SAN JOSE, Calif. — The Giants of San Francisco are starving for a good hitter.
The Giants of San Jose have a nice juicy steak waiting for them. Just not yet.

Buster Posey is the steak’s name. And there must be times when he does indeed feel like a piece of meat. From the day the big league Giants made Posey their No. 1 draft pick a year ago and subsequently paid him a $6.1 million bonus, the 22-year-old catcher from Florida State has been talked about more as a commodity than an actual human being.
Is he ready yet? When is he going to be ready? How does he look? Is he filling out? Is he worth the money?
On a sunny spring afternoon at Municipal Stadium, the minor league Giants have just concluded batting practice. Posey is inside the clubhouse, attending a baseball chapel session. Manager Andy Skeels is sitting in the dugout and answering the same Posey questions he has heard for the past two months.
“It’s part of the hyper-news cycle we live in today,” Skeels says. “Every game he plays gets overanalyzed. Buster doesn’t have a whole lot of experience as a professional. And the organization can’t put all of that experience into a player at once, like it’s a protein shake or something. I think that once he shows “” and the organization decides “”that he has mastered this level, he’ll be out of here.”
That doesn’t mean to the major leagues, of course. It means Posey will advance to Double-A, one escalator level up from the Class A San Jose team. The best hunch is that the promotion will occur in late June or early July. But even if Posey progresses as expected, he probably will not be the full-time catcher in San Francisco until 2011. Any sooner would be pushing it.
Skeels is right, though. The push is definitely on. Because the San Jose Giants are just down the road from AT&T Park, Posey has become the coming-attractions trailer for fans of the big club who keep dropping by to see him.
And what do they see? Pretty good stuff. Skeels says that Posey “had a strong start, hit a little bump in the road and has picked it back up again.” His batting average is dancing around the .300 mark. He has frustrating nights at the plate, but many more happy ones.
Also, if you watch his defensive work behind the plate, it is abundantly clear that Posey is in charge of the game. At 6-foot-1, 205 pounds, he could probably stand to add some bulk. And after the short college seasons, we’ll have to see how Posey handles the longer grind of the 140-game minor league schedule.
He’s plainly a man on a mission. When he does emerge from the clubhouse, Posey says he has 10 minutes to talk, tops. He is focused on infield practice, then on the game ahead. He is precisely what you want in a player whom you want to be precise. It explains why, even though Posey is among us in San Jose, he is not exactly a true San Jose citizen.
“I spend a lot of time here at the field,” Posey says. “I mean, I guess I’m out here a majority of the time. So I haven’t gotten to know the area. My goal is to just get better as a player, coming to the park and doing it every day.”
Posey drives a Mercury Sable, not a yo-look-at-me SUV or foreign sports car. His wife is in town to help handle the practical side of his life — the banking, the grocery shopping, etc. They’ve been to Oakridge Mall a couple of times. They live in the guest quarters at the home of Kevin Frandsen’s parents, who offered Posey the room when he spent spring training on the San Francisco roster with the San Jose native. Mostly, the couple eats in.
“I really haven’t had time to find any favorite San Jose restaurants,” Posey says. “You know any good places?”
For him, that constitutes a demanding question, says San Jose Giants president Jim Weyermann. He is used to having players ask for favors “” transportation, free concert tickets, other special considerations.
“Buster hasn’t been in my office yet asking for anything,” Weyermann says. “And I can’t say that about every first-round pick who has been through here.”
Skeels uses another story to illustrate Posey’s attitude. Two weekends ago, the Giants were playing in Modesto, where it was 115 degrees. They were on the 12th day of a 14-day trip. Posey had caught most of the games. His legs had to be weary. But in the seventh inning, running the bases, Posey slid hard into second base to break up a double play.
“He competes,” Skeels says. “This kid’s a gamer, whether it’s as a catcher or running the bases or in the batters’ box. You would think that’s a universal trait among players. But it’s not. Guys who play hard for 27 outs are a rare breed.”
The manager pauses.
“My fear,” says Skeels, “is that people will expect him to be an All-Star before he’s even in the big leagues.”
Understood. But for the Giants of AT&T Park— well, compared with most fears, isn’t that a good one to have?