Hard to say

[sharksrog]

It's hard to say how much Buster Posey's fractured finger has contributed to his slump. He was red hot (8 for 16) before the injury, but went 5 for 13 in his first three games back.

Since then, however, he had gone just 2 for 36 prior to last night's 9th-inning single.

Since he also got five days of rest while he was recuperating from the injury, it's also hard to say how much fatigue has contributed.

Whatever, it has been a horrible, horrible slump, one that unfortunately shows that while Brandon Belt is an extremtly streaky hitter, even the best can go into prolonged slumps.

Remember how we talked about Buster's swing meaning that a slump for him might be mostly a reduction in extra base hits, but that his approach made him more immune from a protracted slump? I think it was about the time we said that when he entered into the worst slump of his career.

[rxmeister]

As I mentioned before, Buster talked about increasing his strength training this offseason. This would indicate to me that he feels the problem is fatigue. As for the injury, there is no doubt it's affected his power. Marco Scutaro is another who has lost power due to a finger injury. Scoots is not a power hitter to begin with, but his ability to drive the ball into the gaps like before is non existent. They finally shut Scutaro down, they really should so the same to Posey, although I guess it's irrelevant now with only four games left.

[sharksrog]

Mark -- As I mentioned before, Buster talked about increasing his strength training this offseason. This would indicate to me that he feels the problem is fatigue. As for the injury, there is no doubt it's affected his power. Marco Scutaro is another who has lost power due to a finger injury. Scoots is not a power hitter to begin with, but his ability to drive the ball into the gaps like before is non existent. They finally shut Scutaro down, they really should so the same to Posey, although I guess it's irrelevant now with only four games left.

Rog -- I suspect several factors entered into Buster's long slump, with fatigue and/or the finger likely being among them. I think the Giants will give Buster a chance to hit .300, although that may not matter to him.

The Giants would likely hope that Buster reaches .300 again, and Buster likely wants to keep playing.

Read more: sfgiantsmessageboard.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=2018&page=1#15322#ixzz2g0eitsDo