LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Hector Olivera still whips the bat over his head a bit too frequently, still turns his torso too much at times in his swing, still doesn’t walk much at all, and still hasn’t hit for a lot of power, with no official homers in 61 spring at-bats, though he hit one in a game that got rained out after four innings.
But here’s the thing: The Braves third baseman-turned-left fielder is batting .393 with six doubles and a team-high 12 RBIs, and hitting Kevin Seitzer, said Olivera, who reached the majors as a 30-year-old rookie in September after a whirlwind season with seven teams in two organizations, works hard and is improving.
Seitzer spent nearly a month working with Olivera one-on-one in the Puerto Rican Winter League, and this spring he’s had him in for extra work almost every day before the team’s regular workouts. Here’s what Seitzer said Friday when asked about Olivera and his performance as spring training progressed.
“Better. Much better. We really ramped up the intensity. I mean, he’s been coming in at 7:15 every morning, home and road, until the few days just because the machines went away. But we were on an intense program to kind of shorten him up and get him using his legs, trying to minimize the turn. It’s helped his hands work. The bat wrap’s still there, but it’s not as drastic as it was, which is helping him get to pitches in. He’s not drifting and sliding like he started to come back to. He’s corrected that. So he’s in a pretty good place. …
“He is not afraid to work. You’ve just got to make sure that he knows the program, knows the (workout) time, and he hasn’t been one minute late all spring. …
“In the end he’s much more relaxed, much more confident. He understands the program, the routine. I mean, everything was just so new to him last year. He was with L.A. (Dodgers) and then he came (to the Braves), went to Gwinnett, then he came here, then he went to Puerto Rico. I think the more time he spent around us, the more comfortable he’s gotten. And it’s showing in his at-bats. He’s had some really good at-bats this spring. …
“Sometimes when you’re 30 years old and have been doing things your whole life a certain way, it takes a very long time to fix stuff. But I told him he’s either going to fix stuff or he’s going to die by the All-Star break. (Seitzer laughed.) I’m kidding.”
