Bruce Bochy and crew did a very good job of limiting the amount of stress placed on Buster Posey's ankle in 2012. In the season's first half, Bochy played him in "just" 107 of 118 games, using him at first base and giving Posey some rest when he started struggling earlier in the season.
Don't count on that rest down the stretch, though -- Bochy said on Wednesday he wants to use Posey at catcher "as much as possible" for the remainder of the season.
"Yeah, as much as possible," Bochy said, per John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle. "Again, without wearing him down in the next two or three weeks. We have to be smart about this, but we want to get him out there as much as we can."
Bochy won't push Posey to the point of breaking him or anything, and if Posey starts to falter, he'll get his catcher a day of rest.
"You're down to this part of the schedule, and hopefully you've taken care of some players, in particular your catcher to where maybe you can push him a little more," Bochy said. "But you have to watch it with your players. If they show any signs of needing a break, you have to give them a break."
The revelation that's been Brandon Belt over the past half month has helped Bochy out; he wants to keep Belt's bat in the lineup so playing Posey at first base is prohibitive. And besides, you want to get Posey's bat out of the lineup?
No, no you don't. Dude's the MVP of the second half and working his way into the conversation with Andrew McCutchen for NL MVP this year by hitting .434/.516/1.280 with nine homers, 20 walks and 33 RBI.
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And with the Giants one game out of first place all of a sudden, it only places more and more importance on each game, which means that Bochy won't want to see Posey sitting anywhere other than behind the plate.
