Who is the Buster Posey fan who is trying to become the new Giants reserve hunter? – the chronicle of San Francisco

Surprise, Ariz. – For some young players, getting a long -standing organization can be a rough road. So excuse Sam Huff for being extremely enthusiastic about the end of the giants in San Francisco after Rangers appointed him a January assignment.

On Saturday, Huff collected a twice Homer from his old team in the Giants opening league. He also called for the Giants’ first challenge in the ABS Challenge spring only and won, launching Landen Roupp starter at San Francisco’s 6-1 victory.

Making this sweet is that Hursty’s favorite team growing up in Scottsdale, Ariz, was the giants and he is a hunter. His favorite player? Buster Sad.

“I tried to tell him, I tried to miss some subtle hints that throughout my life I am actually a fan of Giants,” Hursts told a sow, now president of Giants for baseball operations. “So yes, I loved Buster. When I was a kid, the whole team was great. “

The 27 -year -old Hurst had to play for the man responsible for this Giants Championship, Bruce Bocchi, the previous two years in Texas, but he was blocked by a consistent place on the list. In recent years, rangers have set up regular employees, including Jonah Hayim, Jose Trevino and Mitch Garver. HUFF, however, struck .258/.313/.455 in calls spread over four seasons, with 10 homes in 214 appearances on the plate; He also struck 123 homes and struck .480 through his career with minors.

And he did not hurt that Bocchi himself went to Huff when his former organization was interested in him.

“First of all, he is a wonderful person and hardworking,” Bocchi said. “He also has some talent. It can affect the baseball and do a nice job behind the plate; He has a chance to make the club where he may have been a longer shot for him here.

“He has some time in the big leagues and he is just getting better and better. I talked to a few people about him when the giants called, and I said, “You have a good makeup that really works in your tail.”

Giants’ spare site is not settled. Tom Murphy missed the bigger part of last year with a knee injury and is now out with inclined tension; Manager Bob Melvin said on Saturday that Murphy was getting a second opinion. Max Stasi, with even bigger experience than a large Murphy league, is also in camp. But Huff may have the best bat of a bunch of hopes.

He is also in what one can call “Joe Bart’s situation.” Huff is without options. To make sure they hold it, Giants or have to carry three catch (very unlikely after the first week or around the season) or choose between Murphy and Huff. Last year, they chose Murphy over the popular, home -made Bart, which continued to have a nice season with the Pirates with 13 home tracks in 80 games.

Stasi can also leave if there is no place. He has a refusal in his secondary league deal, essentially on the first day of each month.

This means that this can be one of the most interesting places for Posey, one of the great chas on the game to make one of his first major list decisions. And the fact that Huff began in the first game of the spring team and against his former club, well, it’s just delicious.

As a teenager, Huffers worked in a well -known baseball training facility in the Scottsdale area and he never hesitated to ask the big Legur questions. He meets Howie Kendrick, a major league from 2006-2020, and they both remain good friends. And former Giants starter Alex Cob is among those he has caught on occasion. Hurst’s experiences have served him well there: he has always been involved as a professional and is convenient to ask everyone, even an idol, questions.

“Oh, yes, I have already started,” Hursty told Peppering Posey. “I will not bomb him, I try to be careless and very calm about how I talk to him, but he is a hall of fame and I love to learn. I just have to do it within reason. “

Rangers know well that Huff is a quick and impatient study.

“He is such a nice child alone, he has a good head on his shoulders and so he is ready to learn,” said Texas a brief stop Marcus Semien. “He always asks questions – and has the tools. He has a hand like Sean Murphy and his strength is through the roof. “

Huff demonstrates that in his first bat in Giants uniform, placing a 1-0 slider from Tyler Mahle to Berma at the Straightaway Center on Saturday.

“He has a beautiful power, a truly unique power,” said Texas (and former Giants), hitting coach Donnie Eker before the match. “I think everything is there and he has an organization that I hold so much attitude towards Buster and Pat Burell. I think they will do a really nice job with him. The weather is so much of this sometimes and it has a good opportunity there. “

Burell, Giants’ Strike Coach, first noticed Huffer two years ago at the secondary league level when the Triple-A Sacramento played Texas’s Rock Rock Team. The size of the hub is 6 feet-4, 240 pounds-Burell’s eye.

“You see a big man like the one behind the plate, he gets your attention,” Burell said. “This brings you back to the days of Mike Piazza, Mark Parent, Todd Pratt, just monsters.”

In fact, Bocchi compares Hurst with Herman Munster – more special, the 1965 television episode, in which Munster tries to go out for Dodgers and hits Homer that breaks the dashboard.

“He’s dangerous there,” Bochi said.

Hurst’s work behind the plate is the question, but it also makes progress there. Alex Burg, the Giants Catch coach, was in the Texas system as a player, and then as a coach and worked with a hub there, so he saw how far he had been Hub.

“It’s getting better,” Burg said. “It’s all there to have a very good player and it’s a person who was # 1 perspective for Rangers. The skill has never been in doubt. It’s just: can we get his confidence, the ability to do something? This is something he never had. He needs someone to take his chance and allow him to play with some freedom. “

Burrell remembers when he first saw Huff two years ago and said, “He hit a mile of rural mile and I thought,” Why is this man here? What do I miss? “But you never know what’s going on – I want to say, shoot, do you think Pittsburgh was expecting to get Joey Bart?”

“I don’t see anything about him not like it. And I see a person who cancels the joy of the game. This is a special feeling and we are pulling for it. “

Reach Susan Service: sslusser@sfchronicle.com; X: @susanslusser