[mintacular]

Since the catcher could not be barreled into, I believe the other part of the rule change would prohibit the catcher from standing right in front of the base. Thus the runner would have an opportunity to realistically slide and the catcher would have to catch ball in a zone above plate and sweep tag runner....

Buster Posey is a very talented player so if it takes him to get injured to reconsider the rule than so be it....

Anyone who plays catcher has to be durable. They also have to know when to take a hit and when to move. --if you look at the Posey play again, Posey was actually positioned above plate and Cousins the Marlin's player (within the current rules) could've slid across the heart of the plate but instead went air-born and basically ended Posey's season with that decision to do so...I'm also not sure how the Posey incident has anything to do about being "durable"--the injury he sustained was not a chronic injury, etc. and no amount of durability or physical training could've prevented his injury

I believe the NFL used to allow "close-line" tackles and this change in the rules has made the game safer without taking the physicality out of it.