Emergency Catcher Tidbit From Roch

[NelsonCruuuuuz]

Wow, how crazy would it be to see a pitcher catch? Has that ever happened in the last 30 years or so?

Who is the emergency catcher?
Again, Owings. But reliever Logan Gillaspie caught in the independent Pecos League. I’d pay to watch him go from the mound to behind the plate in the same game.
 

https://www.masnsports.com/orioles-rss/because-you-asked-baby-geniuses-2

[DrungoHazewood]

Here are all the players listed as primarily pitchers who also caught:

[code]                                                                                                                                                                                       
Rk           Player   G From   To   Age   G   PA   AB   R   H  1B 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB  SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS OPS+ TB GIDP HBP SH SF IBB       PosV                              Team
33         Ed Crane 391 1884 1893 22-31 391 1497 1409 199 335 257 45 15 18  84    29 86 191 .238 .283 .329 .612   85     464             2      1O2/3       BOSBROBUFCINCKKNYGNYIPROWHS
34    Fred Mitchell 202 1901 1913 23-35 202  619  572  55 120  97 16  7  0  52  8  0 22  92 .210 .245 .262 .508   52     150   5        11 123H/54687                BOSBROBSNNYYPHAPHI
35     George Britt 279 1920 1944 24-48 279  774  698  78 187 154 26  6  1  69    13     48 .268 .320 .327 .647   80     228   6 22      0 12354/7698 ABCBBSCAGCBECCBCOBDMHGHILJRCNDSEN
36        Mike Ryba 250 1935 1946 32-43 250  292  247  18  58  52  6  0  0  24  0  0 22  31 .235 .297 .259 .557   55 64    5   0    20   0       12/H                            BOSSTL
37   Heliodoro Diaz 120 1926 1935 21-30 120  312  276  22  58  47  9  0  2  25     1     25 .210 .276 .264 .540   44      73   0        11     1/2379                            CSWNYC
38      Bill Harman  15 1941 1941 22-22  15   14   14   1   1   1  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   3 .071 .071 .071 .143  -59  1    0   0     0   0       /H12                               PHI
[/code]

None since WWII.  It's been a long time since anyone did it with much regularity.

Fred Mitchell played in the early 1900s and was kind of a two-way utility player.  In 1903 he started 28 games, going 11-16 with a 4.48.  In 1910 he caught 62 games for the Highlanders, after spending 1906-08 or 09 in the minors apparently contuining as a two-way utility player.

The other way round, catchers who pitched some... dozens and dozens up through today.

[Just Regular]

If he was in today's game Lenn Sakata definitely would have pitched by now and then there could be a good bar debate between which of catcher and pitcher is secondary or tertiary.

I was hoping it was going to have been Hyder himself.

I do like in the opening sequence they haven't been shy about putting both catchers in the lineup...it is literally what AAA is for if anything happens mid-game.    Are Orioles bench bats even better than 2021 NL pitchers were?

[DrungoHazewood]

1 hour ago, Just Regular said:

 Are Orioles bench bats even better than 2021 NL pitchers were?

This is probably a little tongue-in-cheek, but yea, by a mile.  The guys listed as non-starters on bb-ref have something like a 50 or 60 OPS+?  2021 NL pitchers had a -19 OPS+, a slash line of .110/.149/.140.  An average NL pitcher hit considerably worse than Chris Owings.