San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey suffered a brutal, season-ending injury to his left leg during a game against the Florida Marlins way back on May 25th. The incident occurred when Marlins outfielder Scott Collins came in to score the game-winning run in a 7-6 game and collided with Posey.
Four-and-a-half months later, Posey is getting back into playing shape. According to a report by SFGate, Posey has started participating in live bullpen sessions with instructional league pitchers in Scottsdale, Arizona. Just this morning, Posey caught balls for the duration of an eight-minute session.
Posey was targeting a Nov. 1st return to live bullpen catching sessions but has managed to beat that mark by three weeks. He has also been taking batting practice of late and is scheduled to start participating in live batting practice sessions soon.
The injury update comes as good news for the Giants and the upcoming season. Both the Giants and Posey himself want to see Posey back in good shape at spring training in early 2012, and getting a three-week head start on catching (with live batting practice on the way) works favorably toward that goal.