Baltimore Orioles' Castillo, Joseph clicking on all cylinders

The Baltimore Orioles have seen their offense turn for the better recently, in part due to the great work their catchers are doing at the plate.

Many people were concerned about the Baltimore Orioles‘ catchers headed into the season.

Matt Wieters, the long-time backstop was gone, replaced by Welington Castillo. Caleb Joseph, the backup, had not had a RBI in over a year.

All that angst should be gone now.

If you look at American League catchers who have 60 or more at-bats, that is 18 different players. The best batting average among those players? Castillo, who is hitting .350. Second best is Christian Vazquez for the Red Sox, and third? Joseph, who is hitting .284.

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Francisco Pena, in his seven at-bats, is hitting .571, sure a small sample size.

Castillo is in the top 10 in runs scored in the American League by catchers with 10. He is fifth in hits, one hit out of second and in much fewer at-bats. Castillo has played in 19 games. All of the guys ahead of him have played in 29 or more.

Castillo is tied for third in doubles.

Both Castillo and Joseph are tied for 14th in RBIs with 9. But, add those two together, and it would put them in the top five.

In the last 30 days, Castillo is hitting .378 in 45 at-bats, with 17 hits. Joseph is hitting .322 with 59 at-bats.

Let’s look at an even shorter period. In the last seven days, the Orioles have played in five games. Francisco Pena played in one of those games and went 2-3 with 2 HRs, 2 RBIs, 2 R.

Joseph played in two of those games and went 5-8 with one home run, three doubles, one triple, four RBIs and two runs.

Castillo played in the two most recent games, going 6-for-10 with three RBIs, two runs, one walk and one strikeout.

Combined, that is 13-21 with three homers, nine RBIs, three doubles, a triple and six runs.

In the last seven days, the Orioles have more hits than the Mariners’ starting catcher, Mike Zunino, has all season.

In the last seven days, the Orioles’ catchers have more doubles than Brian McCann, and Russell Martin does all season.

More RBIs in that span than many starters do all year, including Jonathan Lucroy, Stephen Vogt, Russell Martin and Yan Gomes.

Joseph is one of only three catchers to hit a triple all season, along with Vogt and Vazquez.

Obviously, seven days does not make a season. And, these guys will go through peaks and valleys. But to see that some of the team’s combined numbers at the position in five games matches what some starting catchers have done in over 20 games is quite interesting.

But, the Orioles haven’t just excelled at the plate, but also have been pretty good at it too.

Castillo also has thrown out 40 percent of runners trying to steal against him, while Joseph has thrown out 23 percent. As a team, the Orioles have the fifth-best percentage of throwing out attempted stealers at 32 percent.

If you look at wins above average by position, the Orioles are third, trailing only Texas (Jonathan Lucroy and Robinson Chirnos) and Houston (Brian McCann and Evan Gattis).

Using offensive WAR, the Orioles have the best set of catchers in the AL.

Next: 4 proposals to fix the Orioles’ imploding bullpen

Let’s be honest, going into the season, some worried about the catcher position with the Orioles.

It looks like the team is doing just fine.

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Baltimore Orioles’ Castillo, Joseph clicking on all cylinders

By Nate Wardle | May 18, 2017

The Baltimore Orioles have seen their offense turn for the better recently, in part due to the great work their catchers are doing at the plate.