San Francisco Giants – C Buster Posey
This is only Buster Posey’s third season as a Major Leaguer, but his career has already seen some major ups and downs. In 2010, he was named Rookie of the Year and helped the Giants to a championship, but last year he was on the wrong end of a catastrophic collision at home plate, ending his season after only 45 games. To say he came back this year would be an understatement. Posey hit .336/.408/.549 with 24 home runs and 103 RBI this year – MVP-caliber numbers that helped the Giants coast to an NL West title.
With Melky Cabrera (.346 BA) serving a 50-game suspension for testing positive for testosterone, it makes it all the more necessary for Posey to step it up and set the tone in the lineup, which has also relied on contributions from Pablo Sandoval, Angel Pagan and Marco Scutaro. Matt Cain (16-5, 2.79 ERA) has led the team on the pitching end, and surprise success Madison Bumgarner (16-11, 3.37) will follow. The last two spots in the rotation are up in the air, with another unforeseen success in Ryan Vogelsong (14-9, 3.37) having a hard time getting a start over two big names – Barry Zito (who had a great comeback season) and Tim Lincecum (coming off a strangely bad year).
