Mike Krukow Is Noticing an Off-balance Issue in Buster Posey's At-bats

The one question Buster Posey is probably sick of answering is regarding his hip and how it feels after undergoing surgery to address an impingement in his right hip and repair a torn labrum last August.

"That's the reason you do the surgery," he told NBC Sports Bay Area's Alex Pavlovic in February. "To try to get back to where you previously were before the damage."

From the many times he's been inquired about the procedure he's been optimistic, assuring everyone he feels fine, but that's not how Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow sees it. 

"It's all about bat speed and bat strength", Krukow said in a recent interview with KNBR. "If you go back and analyze all of his at-bats since the start of the season, I'll bet less than a quarter of them have had balance and strength and drive. A lot of the times he's been off balance, he's just been sort of waiving through the strike zone."

The Orange and Black have six games on the season thus far with the six-time All-Star slashing .167/.250/.222 with three hits and not one RBI in 18 at-bats.

Those aren't numbers we are used to seeing. And they certainly aren't numbers he is used to.

"He had a good at-bat where he hit a base hit up the middle last night, that was well balanced," Krukow added. "He hit one the night before where he hit one to the wall, and he hit that ball well. But he's not right, he's still looking for his swing and looking for his balance."

The Giants currently have the seventh worst batting average across Major League Baseball (.206) and the sixth lowest amount of RBIs (14). So yeah, sure -- Posey needs to hit, but with these numbers, it appears they all need to step up to the plate, pun intended.

"They need him, if he's going to be hitting in that four spot, he needs to start contributing with RBIs, I don't think he has any yet. That is something that they need to get some productivity out of that spot in the lineup. If he's going to stay there, he's going to have to come up with some big hits or move down in the lineup."

Perhaps, though, a change of lineup scenery could be the key to -- well, something -- anything at this point. To that, Krukow makes a good point. And if it's a balance issue -- then maybe his hip isn't where it used to be. And that's a completely different matter to address.

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