Buster Posey..best player in baseball?

infielddad- Posey is certainly great and will be for many years, but I don't know if he's even the best catcher in the game right now. Yadier Molina is putting up some outstanding offensive numbers and I don't think anyone holds a candle to him defensively.

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infielddad- Posey is certainly great and will be for many years, but I don't know if he's even the best catcher in the game right now. Yadier Molina is putting up some outstanding offensive numbers and I don't think anyone holds a candle to him defensively.

My thoughts exactly JH. I think Buster Posey is a great player and going to be a great player for a long time. But it's hard to be the "best player in baseball" when you're not even the best player in your position..

JH,
Here is a current offensive comparison and the Posey stats are awfully impressive on a comparative basis:

http://www.fantasyplaymakers.c...php?compare_id=27940

I very much agree and understand that Molina is the best catcher and that is why I posted the topic as I did. I was talking about the entire game: defense, offense, controlling pitchers, controlling the game, etc and value to a team/winning. Over the past month, the Giants pitching has scuffled, their hitting has scuffled but the addition of Marco Scutaro and the unbelievable second half production and play behind the plate of Posey has made them a winner.

I'm a big Buster Posey fan. These names thrown out as the best player in the game are hard to argue against. Think we could add Joey Votto and several others to the list. There are a lot of great young players right now.
No one beats Molina defensively, but Buster is very good. Molina is great, no doubt about it, and he is having a career year hitting. However, still, Buster has the higher batting average, more doubles, more homeruns, 26 more RBI, just better across the board in all offensive categories.

Best part is that we have been following most of these kids for a long time. It's always fun to go back and look at them from their HS days.

Buster Posey
Andrew McCutchen
Mike Trout
Joey Votto

PG,
I am a huge McCutchen fan, absolutely huge. One hope I had this year was the Pirates would make the playoffs so his talents could be seen. In a sense, his skills are a bit like Clemente's were for so long: without much visibility. It was hard for so many to appreciate them and they were overshadowed by Mays, Mantle, Aaron and even a few others. Getting to the WS did wonders for Clemente being appreciated. I hoped the same would happen/will happen for McCutchen.

Watching Buster catch is like watching a Coaching clinic.
Watching yadier catch is like watching Michaelangelo paint... They are both amazing... Buster coaches his pitcher like an NFL offensive coordinator. Yadier gives so much confidence to his pitcher because the guy has to be thinking, 'heck if Yadier says FB away, it would be stupid to do anything else, besides if this guy gets on yadier will probably throw him out anyway... haha

Need to chime in for Mike Trout. He absolutely help turn around the season for the Angels and now have them in contention for a playoff spot. If you look at his numbers offensively, its pretty impressive.
• 2nd in AL in BA (.329)
• 1st in AL in R (116)
• 1st in AL in SB (45)
• 4th in AL in SLG (.562)
• 2nd in AL in OPS (.957)

All from a guy that didn't get called up until the end of April. Defensively, he has been a human highlight reel in CF. Not sure what else you could ask of this young man.

Mike Trout is absolutely amazing and you can use that old cliche "He's even a better person".

When Mike was playing for the local minor league team, his dad came into our building to thank us for everything we did for Mike. That was really classy, but the truth is we had nothing to do with who Mike Trout is or even how he got there. However, I'm certain his dad did!

Baseball is in very good hands with all these young guys who will lead the way. Mike Trout reminds me of a young Mickey Mantle. And the power just showed up this year... he's going to be even better than he is this year (if that is possible)!

Baseball's future sure looks bright IMO.

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Originally posted by PGStaff:
Mike Trout is absolutely amazing and you can use that old cliche "He's even a better person".

When Mike was playing for the local minor league team, his dad came into our building to thank us for everything we did for Mike. That was really classy, but the truth is we had nothing to do with who Mike Trout is or even how he got there. However, I'm certain his dad did!

Baseball is in very good hands with all these young guys who will lead the way. Mike Trout reminds me of a young Mickey Mantle. And the power just showed up this year... he's going to be even better than he is this year (if that is possible)!

Baseball's future sure looks bright IMO.

My son is just in awe of him. He loves every part of his game including what you mentioned, a Class Act. Great role model.

Great list!
They are all unbelievable.

I have been a huge fan of Andrew since he was about 13 years old.

But Trout is just incredible.

I guess its like trying to pick out which gold bar is the shiniest LOL

Most of them are just great kids in addition to having great talent. That includes your son "its"!

I think baseball is in for another golden era. Led by a bunch of "kids" that play the game the right way.

Thanks Jerry!

It is really incredible that Mike Trout has been able to do this at the age of 21.

I do remember Conigliaro (sort of a hero to me when I was young) - but that's about it for someone this young that is this good on a daily basis.

Just incredible IMO.

I don't know about tagging players very early in their careers as the best player. Let's see it for a few years. I'll stick with Pujols as the best in the game.

I don't know about the best in the game, but I do feel that Buster Posey has now emerged as the frontrunner in the NL Most Valuable Player race especially with the fading of the Pittsburgh Pirates hurting McCutchen's chances. This despite McCutchen continuing to have an outstanding year. Posey to me is the centerpiece of his playoff bound team whereas I don't feel that Molina offensively is expected or needed to play so central a role in his team's run scoring ability.

I still feel that Trout if he can avoid injuries is going to be one of those players that we will talk to our grandkids about: the fastest player in all of baseball, the most spectacular centerfielder, one of the very best and most aggressive baserunners, a high average hitter who actually knows how to take a walk.
Lastly, an apparent 30 HR guy on top of all that. He has more talent in his little finger than some ML players have in their who bodies and all at the age of 21. The alltime greats, the first tier Hall of Famers often were already recognized stars at 20 and 21, unlike normal 23, 24, or 25 and on up first big years. This is repeated numerous times throughout baseball history.

I can't help but be biased because I had the pleasure to watch Buster all through high school. I not sure you can say any player that is only in his third year is the "best player in baseball", but if you can, you would have a hard time arguing against Buster. I'm sure Mike Trout, Joey Votto, Bryce Harper, etc. were the same as Buster in their hometown. I'm sure that others that know them could get on here and write the same things that I am saying about Buster. The one thing that separates Buster, in my opinion, is the fact that he has only been catching for 5 years. Think about that for a moment. This kid was a SS / Pitcher all through high school and as a freshman at FSU. He was an All-American SS after hif freshman year at FSU. Then he agreed to move behind the plate for his team's needs. Now I'm sure Buster realized that if it worked out as a catcher, it was a fast-tract to MLB. But initially, it was a team-first move. That, to me, is the most amazing part of this story. Buster has always been the best kid on the field, but he is also the best teammate and has always been a team first player. I don't know the others and maybe they are as well, but this is what speaks the highest of Buster to me. The fact that he has only been catching for 5 years and now has complete control of a major league pitching staff blows my mind. I can't imaging anyone in baseball having a higher baseball IQ, but again I know I'm biased