Catching On

When it was announced that Matt Wieters had a problem with his UCL (ulnar-collateral ligament), I,  like most Orioles fans, was worried. It didn't sound good. And when the dreaded words "he is off to see Doctor James Andrews” were stated, it sounded even worse. Matt Wieters was having his best offensive season to date, sporting a .308/.339/.500 (131 OPS+) line with five doubles, five homers, and 18 RBI. He was having an All-Star caliber season. But on June 16^th, it was made official that he would have season ending Tommy John surgery. It was a big blow for the 2014 Orioles.

Wieters' offensive numbers aside, he has always been one of the better defensive catchers in the game. He has thrown out 33% of would-be basestealers in his career. Not to mention whenever an Orioles pitcher has talked about Matt Wieters, they always spoke with nothing but the highest regard for the way he handles the pitching staff. So with his season over, many people on various Orioles fan sites were all in a tizzy with the doom and gloom statements. I didn't think the season was over by any means, though it was undeniably a blow for the team. How would they be able to replace a catcher like Wieters?

In stepped Caleb Joseph.

I knew of Caleb Joseph. I had seen his name for years. I had also seen his name listed at AA Bowie for what felt like forever. He spent time at Bowie in 2009, '10, '11, '12 and '13. I had never seen him play, but when seeing this, I just thought he was nothing more than a career minor leaguer; a AAAA player. When it came to reading up on him, all I saw were things like, "he can hit but not so sure about his defense."

The following is from the 2009 Baseball America scouting report: (http://www.baseballamerica.com/statistics/players/cards/87489 )

Strengths: The more you see Joseph, the more you like him, and that seems to go for everyone from scouts to managers to pitchers, who love working with him. His tools grade out as average across the board, but his performance is consistently above-average. He understands his swing and knows how to hit, consistently centering the ball and hitting it where it's pitched. He's a good athlete and blocks and receives well. He has an average arm.

Weaknesses: Joseph's swing can get long and funky, and he'll have to hit with more power to stay out of the lower part of a batting order. He has to work on his footwork, and his release time is a bit slow. He'll need to get stronger to handle catching every day.

Even when looking at the season Joseph had in 2013, .299/.346/.494 with 22 HRs and 97 RBI, earning him Eastern League player of the year honors, I said ok but that was at AA. Nothing to see here. Not only was it at AA, but he was 27 years old; no longer really prospect status.

With Joseph's call-up when Wieters went down, I wasn't expecting a whole lot. He seemed like a career minor league player that had scouting reports question his defense. I was worried about it for sure, though I figured Steve Clevenger would get most of the playing time. Clevenger then struggled with throwing runners out: only 15%.That wasn't gonna cut it. He wasn't hitting much either. Something had to be done. The Orioles then traded for veteran catcher Nick Hundley from the San Diego Padres. Hundley looked to be a solid pick up. Decent bat and had thrown out 36% in 2011 and 32% of base stealers in 2012. But Hundley struggled to an 18% caught stealing and wasn't hitting much either.

Following the trade, the team sent Steve Clevenger down and kept Joseph. I wasn't sure what the team was doing or what to think. Joseph did not get off to a great start with the bat, the tool that was supposed to be his strength. Through 39 games in the first half he hit .187/.262/.308. He did manage to hit 3 home runs, but his offense was ultimately not impressive. 

But what Joseph was lacking early on with the bat, he was making up for with his supposedly average-to-below-average defense. He was throwing out runners at an insane rate. As of this writing, he had thrown out 46% of would be basestealers. Not only that, the team has a 3.04 ERA when he's behind the plate. I've been impressed with the way he frames pitches and overall receives pitches. His glove never seems to move. He presents a great target. So it would appear all the scouting reports on his defense were wrong, which was a pleasant surprise.

Joseph has put a lot of work into improving his footwork, which was always a knock on him. Maybe the perception of him having a weak arm was do to his poor footwork and not getting good throws off. Whatever the cause for him getting the label of a bad defender, he has played very well behind the plate. In the second half of the season his bat has come on, hitting .309/.333/.655 with 5 home runs(those came in 5 straight games no less). It took him a little longer to get to the bigs, and it took some work to shake off things he had been labeled, but Joseph is here and he is filling the void for one of the biggest pieces of the Orioles. In a season that has been fun to watch , Caleb Joseph has been one of the biggest and most pleasant surprises.

--Matt Baggette @mlb930