Minor League Memories: The Buster Posey interview (April 2009)
Buster Posey: Year one
Originally published in April 2009
For background and context into what this is, read this explainer
Buster Posey is somehow living up to the hype of his unreal expectations with a strong start to the 2009 season. Already placed on the fast track with only a few lessons left to learn, Posey looks like a man among boys in a challenging league. It might be the last chance to catch the catcher of the future before he moves on to a higher level.
At first sight Buster Posey looks like the San Francisco Giants catcher of the future in his black and orange gear. Once you see him play, the vision becomes even clearer.
It’s early in the 2009 season but with only 19 games in the books, Posey impresses at the plate as well as behind the plate.
The Giants’ first round pick in last year’s draft wasted no time in winning California League Player of the Week honors the first week of the season, an award he split with San José Giants teammate Brandon Crawford. Posey accepted congratulations on the award and directed praise to Crawford, saying he was happy for the shortstop.
Posey leads the league in RBI with 18 and he is near the top in several other statistical categories: a .361 batting average, 26 hits, four home runs, and seven doubles.
It might look easy, but it’s all about perspective. A perspective that Posey keeps as a single-minded goal to succeed. “This is a game I’ve always loved and I’ve enjoyed playing my whole life,” he said. “I try to keep that attitude and carry it over each day to work to get better.”
“Work” is a word that gets a lot of use in Posey’s vocabulary. His bat is major-league ready and the defense is strong. The last necessary facet of his game is learning to call pitches on his own. He is the captain of the defense and a team leader in the eyes of his manager Andy Skeels.
Skeels, a former catcher himself, assesses Posey’s progress as coming along faster than expected. His aptitude for the position makes him learn from mistakes and the leadership qualities the organization saw in Posey early are coming true already.
“Learning to call a game and handle a staff and manage a game is not something that is learned overnight,” Skeels said. “It takes big league catchers a lot of years and lots of experience. As long as the aptitude’s there…it’s there with him.”
The root of this new process is repetition and fostering a connection to his pitchers. Working with each one from starter to reliever to learn what they throw is an ongoing task. “I feel I have a good relationship with our staff,” Posey said.
Life in the minor leagues moves fast. From moving between the levels to the adjustments of amateur to professional baseball, Posey has had a juggling act acclimating to his new environs. 2008 was the search for at-bats, shuttling around the rookie-level teams and being thrown into playoff scenarios.
He shrugs off any implications of different baseball circumstances. “It was my first professional experience,” he said of his brief yet impactful 2008 pro season. “Those guys had been playing together all season. It was my job to mesh with them as much as possible.”
As for changing levels, Posey has kept up there too. “The speed of the game is a lot faster at the pro level,” he said. “Players are more consistent. Better hitters and pitchers. You have to improve all around as a player.”
Posey has a definite effect on a baseball game. Pitchers are reluctant to challenge him. When he’s not routinely blistering the ball, he works the count with patience and an eye that is rarely seen at the Advanced-A level. Posey laughs when it’s pointed out to him that he strikes fear into the hearts of opposing pitchers, then he gets serious.
“If you’re a disciplined hitter you’re going to get pitches to hit no matter what,” he said. “Look at the best hitters in the major leagues. Barry Bonds walked so many times but he got pitches to hit. The challenge is to be disciplined and not going out of your zone to chase pitches.”
Posey is a standout on a team loaded with star power. San Francisco made it a point to send their best prospects to San Jose this year. “It makes you a better player when you see these other guys as they go about their business,” Posey said. “You pick up stuff from the way they do things.”
Playing on a successful team helps Posey along, too. “We come out and do whatever we can to win each night. It makes the game much more fun when you win,” he said.
If the rumors are correct, Posey will bypass Double-A Connecticut and go straight to Triple-A Fresno. Posey does not know where he’s heading next. Instead he is focused on the here and now.
“I feel good,” he says. “I still have a lot of work to do. I’m working hard each day.”
Where are they now?
Like fellow superstars Mike Trout and Paul Goldschmidt, Buster Posey became one of the best players of his generation, and one of the all-time best at his position. Because of this mountain of success over his career, I won’t go too deep into his accomplishments and achievements. Because you already know that story.
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Posey was the 5th overall pick in the 2008 Draft for the Giants. He was one of the top players in the Southeastern Conference with Florida State University, hitting well over .300 all three years he played for the Seminoles and finished his college career with a monster 2008 season where he hit 26 home runs with 93 RBIs. Posey’s college honors include the Golden Spikes Award as the best amateur baseball player in the U.S., the Dick Howser Trophy as the best collegiate baseball player in the country, and two awards as the top collegiate position player: the Johnny Bench Award for best catcher and the Brooks Wallace Award for best shortstop. In fact, he was so impactful that they renamed the Johnny Bench Award to the Buster Posey Award in 2019.
Yes, he won top positional honors at two different positions in the same season. Shohei Ohtani who?
Coming off his 2008 season Posey collected 37 at-bats with the Giants rookie-level teams in Arizona and Salem-Keizer then played in 19 games for the Waikiki Beach Boys in Hawaii Winter Baseball, another dearly departed winter league. Expect to see this league come up again when In the Margins returns after Halloween. Posey split the 2009 season between Advanced-A San Jose (where this interview took place) and Triple-A Fresno (where I interviewed him a second time with Madison Bumgarner, and they only wanted to talk about each other the whole time). In his first full year he lived up to expectations, hitting .325 with 18 home runs and 80 RBIs.
Posey made his Major League debut September 11, 2009 and appeared in seven games. Going into the 2010 season he was ranked as the top prospect in the Giants system by Baseball America (can’t find a source with a current link) and several other prospect sources. Bengie Molina was already installed at the catcher position and had been doing well for the Giants since he signed with the team in 2007 — he’d won back-to-back Willie Mac Awards as the most inspirational Giants player of the year and earned the nickname Big Money among fans. It was a tough act to follow even for a golden boy prospect like Posey, and the struggle to get Posey to the starting lineup permanently became a meme in certain online Giants circles.
Once Posey stepped into the full-time catching role, his legend grew. Here’s what he accomplished in 12 seasons with the Giants:
- 3 World Series championships (2010, 2012, 2014)
- 2010 National League Rookie of the Year
- 2012 and 2021 Comeback Player of the Year
- 2012 National League Most Valuable Player
- 2016 Gold Glove Award
- 5 Silver Slugger Awards (2012, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2021)
- 2012 Willie Mac Award
- 2023 Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame
- 2017 World Baseball Classic gold medalist with Team USA along with Giants teammate Brandon Crawford
Posey contributed many unforgettable moments in his Giants career, but the best one to me is his grand slam in Game 5 of the 2012 National League Division series against the Cincinnati Reds. The Giants had to claw their way back from a 0–2 deficit on the road in Cincinnati, and Posey’s slam was the exclamation point on the incredible comeback. I was sitting in my sociology of sport in North America class (yes this was a real college class and it was awesome) and everyone was following the game to some extent on their phones, laptops, what have you. During Posey’s at-bat the room started to buzz and then when he hit it out, the prof lost the entire room. Worth it.
Posey retired at the end of the 2021 season and in September 2022 he joined the Giants ownership group. There’s a well-known concept among Giants fans called Forever Giants, referring to fan favorite or long time Giants players. Posey is definitely both, and now he’s truly a forever Giant as he played his entire career in San Francisco and begins a new phase in the front office.
No Stupid Joke of the Week this time, as this piece was written for San Francisco Dugout, the online in-depth Giants source I wrote for from 2005 to 2011, when the site folded permanently. We didn’t have time for such shenanigans there.
I did not come empty handed like last time. Today I can share some of my favorite commercials and ad spots Posey appeared in during his career:
Next time
The final chapter in October to Remember revisits an interview with the one who got the final out in the 2012 World Series — long before we knew what was coming for the Giants.
Related entries in this series
Joe Panik: Baseball is so mental
Paul Goldschmidt: Good at baseball
Mike Trout: Captain America
