to be the best catcher available in the 2008 MLB draft. He was drafted by the San Francisco Giants with the fifth overall pick. On August 16, the Giants signed Posey shortly before the signing deadline for draftees and gave him a $6.2 million signing bonus, the largest up-front bonus in Giants history. Entering the 2009 season, Baseball America ranked him the number two prospect in the Giants' organization. He was invited to the Giants' spring training in 2009. Following spring training, Posey was assigned to the Giants' Class A Advanced affiliate, the San Jose Giants of the California League. In 80 games with San Jose, he batted.326 with 63 runs, 95 hits, 23 doubles, 13 home runs, and 58 RBI.On July 13, Posey was promoted to the Giants' Class AAA team, the Fresno Grizzlies of the Pacific Coast League. In 35 games with Fresno, he batted.321 with 21 runs scored, 42 hits, eight doubles, five home runs, and 22 RBI.
San Francisco Giants (2009–2019, 2021)
2009
Because of an injury to Giants starting catcher Bengie Molina, Posey was called up to MLB for the first time on September 2, 2009. On September 11, 2009, Posey made his MLB debut, striking out in his first at bat against Hiroki Kuroda of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Posey got his first major league hit on September 19 against Jeff Weaver of the Dodgers. In 17 at-bats with the Giants in 2009, Posey had two hits.Coming into 2010, Baseball America ranked Posey as the top prospect in the Giants' organization. After again appearing in the Giants' spring training camp, Posey began the 2010 season at Fresno, batting.349 with 31 runs scored, 60 hits, 13 doubles, six home runs, and 32 RBI in 47 games.
2010
Posey was called up to the major leagues on May 29, 2010, and started at first base against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Posey drove in the first runs of his major league career, going three for four with three RBI. He appeared primarily at first base through the end of June. Posey hit his first career home run against Aaron Harang of the Cincinnati Reds on June 9. Following Molina's trade to the Texas Rangers on June 30, Posey became the starting catcher for the Giants.Posey hit his first career grand slam against Chris Narveson of the Milwaukee Brewers on July 7, en route to a two-home run, four-hit, six-RBI night. This was part of a ten-game streak from July 1 to 10 during which he batted.514 with 19 hits, six home runs, and 13 RBI to set a National League record for rookies during any ten-day stretch according to the Elias Sports Bureau. This performance also earned him the NL Player of the Week honors for the week of July 5–11, 2010.
In a July 10 game against the Washington Nationals, Posey was inserted into the Giants' batting order as the clean-up hitter, which became his regular position in the lineup. He had a 21-game hitting streak that started July 4 and ended July 29 when Aníbal Sánchez of the Florida Marlins threw a one-hitter against the Giants. During the streak, which fell one game short of tying the San Francisco Giants' rookie mark set by Willie McCovey and five short of the team record, Posey batted.440 with 37 hits, six home runs, and 23 RBI. Posey was awarded both the NL Player of the Month and NL Rookie of the Month awards for his excellent July.
On September 21, Posey hit an eighth-inning home run against Andrew Cashner of the Chicago Cubs to win the game, 1–0. He hit another eighth-inning home run against Luke Gregerson of the San Diego Padres in the final game of the year on October 3 as Giants secured the NL West Division championship by defeating the Padres 3–0. In 108 games, Posey batted.305 with 58 runs scored, 124 hits, 23 doubles, 18 home runs, and 67 RBI.
Posey was named the NL Rookie of the Year; Posey had 20 first place votes while Heyward, of the Atlanta Braves, finished second with nine. Posey was the sixth Giant to win the award, joining Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda, Willie McCovey, Gary Matthews and John Montefusco. He was also the sixth catcher in NL history to win the award. Posey was named by his peers as the NL Players Choice Awards Outstanding Rookie. He was named the catcher on Baseball Americas All-Rookie Team and the 2010 Topps Major League Rookie All-Star Team. He finished 11th in NL Most Valuable Player voting.
In the NL Division Series against the Braves, Posey batted.375 as the Giants won the series in four games. In Game 4 of the NL Championship Series against the Philadelphia Phillies, he became the first rookie to get four hits in an NLCS game as the Giants won 6–5. He batted.217 with five hits and three RBI in the series as the Giants defeated the Phillies in six games. In Game 4 of the World Series against the Texas Rangers, Posey and Madison Bumgarner formed the first rookie starting pitcher-catcher tandem in a World Series since Yogi Berra caught Spec Shea in Game 1 of the 1947 World Series. Posey hit his first postseason home run against Darren O'Day in the 4–0 victory, making him the fifth rookie catcher to hit a home run in the World Series. The Giants won the series four games to one, giving Posey his first World Series ring. Posey caught every inning of the playoffs for the Giants.
On November 3, the Giants celebrated their first World Series victory parade in San Francisco. In his speech, Posey said "San Francisco Giants. World Series champions. Let's enjoy this today, tomorrow, for a week, maybe even a month. Then let's get back to work and make another run at it."