2009 October 09 | New York Yankees Fan Blog

Jacobs: Posada Needs To Settle Down

Derek Jeter, Yankee captain and best man at Jorge Posada’s wedding, called the situation awkward. Damn straight it’s awkward. You pull a catcher with four World Series rings and nearly 100 games of postseason experience off the big stage, of course, it’s uncomfortable.

Just don’t confuse awkward with controversial. Don’t confuse uncomfortable with a hullabaloo. At this point only Posada can make this situation ugly and if he makes it ugly, well, it would diminish him much more as a man, a Yankee, than as a catcher.

“I’m not jumping for joy here,” Posada said Thursday after the Yankees’ off-day workout. “But I accept it.”

He better.

Jose Molina will be behind the plate tonight when A.J. Burnett faces the Minnesota Twins in Game 2 of the ALDS. And while it would be entirely fair to say that as an offensive player Molina can’t carry Posada’s bat, it also would be no exaggeration to say right now everything is rolling in the Yankees’ favor. The two O’s in October — Alex Rodriguez and CC Sabathia — produced in a significant way in Game 1, the Twins look kind of spent … and if the sometimes electric, other times enigmatic Burnett pitches to his level of talent, there will be an undeniable scent of sweep in the air. Posada would be an idiot to disrupt the momentum.

Molina comes from a family of catchers, brothers in arms and shin pads. And as he held court, a rarity for him in this A-list clubhouse, everything about the career backup suggested he understands the complex psychology of handling pitchers.

“I prefer that a pitcher be 100 percent in his pitch than 50-50 in my pitch,” Molina said at one point. “We don’t know everything.”

Posada has caught 78 of the past 79 Yankee postseason games and sometimes he catches like he knows everything. Posada is prideful. He’s a leader. As evidenced by the two passed balls in Game 1, he also is not Johnny Bench back there. Never was. He hasn’t always meshed with pitchers. Of course, he’s not happy he isn’t playing just as he wasn’t happy when Joe Torre decided to use John Flaherty to catch Randy Johnson in 2005 (the Big Unit was terrible that night). He shouldn’t be happy. No athlete wants to sit.

“I know how bad Jorge wants to be out there and how intense he is,” manager Joe Girardi said. “Obviously, as time goes on, things can either build or diminish in the story. But we talked about it Sunday. I’m not saying he liked it, but emotionally he was good with me.

“It was a hard conversation.”

Click here to read the full article – By Jeff Jacobs of Courant.com

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