Yankee pitchers deliver for Posada [Forum Archive]

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In recent years, the Yankees' pitching staff had not been good at holding on runners or delivering the ball to the plate quickly to give Jorge Posada a fair chance against basestealers, according to GM Brian Cashman.
So the Yankees made holding runners and speeding deliveries a priority during spring training and those areas, plus the guidance of catching instructor Tony Pena, have helped Posada to rank seventh in the majors in throwing out runners - 36%. In the American League, a base-stealer is caught 29% of the time. Posada threw out 30% of runners last season, 27% in 2004 and 28% in 2003.
That's why, when you combine Posada's hitting with his play behind the plate, Joe Torre says this might be the best season of his career. Posada is second among major-league catchers in on-base plus slugging percentage - .875 - trailing only Minnesota's Joe Mauer (.970).
"I see vintage Jorge Posada, everything we expect," Cashman said. "He's one of the best catchers in baseball and he has been. He's an offensive and defensive catcher. This is what I expect, this is what he is and this is what he's been. This guy is going to go down as one of the famous Yankee catchers, along with Yogi Berra, Bill Dickey, Elston Howard and Thurman Munson. "The last few years, to be honest, he hasn't had a chance to throw runners out, because we had a staff that was slow to the plate. We concentrated on that in spring - hey, you've got to give your catcher a chance. We had been one of the worst teams at holding runners. Our catcher has the equipment, but he has to have a chance. Even in the past, when his numbers haven't looked great, it hasn't been his fault."