Miguel Olivo: Hacking His Way to a Better Tomorrow
Posted by basebal5 on Tuesday, June 10, 2008 at 3:03 pm
One of the most intriguing players on my recently adopted team is familiar to me through his work with the Padres a few years back. In 2005, when Ramon Hernandez went down to injury, the Padres picked up Miguel Olivo from Seattle for a bucket of balls. Olivo provided an unexpected spark on offense and performed well (if a bit inattentively at times) behind the dish.
After Hernandez bolted for the ridiculously green pastures of Baltimore (4 years guranteed for a catcher entering his thirties — why didn't I think of that?), the Pads had hoped to keep Olivo in the fold. Based on his spotty track record, though, they were willing to offer only a minor-league deal, so Olivo took his services to Miami, where the distinction between major- and minor-leaguers is a little fuzzier.
After two mostly undistinguished seasons with the Marlins, Olivo came to Kansas City, where he unexpectedly has blossomed as John Buck's nomimal backup. Although Buck is the starter, Olivo has garnered almost equal playing time thanks to a surprising display of power.
What is most fun about Olivo is this: In his career, which now spans nearly 600 games and more than 2000 plate appearances, he has almost as many home runs as walks. And if it weren't for an early stretch of “plate discipline,” when he was still mastering the art of hacking at everything, Olivo would be there. As a rookie with the White Sox in 2003, Olivo drew 19 walks but knocked only six homers. Since then, he's walked 56 times and hit 62 balls out of the yard.
If you want to see something that is extremely difficult to sustain, check out Olivo's record since 2005:
| Year | PA | HR | BB | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 281 | 9 | 8 | 80 |
| 2006 | 452 | 16 | 9 | 103 |
| 2007 | 469 | 16 | 14 | 123 |
| 2008 | 156 | 8 | 5 | 40 |
| Total | 1358 | 49 | 36 | 346 |
Do you know how hard that is? Well, neither do I, but I'm sure it's really hard. Olivo's total line for that stretch is .247/.273/.424. This isn't great, but it's a heckuva lot more useful than you'd expect from a guy who has demonstrated no ability to differentiate balls from strikes.
Ordinarily I would suggest more patience, but Olivo tried that earlier in his career and it didn't suit him. Guess he might as well just keep hacking…
