What has Giants' catcher Buster Posey finally swinging for the fences again?
The demise of Buster Posey was greatly exaggerated. During spring training, Baseball Reference projected that Posey would finish the regular season with five homers and 24 RBIs. He smacked five homers in the seasons first month and should smash the RBI prediction by the end of this month. As the Giants 34-year-old catcher entered his 11th full season, this very space in The Chronicle compared Poseys potential numbers to Jonathan Lucroy and Matt Wieters, who combined to play just 20 games in injury-riddled campaigns last season as 34-year-olds. Posey reached the 40-game mark Sunday. Hes been a healthy and strong player for us so far this season, said Giants manager Gabe Kapler, who meets with Posey before each series and plots out playing time and opportunities for rest. Its very important to both of us, and to the Giants, that hes able to maintain that. Its been nice that hes been able to reward that schedule with great performance.  Playing about two-thirds of the games and resting when Curt Casali subs has been the perfect formula to rekindle Posey, whose production plummeted after he had 2018 hip surgery before he opted out of last season after he and his wife adopted premature twin girls. Posey, who hasnt been an All-Star since 2018 and hasnt won a Silver Slugger since 2017, hit a career-low five homers in 2018 and batted a career-worst .257 in 2019. All of a sudden, hes back to rivaling his 2012 MVP season, hitting .333 with 10 homers, 27 runs and 22 RBIs. The power numbers are the most astonishing. Six of his 10 homers have come after a day off. A seventh came a day after being called on for a ninth-inning pinch-hit appearance. With his hip finally loosened and being expertly maintained, Posey is back to getting the bat head out front and driving the ball. During his prime years (2012-14), he pulled the ball 27.8%, 27.4% and 28.6% of the time, respectively. This year, hes pulling the ball 28.3%. Posey is slugging a career-best .571, topping the .549 mark he posted in 2012. He hit a career-high 24 homers in 2012, going deep once every 22.1 at-bats. This season, hes trotting around the bases once every 14 at-bats. With those kinds of numbers, no exaggeration is needed. Rusty Simmons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rsimmons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Rusty_SFChron