buster posey is good, etc.

The best catcher on the Cape last summer was Florida State’s Buster Posey, who helped power Yarmouth-Dennis to another league championship. He was good: .281 AVG, 3 HR, 19 RBI, .736 OPS.

I didn’t know he was this good.

Posey has put up some numbers this spring for the Seminoles that could best be desrcibed as ridiculous. In 42 games, he’s hit .465. He has 11 home runs and 49 RBI, and a total of 31 extra-base hits. His OPS is 1.380.

I know college numbers are far different than Cape League numbers, but even in that realm, those statistics are astounding.

And plenty of people are astounded.

This ESPN story from earlier this month highlights Posey’s remarkable junior season.

“I’ll be shocked if he doesn’t go in the first five picks,” said FSU assistant Mike Martin Jr. “I’ll tell anybody that will listen: Having been with him for three years, he’s Jason Varitek behind the plate and he’s Derek Jeter as a hitter. I really believe that. He’s that good.”

Catcher is always a premium position come June. Players who can stay at the position and hit become very hot commodities. Witness the 2006 draft, when four catchers who played on the Cape were first-round or supplemental round picks.

I figured Posey would fall into the same category, but his stock has gone through the roof thanks to his incredible spring. We may be talking Matt Wieters territory when all is said and done.

Pretty good for a guy who didn’t even catch until his sophomore season at FSU.

Don’t Forget About Beckham

If Posey is the ’07 Cape Leaguer making the biggest impression this spring, his Y-D teammate Gordon Beckham isn’t far behind.

The Georgia shortstop, who would have been the MVP of the league last season if not for Conor Gillaspie, has picked up right where he left off. As of April 27, he was hitting .427 with 20 home runs, 48 RBI and an OPS of 1.421.

With that combination of power and average, Beckham is making a serious case for national player of the year honors. Regardless of what happens there, Beckham will surely join Posey near the top of the June draft.

Notes

• When I put together the Right Field Fog Top 25 back in January, I knew it wouldn’t really reflect a college team’s actual strength, just its strength on the Cape the previous summer. I still thought strong teams would be strong, though, but in the case of USC, I was wrong. I had the Trojans ranked No. 1 because of their hitting and pitching balance, but they’ve struggled to a 20-22 record. Former Cape Leaguers Tom Milone and Grant Green have been great — Milone has a 2.89 ERA and Green is hitting .391 — but not much else has gone right for the Trojans. Shows what I know.

• Chatham and Harwich, the last two teams to put up rosters, finally did get them up. Perhaps the most exciting — and least surprising — roster inclusion is Matt Harvey in Chatham. Harvey was drafted in the third round last year out of high school in Connecticut but opted to attend North Carolina, immediately making himself one of the top freshmen in the nation. It’s no surprise, then, that he’s signed on with a Cape team, and even less of a surprise that he’s in Chatham. The A’s and the Tar Heels have had quite the pipeline working the last few season, and the minute Harvey didn’t sign, it became a foregone conclusion that he’d be in Chatham. Let’s hope he does indeed make it. With a 2.13 ERA this spring, he’s lived up to the hype and may be a prime candidate for Team USA. But young and highly touted UNC pitchers Andrew Miller and Alex White have made it to the Cape in past years, so that could be working in Chatham’s favor. Definitely something to watch.

RELATED POSTS