Thursday BP: Buster Posey is in favor of the new MLB rule changes

Good morning, baseball fans!

Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic recently published an interview with former San Francisco Giants player turned owner Buster Posey. It’s a lengthy read, but worth it if you’ve got the time. The two touch on a plethora of topics ranging from Posey’s life after playing baseball, thoughts on the current team, his role in the ownership group, and many more.

Perhaps one of the more noteworthy topics to come up included the recent rule changes. Baggarly sets this up by discussing how Posey feels about the misnomer of the “Buster Posey” rule and the benefits that the rule change has brought to the game.

Poignantly, when asked what he’d like to say to Scott Cousins (to whom he hasn’t had a conversation with since the collision in 2011), Posey reflects that he would like to ensure that Cousins doesn’t carry any kind of a burden from the incident.

The two move on to discussing the newer changes in game play this season, the pitch clock and the lack of defensive shifts. Posey discusses how frustrating he found the shifts later in his career, noting:

“Because you train your whole life, like, ‘OK, stay on the ball, stay on the ball.’ And you stay on the ball and hit a rocket right over second base and there’s a guy standing there. Talk about demoralizing! That was demoralizing.”

Posey goes on to talk about being surprised by how excited he was for the pitch clock, and how he would plan to deal with it if he were still behind the plate. Which was, unsurprisingly, not very different than how he handled games before the pitch clock. He notes that it’s all about knowing your pitching staff and how to manage them effectively to keep them on track.

Ultimately, Posey seems to be a fan of growing the game and thinks that the changes will help do so. Noting some recent trends of organizations that are not necessarily motivated to win, let alone grow the game. And how he hopes to see that change.

“But I do hope the game can get back to rewarding guys for doing the smaller things. I think baseball players are probably as talented as ever, right? But if the focus is only on power, it’s a little stagnant to me. Some of these new rules will hopefully create some more action.”