Kuzul

There is no way I can hide my excitement.

Watching the Angels and Nationals play today will be equal to my tearing open a retail pack of baseball cards as a 12-year-old.

Last night I wrote a piece on Bryce Harper. In that story, I said I would be glued to my television screen when Harper makes his Major League Debut versus the high flying Los Angeles Dodgers.

When I first heard Harper was coming to the show, I could not help but feel for Mike Trout, who still had not gotten the call.

I could see Trout sitting at his locker in Salt Lake and screaming to the heavens, “What more must I do to get the call?”

To this Trout is right. He is hitting .403 with 31 hits and an OPS of 1.091 through 20 games with the Bees.

Apparently, the baseball gods heard Trout’s question and were like, “yeah, what the heck are the Angels thinking?”

Divine intervention or not, now that Trout has gotten the call, he has a golden opportunity to become the 2012 version of Buster Posey from 2010.

Never will I forget how Posey electrified the Giants, not only in spirit but in offense. After getting called up in May, Posey hit .305 with 18 home runs and 67 RBI in just 108 games. Nor will I forget Posey’s poised play during the playoffs. It was like watching a seasoned veteran on the baseball diamond.

Giving Tim Lincecum utmost credit, I have to beg the following question. 

Would the Giants have won the World Series that year without Posey?

Not sure.

Back to Trout, he can provide the spark the Halos critically need at a point they cannot afford to fall any further behind the Texas Rangers in the American League West. At 6-14, the Angels are already nine games back.

Should Trout excel, he will give the Angels much needed potency at the top of the lineup. 

In time the Angels can place Trout in the two spot of the batting order, smack between Bourjos at the top and Albert Pujols in the three hole. The Angels can also take the training wheels off Mark Trumbo by placing him in the cleanup spot. Or they could put Bourjos in the nine spot and put Trout up top. Either way, you keep speed back to back.

This gives the Halos the ability to combine bunting and scrappy hitting. This puts speed on base for the middle of the lineup to feast on. This will not only create nightmares for opposing pitchers, but it will also take pressure off guys like Howie Kendrick, Torii Hunter and Vernon Wells.

This speed meets power kind of offense excites baseball fans, as Texas Rangers fans can surely attest to.

It makes me want to go get a blaster box of baseball cards and go buck wild like a 12-year-old!

James is a huge baseball fan who loves to write and make new friends. You can follow James on Twitter by clicking HITHA!  

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Last year, the San Francisco Giants experienced several problems that hampered their quest to defend their 2010 World Series title. Notably, some devastating injuries prevented the team from even returning to the playoffs, highlighted by the collision heard ‘round the Bay—the mowing of Buster Posey last May.

As a result of the play, the Giants’ star catcher was knocked out for the remainder of the season. By itself, Posey’s absence would hobble any roster, but he was not the only player who suffered significant injury in 2011. In fact, Posey’s broken ankle and three torn ligaments is the least worrisome for San Francisco. Going into spring training, the Giants were confident that Posey would be able to bounce back from the horrific setback and would ultimately regain the form that led him to the 2010 National League Rookie of the Year selection.

In actuality, the more troublesome road to recovery is being driven by second baseman Freddy Sanchez, who sustained his own grotesque injury while diving for a ball last June. The result of the play was a torn labrum and capsule in his right shoulder, which ultimately required surgery performed last August.

Like Posey, Sanchez did not see action for the rest of the 2011 campaign. Unlike Posey, Sanchez has not been able to demonstrate during this spring training that he can perform at a high level. While Posey has seen action at his projected position of catcher, Sanchez has yet to take the field at second base, instead opting to work on his hitting while appearing as the team’s designated hitter in six games. Incidentally, he is batting .278 with a double and three runs scored so far this spring.

But the Giants, as we all know, are not an American League team; thus, no matter if Sanchez bats .923 for the rest of March, it won’t mean a heap of anything if he can’t take the field. As of Monday, Sanchez recognized that he is further away from complete health than he and the Giants would have liked and hoped for. According to CSNBayArea.com, Sanchez the likelihood of being ready to man second base on Opening Day is shrinking.

“We’re getting late,” Sanchez admitted. “It’s got to be in all of our minds, whether, ‘Hey, will I be out there or not?’”

The main issue in his defense is his ability to turn the double play. Obviously, handling the pivot requires some timing, agility and, above all, arm strength. Additionally, the torque that is used in throwing across the body can be extreme, especially when concerned with a shoulder injury. Recovery from such surgeries takes some time, and Sanchez is realizing that it might be a bit longer before he is able to play the field.

What would happen, then, if Sanchez is deemed not ready in time for Opening Day?

It’s probable that Sanchez will have to start the season on the disabled list. Until he is fully recovered, there’s no need for him to occupy a roster spot, especially since the team already has a couple serviceable middle infielders in veterans Ryan Theriot and Mike Fontenot. The question from there will be how soon will Sanchez get back to 100 percent health?

Make no mistake—Sanchez is a very important cog to the Giants’ defense and offense. He makes solid plays in the field and handles the bat well at the plate. It would be devastating for the Sanchez and the team if he continues ailing in his recovery. Posey and all of the other Giants who are coming back from off seasons or minor injuries will undoubtedly find their footing. But it’s Sanchez’ revival that means a lot to the balance of the Giants lineup.

As long as Sanchez is unable to play the field, San Francisco’s chances to win the NL West will be thrown out the window.

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One of the more important storylines in baseball this spring training is the health and bounce-back ability of San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey. If you recall, Posey was the roadblock who got steamrolled last season in a home-plate collision with the Florida Marlins’ Scott Cousins, which resulted in Posey’s season-ending surgery to repair a broken bone and three torn ankle ligaments.

Prior to that high-speed, high-profile collision, Posey was following up his 2010 NL Rookie of the Year campaign with a respectable sophomore season. In the 45 games played before he went down, he was batting .284 with four home runs and 21 runs batted in. Though his numbers did not exactly jump off the computer screen, Posey’s presence in the lineup far exceeds raw statistics. As the team’s cleanup hitter, he provides a legitimate right-handed bat to a famished Giants offense that ranked dead last in the league in runs scored.

The Giants sorely missed Posey’s production in the heart of the order. His replacements, Hector Sanchez, Chris Stewart and Eli Whiteside, combined for a .200 batting average in 2011. They were often clogging up the eight-hole in the batting order, and it forced manager Bruce Bochy to play “eeny, meeny, miny, mo” when filling out the rest of the lineup.

Needless to say, with Posey’s bat, the Giants could have at least squeaked into the playoffs as the NL wild card last year. And with him back to full strength this spring training, San Francisco has high aspirations in returning to the postseason this October. While the Giants are pinning the team’s success in 2012 on their slugging catcher, more importantly, the return of Posey bodes well for fantasy baseball owners. After all, there is a dearth of solid contributors at the catcher position throughout the MLB. Though Posey is only entering his third season, and has only 160 career games under his belt, the soon-to-be 25-year-old is still considered one of the game’s elite catchers—despite missing two-thirds of last season.

In fact, most fantasy baseball projections still forecast Posey as a top-five catcher. ESPN.com ranks him as the fifth-best catcher available, squeezed between Matt Wieters and Alex Aliva, and FantasyBaseballTools.com slots him in the top tier of catchers that includes Carlos Santana, Brian McCann and Mike Napoli. NYTimes.com, however, projects Posey to be the sixth-best catcher in 2012, behind Joe Mauer and ahead of Miguel Montero.

What does this all mean? Well, for one, the battle to be one of the top-five catchers in the majors is a tight one. Mauer, of course, is a lock, albeit only when he’s not on the disabled list. Unfortunately, his history of injuries prevents him from being a sure-fire top-five pick. In years past, Mauer could have been considered as a genuine first-round selection in some fantasy drafts. Now, it’s a tough call to predict a) how healthy he’ll be, and b) how many starts at first base he’ll draw.

The consensus is that Santana, McCann and Napoli will all be nabbed within the first four rounds. Assuming a regular 5×5 rotisserie league, Yahoo! Sports projects Posey to be a late sixth-round pick in its fantasy baseball mock draft. Solid estimates for his 2012 stats, according to NYTimes.com, include a .292 batting average with 16 home runs and 70 runs driven in—very similar to his 2010 Rookie of the Year résumé (.305/18/67). 

Those numbers are respectable, especially for a catcher. The only caveat is Posey’s own return to full health. True, it’s only spring training, but Posey has sparingly demonstrated his baserunning, as well as the endurance to catch a full nine innings on consecutive days. “He’s not there,” acknowledged Bochy. But there’s still time, obviously.

Fantasy owners, however, should be cautious assuming Posey will bounce back so quickly. Though he is a naturally gifted hitter who could probably sport a .300 batting average with one leg, Posey will have to get up to speed in his all-around game to be considered a higher pick on the fantasy draft board. Furthermore, in order to ensure that Posey performs at the offensive level he is capable of, San Francisco needs to make sure that he is protected throughout the batting order. According to the Giants lineup projected by Rotochamp.com, first baseman Aubrey Huff could potentially bat behind Posey, in the fifth spot in the order, followed by Brandon Belt.

Huff trudged through a World-Series-hangover-laden 2011 season, finishing with a terrible .246 batting average, 12 home runs and 59 runs batted in. He also scored an abysmal 45 runs, his lowest output since 2001. Belt, meanwhile, experienced one of those tortuous rookie seasons last year, staggering to a .225 batting average, with nine homers and 18 runs driven in, in 63 games played.

Yikes. Not the kind of protection one would hope for Posey.

Could Bochy consider moving the Giants’ only other bona fide hitter, Pablo Sandoval, to the five hole? Or bat Sandoval fourth and Posey third? If not, then look for a significant number of intentional walks for the right-handed-hitting Posey, as both Belt and Huff are left-handed hitters behind him. That certainly won’t boost Posey’s fantasy numbers all that quickly. Additionally, if new Giants leadoff man Angel Pagan is unable to set the table effectively at the top of the order, Posey may struggle to find himself in run-scoring opportunities.

Without a doubt, however, the question will be whether fantasy owners would want to gamble and pick up Posey earlier in the draft, ahead of other catchers like McCann or Wieters. McCann is a perennial All-Star, who has slugged over 20 home runs in five of the past six seasons, and over 40 extra base hits in six straight seasons. Furthermore, he posts a .286 career batting average. Though he gets plenty of rest in Atlanta—not starting in more than 133 games in each of the past three seasons—for the sake of this analysis, Posey is still the lesser picker.

Meanwhile, Wieters is the likely candidate to slip from his career season in 2011. His 22 home runs and 50 extra base hits were quite impressive, as was the fact that he scored more runs (72) than he drove in (68). Well, maybe not impressive so much as interesting. But if Posey is as healthy as he can be throughout 2012, it’s possible that he could outperform Wieters. The Baltimore Orioles are equally as likely to not scare their opponents offensively.

Can Posey be ranked higher than Wieters?

A good catcher is hard to find for owners, both real and fantasy. Picking up Posey in the late fourth round or fifth round would not be the worst idea in the world, considering that other positions have way more depth and are less predictable (starting pitchers).

Make no mistake about it: If Posey is given a clean bill of health heading out of spring training, fantasy owners might come away with a steal in their league drafts by picking him higher than projected.

Follow me on Twitter: @nathanieljue

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On Monday, it was a trip to Kansas City’s spring training facility to see the Royals and San Francisco. Outside of the Chicago Cubs, the Giants are the biggest draw in the Cactus League and easily had more than half the fans of the 6,243 in attendance.

To the delight of much of the crowd, San Francisco won 2-1, as both teams used a mix of regulars and subs for about six innings, before the younger guys with numbers of 60 or higher took over.

Last season, the Giants were last in the National League in scoring and 29th in baseball, with a large part of their problem being they swung (and often missed) at more pitches that were out of the strike zone than any other team in the major league. The return of Buster Posey will help, although you don’t go from being the lowest scoring team in your league to becoming the 1970s Big Red Machine because of one player.

Part of the change in culture was noted when San Francisco got a runner on first base. If that player had reasonable speed, they would be looking to steal second, and if a hit ball was a questionable gapper, the runner would try to advance the extra base.

Kansas City’s farm system is reportedly well stocked and the parent club was sixth in runs scored in the junior circuit in 2011. Can the Royals maintain a solid scoring team and improve its pitching to continue its march to become a .500 club? That answer will come later and it will be their pitching that will make that determination.

Giants Notes: Tim Lincecum threw four good innings, striking out four and permitting one walk and one hit. Lincecum utilized his curveball for the first time this spring and had good results, if not total command just yet. “This is a lot better than my last outing (five runs on seven hits and a walk with no strikeouts),” Lincecum said. “The fact I doubled my innings helps and my arm and my body still feel good and I still kept my mechanics. I’m trying to take that as a positive and run with it.” While there are still three weeks left in spring training, Lincecum’s velocity is of possible concern. If the radar gun numbers on the scoreboard are to be believed, Lincecum topped out at 90-91 MPH—just like last season—and not at the 93-95 range of his Cy Young seasons. This should be looked at further once the season starts.

San Francisco has a great deal of catching depth behind the healing Buster Posey, with the likes of switch-hitting 22-year-old Hector Sanchez, who will probably start the year in the minors along with vets Eli Whiteside and Chris Stewart.

The Giants are very excited about center fielder Gregor Blanco, who reached based four times on Monday and raised his batting average to a scalding .545. Blanco earned MVP honors in the Venezuelan Winter League and has not missed a beat in wearing a San Francisco uniform for the first time.

Freddy Sanchez is expected to take the field sometime this week, having been a DH to this point in coming back from a torn labrum last June. Among the people playing second base is Joaquin Arias, who made three sensational plays. The 27-year-old doesn’t appear to be a threat with a bat in his hand, but give him some leather and he’ll get the job done.

Brett Pill had two hits and played first base yesterday, and it is perplexing that it seems the Giants’ front office really wants this 27-year-old to play over Brandon Belt, who is four years younger and has considerably more power.

San Francisco’s projected win total is 87 and if that is to be reached, they need Posey and Sanchez back to their old selves and others to be a force. If manager Bruce Bochy stays committed to being aggressive on the base paths and the starting pitching holds up, there is no reason the Giants cannot return to the postseason and win 90 games in 2012.

Royals Notes: Having never seen Luke Hochevar live before, the immediate reaction is he throws harder than I would have guessed, consistently ringing up 95 mph on the radar gun. Last season, his career took off in a new direction by adjusting his arm angle to make his slider appear like his sinker, causing hesitation by batters. In the second half of last year Hochevar had a 3.52 ERA and averaged 7.7 punch-outs per nine innings. On Monday, while throwing hard, his pitches lacked movement in surrendering two runs on four hits over three innings and was taken deep by Conor Gillaspie. This is an important year for the 6’6″ right-hander who turns 29 in September and needs to show that he’s more than just another arm on what might be an ordinary club.

For the first time in memory, Kansas City has enough quality pitchers in camp and they will actually have to send somebody down because they were not just quite good enough to make the big club, instead of choosing the lesser of evils. Manager Ned Yost has talked about the competition being extremely “stiff”, using that word four times in the same sentence recently. While it is debatable about the exact quality of this contingent, it is a big upgrade over prior years.

Another huge positive for the Royals would be the return to form of closer Joakim Soria, who suffered declining strikeout numbers and less command a season ago. If Soria does not return to previous form, the match of him and new setup man Jonathan Broxton could cause a sharp increase in the need for Maalox in the Kansas City area. Yost would be foolish not to maximize the talents of last year’s setup star Greg Holland, who struck out three of the four San Fran hitters he faced Monday.

Any lineup that includes Billy Butler and Eric Hosmer is a terrific place to start. If Alex Gordon can have the same kind of breakout season he did last year and be a touch more selective at the dish, Kansas City’s offense will be capable of scoring runs in bunches. However, to surpass the oddsmakers total of 80 projected wins and finish second in the AL Central, the pitching has to improve overall and more Royals at the top and the bottom of the order have to be on base with greater regularity. 

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The Seattle Mariners and New York Yankees swapped Michael Pineda and Jesus Montero Friday night, in a trade that boiled down to a trade of two organizations’ most polished future stars.

It all began with a tweet, from Jerry Crasnick of ESPN: “The #Mariners are moving closer to a trade for a young impact hitter, two baseball sources confirmed.”

The details swirled forth relatively quickly from there, but for a few minutes, that left interested parties wondering: To whom could such a tweet refer? Who, in the game today, constitutes a “young impact hitter”?

Every source one would consult on the issue might give a different answer, of course, but it seemed safe to assume that player would have some MLB experience, however small an amount, and obviously, that his ceiling would be as a top- or middle-of-the-order batter.

Not that many such guys exist, of course; that’s what makes Seattle’s acquisition of Montero special. Of those who are out there, though, here are the 20 best “young impact hitters” in baseball today.

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The massive hit and collision Scott Cousins of the Florida Marlins put on San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey, causing a severe injury, was totally unnecessary and ridiculous.

Posey wasn’t even blocking the plate!

He went out of his way to the left of the base path, lowered his head and shoulder, and laid into him like a Polamalu hit. To disagree with that statement is ludicrous. He made no attempt to go for home plate and dislodge the ball at the same time. If Posey was fully blocking the bag then YES he has the right to the base path, but Buster was nowhere near it.

Scott Cousins had no right to launch himself into the body of Buster Posey in this situation. He had a clear line to the bag, even on a direct slide, and come in high with his forearms and shoulders into the arm and glove of Posey in an attempt to knock the ball loose.  

And don’t give me the crap about the last second, split decision. He made the decision to go OUT OF HIS WAY and deck Buster. That was the CLEAR decision he made.

Of course, this does not warrant any need for a rule change nor need for more protection of the catchers. Though I truly think a rule should be in place that they should NOT be allowed to block the plate and base path as the runner has just as much right to that position.

But to say what Cousins did was a legal play is asinine! He NEVER made an attempt to go for the plate. A similar comparison would be the in the NFL when a defensive back HAS to make a play on the ball when it is in the air. He can not just lay out the receiver for no reason.

That is exactly what happened when Posey got nailed on that play.

Now, on the other hand, I do not agree with Giants GM Brian Sabean, after he expressed his extreme anger over this to the media and wanting to exact retribution. Payback happens in ALL sports, but you will never hear about it from coaches, managers nor front office personnel in an interview. He should have kept his mouth shut and expressed his feeling insides the clubhouse alone.

When Scott Cousins submarined Buster like James Harrison for the Pittsburgh Steelers, he should have been fined and suspended. I would like to see someone make a play like that on a first or third baseman and see what happens.

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Quick Note before we begin.  Here’s a rule for catchers straight out of the MLB Rulebook:

“The catcher, without the ball in his possession, has no right to block the pathway of the runner attempting to score. The base line belongs to the runner and the catcher should be there only when he is fielding a ball or when he already has the ball in his hand.”

With that in mind, let’s take a look at what went wrong, and why the only person at fault is Buster Posey. It’s an easy thing to figure out if you actually watch the video. It was his own fault he got hurt on that play.  

Before you Giants fans freak out and tell me about how Scott Cousins needs to be fined or anything like that, take a look at the video. The sequence of events clearly shows that the injury was a result of Buster Posey making two, very distinct, very bad decisions, and leaving Scott Cousins with only one choice.

Those bad decisions:

1. Posey started in front of the plate. If you talk to any catcher, especially in the majors, they will tell you exactly what you’re supposed to do on a play where the ball is hit to right field with a runner coming home. You are supposed to start behind the plate, so you have a good view of the runner coming, and move forward as the ball comes in. Otherwise, you can’t see him coming at all if you’re looking into right field for the ball. 

Posey didn’t do that. As soon as the ball was hit, he made up his mind that he was going forward, and that he was going to sit on the line and wait for the throw. It goes against common sense as well as baseball playing basics. And don’t give me that crap that it was the speed of the play. That play took a while to develop, and if Posey is as good as everyone claims, he should have known better.

2. Posey didn’t catch the ball, but acted like he did. He didn’t catch the ball. No disputing that. It’s clear that he gave up catching the ball in lieu of taking the hit. Which, by itself, is pure idiocy. Let me explain. If the object is to catch the ball and tag the runner out, and the only way to do that is to take the hit, I get that. But when you don’t catch the ball, doesn’t that make the idea of taking the hit to get the runner out kind of, I don’t know, pointless? But he did it anyway.

After not catching the ball, Posey turned toward Cousins and lowered his shoulder for the hit. Posey wasn’t lying when he said he gave Cousins a lane to slide for the plate. He did. Until the last second, that is. Just before Cousins, who was running full speed toward the plate, gets about two feet away, Buster turns into him. He didn’t even have the ball, why did he turn? He’s good enough to know he didn’t catch the ball. He had no business sliding toward Cousins.

Cousins’ Only Choice

Take a good look at the video. You can clearly see that Cousins was heading toward the outside of the plate, away from Posey. He saw the ball come in, and knowing the caliber of catcher he was up against, assumed Posey would catch the ball. Given how the ball beat him to the plate with a great throw from right field, he had two choices.  

One…go for the head-first slide and pretty much be guaranteed an out. Or two, try to break up the play. Buster Posey made the choice for him. Posey turned into the base path and acted like he had the ball, cutting off Cousins from the plate. Cousins lowered his body to chest level, totally avoiding any head-to-head or shoulder-to-head contact. It was about as clean a hit as you can get between runner and catcher.

The Fallout

I find it funny that no one, with the exception of Giants fans and employees, is demonizing the actual hit. Oh sure, there’s a lot of people out there talking about how the rules need to be changed, or how catchers need to be protected, but that’s the gist of it. 

Anyone who sees the video can see the hit was clean. That’s not really up for debate. What has become the debate, is whether or not we need to change the rules to protect catchers. In my mind, that’s a little bit of an overreaction.  

If this hit happens to Buck, the Marlins catcher, we don’t have this debate. If Buster Posey isn’t the cleanup hitter on the reigning world champions, it’s just another play. But because it happened to a young and promising player like Posey, we should enact rule changes? After 142 years of baseball, we need to change the rules to better protect catchers? I don’t think so.  

Even if we were going to change the rules, what would we change them to?

Let’s say we changed the rule and made it so you are not allowed to hit the catcher. If that were the rule, what would Cousins have had to do? Leap over Posey? He couldn’t have reached the plate without going through him since Buster took it upon himself to step directly in the base path, even though he didn’t even have the ball.

Who would be at fault then? It would have to be Posey. He was in the base path and Cousins didn’t have anywhere to go.

And since Buster Posey himself has said that it was a legal play, why is he complaining? What does he want Cousins to do? Stop making legal plays? He’s being a baby. So is Giants GM Brian Sabean. Injuries happen, guys. Just because they happen to players we love to watch play doesn’t mean we need drastic rule changes.

Major League Baseball survived without Buster Posey for 140 years. It can stand another one.  

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Bruce Bochy called a team meeting on Thursday evening in the Giants’ clubhouse in San Francisco. The Marlins had just finished a three-game sweep of the team that almost seemed to be in a state of mourning after the dramatic loss of one of their most prized possessions. 

“We talked today about a few things—the loss of Buster and how important it is for us to move forward here,” Bochy said. “That’s what Buster would want. There will be questions about how good we will be without Buster. We have to answer that question.”

“You can’t always control what happens on the field. But you can control how you respond. We have to respond the right way, and that’s to keep fighting.”

Sounds to me like something from Angels in the Outfield. These words of wisdom may just further prove how talented of a manager Bochy is. San Francisco was able to defeat a hot Milwaukee team on the road the next day. 

All we know for sure is that his message got through to at least one player on the team.

Some fans called the end of Buster Posey in 2011 “The Day the Magic Died” at AT&T Park. A clever play on the Giants’ 2010 marketing campaign. One unlikely young player proved that “There’s (still) Magic Inside.” And he did it on the first-pitch hanging curveball that he saw in the seventh inning with the Giants trailing 3–1. 

Brandon Crawford’s first big league hit was what turned out to be a game-winning Grand Slam to right field.

The Giants know Crawford’s potential and were cultivating him well in their highly acclaimed farm system. Crawford was excelling at the minor league level before being called up. He pulled through and gave the team the spark that they could not find anywhere else. 

Perhaps a new slogan for 2011 will be a combination of magic and torture. Regardless, I can tell you that many Giants fans will agree—“Magic never felt so good.”

Crawford was the story of the night, deservedly so. Only five other players in the history of the game have ever achieved such a feat. That gives you goosebumps, doesn’t it? 

However, the fresh rookie was not the only unlikely character of the Giants’ story to make a difference. The Posey injury has been highlighted by the media as a tragedy for the team, which isn’t a stretch. But we must keep reminding ourselves in situations such as these—the game must go on.

There is one particular player that found himself right in the wake of the loss. He takes on a very challenging role, replacing the “irreplaceable.” Under the radar, he also fought to snap the Giants’ three-game skid. Not surprisingly, Eli Whiteside’s offensive performance has been frustrating. Nevertheless, the backup catcher displayed an act of courage, the significance of which may have been dwarfed by other events in the game. 

The Giants were trying to preserve their treasured lead in the bottom of the eighth inning. Prince Fielder, Milwaukee’s first basemen power house, weighs 275 lbs, but it sure seemed like twice that much as came toward home plate and made an aggressive play on Whiteside. It was a legal play, but arguably inappropriate given recent events. Giants fans everywhere held their breath and closed their eyes, having flashbacks to the events of that fatal Wednesday night. 

But when they opened them, Fielder was punched out by the home plate umpire. And Whiteside was alive, with the ball in his glove. An act of courage and strength from another unlikely character. 

Oh yeah, and don’t forget that Tim Lincecum was pitching. The Giants ace is held to such a high standard of performance because of his raw talent that his hard work often goes by unnoticed when he doesn’t strike out 14 batters or pitch a complete game shutout. Timmy gave up three runs on six hits and had four strikeouts with no walks. A relatively impressive performance, that is, when comparing the young righty to actual human beings. 

We can be superstitious and say that the Giants just may have had the “Baseball Gods” on their side Friday night in Milwaukee. The events of the night may or may not be representative of what is to come in the San Francisco Giants increasingly uncertain 2011. However, they certainly will go in the record books, and be remembered for a long time by many. 

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Though it’s still too early to determine who will take the field in Phoenix for the 2011 MLB All-Star Game, it’s always worth a look back at who has played well in the first month of the new season.

The San Francisco Giants are looking forward to having their manager, Bruce Bochy, lead the National League All-Stars and to having the most All-Stars from San Francisco in nearly a decade.

Here’s a look at the Giants All-Stars from the month of April, ranked in order of their impact for the club.

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Buster Posey was a force of nature around the Bay Area even before he became a fixture in the San Francisco Giants‘ clubhouse.

The former Florida State Seminole was selected by the Giants with the No. 5 overall pick in the 2008 Major League Baseball draft after he was done ruining psyches in college baseball. I’d make a “Sherman through the South” reference here, but Posey’s a good ol’ Georgia boy so it might be a sensitive subject.

Nevertheless, scorched earth is appropriate imagery when speaking of Buster’s collegiate exploits.

He was a Louisville Slugger All-American as a shortstop in his freshman year before switching to catcher for his sophomore year and finishing as the runner-up for the Johnny Bench Award (goes to the top catcher in college baseball).

Then he had a junior year that can stand on its own as a career-worth of accolades—he hit .463 with 26 home runs, won the Johnny Bench award, was the 2008 Collegiate Player of the Year and won the Golden Spikes award which is given to the best amateur baseball player in the country.

Consequently, it’s no surprise that Gerald Demp III was touted as the best catcher in the draft, handed the largest signing bonus in the draft’s history at the time ($6.2 million) and engendered the sort of hype San Francisco rarely sees over a baseball player not named Barry Lamar Bonds.

Nope, the surprise came when Posey not only delivered on all that hype but when he even managed to outpace it en route to the ‘Gents 2010 World Series Championship.

And he continues to see expectations in his rear-view mirror as the 2011 season rolls on.

On Thursday, the franchise catcher sat down with Bleacher Report for an exclusive look at that magical ’10 ride as well as the current campaign and what the future may hold.

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