Ramon Hernandez returns

[riverdunesrat]

The moment we've all been waiting for has arrived........

Hernandez's return a Catch-22 for club

By Tom Krasovic
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
September 3, 2005

MILWAUKEE – The easy part for Bruce Bochy came yesterday when Ramon Hernandez blasted several batting practice pitches, inducing the Padres to activate Hernandez as an emergency catcher for last night's game.

The hard part comes when Hernandez is ready to play every day and Bochy must decide whether to start Hernandez or Miguel Olivo, an energetic producer who saved the Padres after Hernandez chose to have wrist surgery.

Bochy said he expects Hernandez to get up to speed in a couple of weeks but declined to say which catcher will get the nod, although an obvious solution is to alternate them.

"Olivo's playing great," Bochy said. "The question will be, 'Where is Ramon at?' Watching Ramon swing (yesterday), I feel very encouraged. We're not there yet. Our job right now is to win ballgames, and then if we get there, we'll answer those questions."

Bochy confirmed that if the Padres reach the playoffs Hernandez will be added to their playoff roster, which would require subtracting a position player – it won't be Olivo – to open a spot. Hernandez can still go onto the playoff roster because he was on the disabled list when the Padres sent the roster to the commissioner's office Wednesday. The final position player added to the 25-man roster was Sean Burroughs, a reserve third baseman who could start tonight to give Joe Randa a breather.

Bochy's second catching decision could be dicier: If the Padres reach the playoffs, which catcher should start? Hernandez was a playoff regular with Oakland and is a former All-Star whose defensive savvy earned glowing reports from Jake Peavy and Trevor Hoffman. But Olivo has been sensational.

Hernandez's decision to have surgery July 29 wasn't embraced by the front office, which made it known that it preferred that Hernandez keep playing and have surgery after the season. Hernandez's agent, Eric Goldschmidt, insisted the surgery was needed and that club had downplayed Hernandez's injury.

General Manager Kevin Towers said yesterday that Hernandez's decision will not be used against him.

"Hey, the doctor said he could have used surgery," Towers said. "Ramon was in pain. Nobody knows the amount of pain other than the player himself. It sounds as if Ramon would have had a hard time being a contributor unless he had surgery. The silver lining is Olivo did a great job in Ramon's absence. I don't ever hold anything against a player because he had surgery. The doctors felt it was certainly an option."

Olivo, meantime, has outperformed nearly every Padre since Towers obtained him from Seattle on July 30. In 93 at-bats with the Padres, Olivo is batting .323 with six doubles, a triple, four home runs and 16 RBI to go with three stolen bases and 12 runs scored. Olivo also has shown a stronger throwing arm than Hernandez. He is immensely popular with teammates.

"I love the guy," Bochy said.

Said Towers: "I would imagine in a playoff situation you're going to go with whoever your hot player is. If that's Ramon Hernandez, it's Ramon Hernandez. If it's Miguel Olivo, it's Miguel Olivo. Let's just hope we get to the postseason."

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Tom Krasovic: (619) 293-2207; tom.krasovic@uniontrib.com

Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports...s3padside.html

[HollywoodLeo]

NOOOOOOOOO

Please keep starting Olivo

Please keep starting Olivo

Please keep starting Olivo

(if someone would've told me two months ago that i'd be making this post and offered a bet on it, i'd be short a thousand bucks right now)

[riverdunesrat]

You and several million other Padre fans......

[HollywoodLeo]

Ramon would make an awesome back-up, however

[padrefanforever]

Read this guys........it's great.........

http://sandiego.padres.mlb.com/NASAp...t=.jsp&c_id=sd

[riverdunesrat]

Hernandez/Olivo

No rivalry between Padres catchers
09/15/2005 9:00 AM ET
By Lyle Spencer / MLB.com

SAN DIEGO -- Ramon Hernandez is as hot as any hitter around, and that's perfectly cool with Miguel Olivo.
In another situation, involving different personalities, it could be an uncomfortable situation.

The Padres are lucky. With Hernandez and Olivo, amigos bonded by mutual respect dating to time spent together as young Oakland A's prospects in 1997 and '98, the vibes between them are nothing but good.

Ramon is the man and Miguel is the understudy, no matter how well the new man performed when he was called upon to hold things together during Hernandez's absence with a left wrist injury.

"Oh, no, I will never complain about that," Olivo said of Hernandez reclaiming his job after returning from the disabled list with his surgically repaired left wrist. "Ramon is a great catcher. It is his job. I was just holding it for him until he came back."

Hernandez is on fire. Batting third in San Francisco on Wednesday for the first time in his Major League career -- spanning 789 games -- Ramon doubled, singled three times and was in the middle of everything.

When the Padres tied the game at 4 in the ninth with two runs against Armando Benitez, it was Hernandez kick-starting the rally with a double.

When the Friars won it in the 10th against LaTroy Hawkins, it was Hernandez singling in front of Brian Giles' game-winning single that delivered Mark Loretta.

Raising his average to .288 with a 12-for-24 surge, Hernandez said he'd batted second while with the A's during his five years in Oakland, but never third. This was a first he seemed to enjoy, not that he was gloating.

"I really don't care where I bat -- third, eighth, ninth," he said. "I'm just trying to hit the ball, that's all. It doesn't matter where I hit. I'm trying to do anything to help the team win. As long as I'm out there, I'm happy."

While Hernandez wasn't out there in his recovery from July 29 wrist surgery, Olivo caught 30 of 31 games during one awe-inspiring stretch of durability, impressing everyone in the Padres' organization with his physical talent and his work ethic.

Invariably among the first players to arrive in the clubhouse, Olivo is constantly working on his game while studying charts and having conversations with pitchers and coaches about how to attack rival hitters.

"He loves the game," manager Bruce Bochy said. "I've never had a player who worked any harder than Miguel.

"He came through in a big way for us, on both sides of the ball. But Ramon is experienced, and our pitching staff is very comfortable with him. He'll do most of the catching. But I told Miguel how much I think of him and what he's done for us."

Olivo's offensive skills were a revelation. After batting .151 with the Mariners, who decided they'd rather have catcher Miguel Ojeda and Minor League pitcher Nathanel Mateo, Olivo smiled as he walked into the Padres' clubhouse for the first time and flourished immediately.

He homered in his first at-bat as a Padre in Pittsburgh on Aug. 3 and continued to swing aggressively, putting together a 10-game hitting streak from Aug. 24 through Sept. 4. It was right around that time when Hernandez was cleared to play, and he has responded with an All-Star caliber performance.

Olivo is batting .298 as a Padre in 32 games with a .490 slugging average.

Hernandez, an impending free agent, is among the best all-around receivers in Major League Baseball.

"I'm a little surprised I'm swinging this good after missing so much time," said Hernandez.

He missed a total of 48 games with two trips to the disabled list. He injured the wrist diving into a bag at Minnesota on June 17 while in the midst of perhaps his finest season.

"This is a big time for us," Hernandez said. "That was a really big game for us to win [on Wednesday]. After the first two, when we got an early lead and they came back and beat us, we get the lead, then give it up in the eighth.

The Giants have been playing pretty good baseball -- pitching, hitting. And now they have Barry Bonds back. That was a tough loss for them.

"To take a game away from them, when we're one pitch from getting swept -- that's going to give us a lot of confidence. It doesn't matter if we're down in the ninth, we know we have the confidence to come back. That's a good sign for us."

Olivo has made great strides in his play in all respects since arriving from the Mariners in the July 31 deadline deal, but he acknowledges that Hernandez is the man -- for now.

"I've known Ramon since we were in Oakland together after I signed with the A's," Olivo, a Dominican Republic native, said of the Venezuelan Hernandez. "I respect a lot of the things he does. He's a great player and a good teammate.

"I'm happy, proud of myself for what I've done here. I came here and didn't know the pitching staff. Everybody's been great to me, helping me. I really appreciate the team and the people."

With Hernandez's future uncertain, Olivo could figure prominently in the Padres' plans as their catcher of the future. At 27, with three franchises -- Oakland, the White Sox and Seattle -- behind him, he'd like to settle in and stick around for a while.

"I think he's doing everything right," Hernandez said. "I told him to keep working, stay ready. You never know what's going to happen in this game."


This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

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Padres Homepage | MLB.com

[padrefanforever]

did you guys read that article I posted.........about Olivo being as fast as Ichiro Suzuki ?