Giants catcher Buster Posey released a statement Saturday, seeking to calm some of the recent controversy and public reaction to the home-plate collision with Scott Cousins that ended his season.

Following the Giants' organizational statement Friday to clarify they weren't out to vilify Cousins, Posey echoed that he appreciated Cousins' attempts to reach out to the catcher the night of the injury and his subsequent messages, but in the interest of putting the incident behind them, he doesn't feel it is necessary to talk with Cousins.

"I appreciate the continued support of Giants fans and others as I begin the process of working my way back," Posey said. "But in no way do I condone threats of any kind against Scott Cousins or his family."As I said last week, I'm not out to vilify Scott. I appreciate that he made the effort to reach out to me on the night of the play, but I was in no physical condition to talk to anyone. I have not been back with the team since that night, so I haven't even been aware of any other messages he's left for me. We all need to move on, so it isn't necessary to have a conversation with him at this point.

"My only focus right now is looking forward, getting healthy and returning to catching for the Giants."

Posey's statement comes two days after Giants general manager Brian Sabean's controversial radio remarks, which were largely directed toward Cousins. Marlins first baseman Logan Morrison, Cousins' teammate, responded with a personal attack on Sabean. Along with the Giants' statement Friday, which focused on catcher safety instead of Cousins and the play itself, team president Larry Baer and San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy also attempted to direct attention away from Cousins, particularly regarding the reported death threats the University of San Francisco product received.

Posey, out for the season with a broken lower left leg bone and three torn ligaments in his ankle, received some criticism from Johnny Bench this week, as the Hall of Fame catcher told the Tulsa World that Posey put himself in a bad position on the play at the plate.

Bochy, Sabean and Baer have all reached out to Joe Torre, Major League Baseball's executive vice president of baseball operations, in an attempt to use Posey's situation to spark rule changes. Bench, however, said Posey should not have been sitting in front of home plate, where catchers are "fair game."

"Buster was a finalist for the Johnny Bench Award [as the top collegiate catcher in 2008] and is a great kid -- I called him after the World Series last year," Bench told the Tulsa World. "When I heard about the injury, I was anxious to see how this happened. Buster put himself in such a bad position.

"I teach my kids to stay away from the plate when you don't have the ball so the runner actually sees home plate and his thought is, 'Slide,'" Bench said. "But Buster is laying in front of home plate, and it's like having a disabled car in the middle of a four-lane highway. You're just going to get smacked."

Pretty much. Some of the things that have come out of their GM's mouth is ridiculous.