Is Eric Wedge giving Miguel Olivo a free pass?
Apr 11, 2012, 1:41 PM | Updated: 1:48 pm
By Brady Henderson
Eric Wedge is showing little patience for costly mistakes, giving Shawn Kelley a ticket to Tacoma after he gave up a go-ahead home run against Oakland and sending Brendan Ryan to the bench after his failure to turn a double play led to two Texas runs.
Wedge wasn’t shy about voicing his displeasure for those mistakes, either.
Dave Cameron of U.S.S. Mariner and FanGraphs thinks catcher Miguel Olivo should be held to the same standard.
“I can understand Wedge’s perspective in wanting to enforce guys playing the game well and not letting them just get away with mistakes, but I think if you’re going to pick on a guy for defensive mistakes they should have picked on Miguel Olivo a really long time ago,” Cameron told Mike Salk and Steve Sandmeyer on Wednesday.
Passed balls have been an issue for Olivo throughout his career. As Cameron noted, Olivo had a league-high 10 passed balls in 2009 and again in 2010. Last season he had 11 of them, the third-most in the American League.
Olivo’s failure to stop a ball in the dirt — on what was scored a wild pitch but appeared to be fairly routine — led to the only run in the Mariners’ 1-0 loss to the Rangers on Tuesday.
In Wednesday’s Wrap Up video, Salk discusses the precedent Wedge has set and how it relates to Olivo.
You can download Wednesday’s podcast here.
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