Hernandez creates buzz behind the plate

By: BRIAN HIRO - Staff Writer | Sunday, February 22, 2004 9:30 PM PST ∞

PEORIA, Ariz. ---- The buzz, evidently, preceded him. Padres players read about Ramon Hernandez's accomplishments, heard through the baseball grapevine about his adroit management of Oakland's sterling young pitching staff and just assumed they would be getting a graying catcher with creaky knees.

"He's younger than I thought he was going to be," Padres closer Trevor Hoffman said on the first day of spring training.

In the apple-cheeked, 27-year-old Hernandez, the Padres believe they have acquired a player who is wise beyond his years, and just the right guy to help them stem a tide of recent mediocrity behind the plate. Where once squatted such undistinguished names as Gary Bennett, Wiki Gonzalez and Tom Lampkin now will be an All-Star performer with 20-homer capability and a track record for handling a playoff-quality pitching staff.

"We felt like we needed a front-line catcher, a guy who's going to catch 130 games, who's going to give you offense, defense," Padres manager Bruce Bochy said. "He's just a good all-around catcher. That's an area we were looking to improve, and we did that with that acquisition."

After watching his average slip to .233 in 2002, Hernandez blossomed at the plate last season. He batted 40 points higher while posting career bests in runs (70), hits (132), home runs (21) and RBIs (78) to earn his first All-Star appearance. By contrast, the Padres' regulars at catcher last year, Bennett and holdover Miguel Ojeda, each hit below .240 and combined for only six homers and 64 RBIs.

It's in his crouch, however, that the Padres are expecting a marked difference with the presence of Hernandez, whom they pried from the Athletics with outfielder Terrence Long in exchange for Mark Kotsay last November. Hernandez's maturation in Oakland coincided with that of the team's dazzling young starting trio of Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito, and former teammates and baseball insiders give the Venezuelan catcher no small slice of the credit.

"He's gotten a lot of high accolades from the guys that he left in Oakland," Hoffman said. "He's going to solidify that position behind the plate for us and hopefully tame us all out there."

To be sure, Hernandez isn't the model defensive catcher ---- he threw out just 24 percent of attempted base stealers last season and allowed the most stolen bases in the American League. But he possesses tremendous durability (his 551 games caught over the last four years rank second in the majors to Pittsburgh's Jason Kendall) and a veteran's feel for pitchers and the intricacies of pitch selection.

"Every year you learn a little bit more," Hernandez said. "Every day you learn something new about catching, how you call the game. The pitchers helped me a lot (in Oakland). We got along good, we had good communication. I think that's the main thing, having a good communication with your pitchers ---- what they want to do, what you think they should do."

With a 2004 salary of $2.9 million, Hernandez is a relative bargain. Padres general manager Kevin Towers regarded him as nearly the equivalent of Ivan Rodriguez and Javy Lopez, two higher-profile catchers on the market this winter. But the Padres weren't so enamored with him that they wouldn't consider turning around and trading him last month, as part of a nearly consummated package for Kendall. The deal died at the 11th hour, though, and Hernandez insists that his feelings aren't bruised.

"After you get traded once, it doesn't make any difference if you get traded twice," he said. "I think a trade is never a bad thing."

Now that he seems entrenched with the Padres, Hernandez has gotten down to the business of familiarizing himself with his new pitchers. Among them are a triumvirate of starters ---- Brian Lawrence, Adam Eaton and Jake Peavy ---- who have drawn comparisons to Oakland's Big Three in age if not in feats.

One of the Padres' Not-Yet-Big Three is anxious to discover what Hernandez can do for them.

"You see how (the A's have) done the last three years, you know that it has a lot to do with the pitching staff, and he was a vital part of that pitching staff as the catcher," Lawrence said. "Just seeing that, you know there's good things (ahead). Hopefully, we go in the same direction."

Contact staff writer Brian Hiro at b_hiro@hotmail.com.