Caleb Joseph talks about his offensive resurgence

Caleb Joseph has a tendency to choke up at the plate and he doesn't care who notices. He's secure in his masculinity.

There are no tears from the Orioles catcher, though his injury last summer would make anyone's eyes water.

Joseph suffered through a miserable 2016 season, and not just the foul ball that put him on the disabled list for a month. He crafted a .174/.216/.197 slash line and didn't drive in a run in 49 games. He lost an arbitration hearing that chafed a few members of the organization. Not everyone was sold on him as the backup, though manager Buck Showalter never wavered.

Pretty much at rock bottom offensively, Joseph basically surrendered to hitting coach Scott Coolbaugh and new assistant Howie Clark. He asked for help, putting his ego aside. Not that it requires heavy lifting. He's about as far from a prima donna as Baltimore, Md is from Baltimore, Ohio.

The results have been startling. Joseph was batting .304/.333/.462 with 11 doubles, four home runs and 19 RBIs before going 0-for-2 yesterday with a pair of walks. He's 11-for-28 this month.

Twenty-two of Joseph's 48 hits have come with two strikes, the product of a change he made in his grip.

He moves it further up the bat. Watch for it.

"Just talking to (Coolbaugh) about putting the ball in play, refusing to give in and making an adjustment," Joseph said. "About half of my hits have come with two strikes and that's hard to do. Two strikes. I mean, two strikes is really tough in this league and if you can get over your ego and get over the fact that it may not look aesthetically pleasing to be choked up. It may look wimpy, but if you put the ball in play, you just never know what could happen.

"Look at (Friday) night. Put the ball in play and you hit it in the right spot, you get a hit. But it's like that old basketball saying - you miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take. You're going to strike out every time that you don't make contact, period. So a huge concentrated effort on choking up, make an adjustment and trying to barrel the baseball with two strikes, and whatever happens happens."

It's been good.

Joseph is effusive in his praise of Coolbaugh, knowing that a hitter's slump and a team's collective funk often brings heat from fans who want a coaching scapegoat.

"This guy's been a rock," he said. "I mean, I was extremely dramatic in my waves up and down last year and this guy was steady. Steady every day, believing in me when I had a hard time believing in myself. And he comes to work every day, he studies his rear off. He's extremely knowledgeable. It's not a cookie cutter approach. It's adapting to what every player does well and then exploiting what he does well and repeating those things.

"He's been a tremendous asset, he and Howie Clark. Howie Clark's been a tremendous asset, especially the mental side of it. Hitting is physical, obviously, but at this level it's a huge chess match and Howie's really good at being able to understand why the body does stuff. It's probably because the brain is either hindered or not allowing something to happen, so if we can free that up, you can free up your natural movements.

"These two guys deserve a lot of credit. Hitting is hard. It's the hardest thing to do in sports, and so when a team is collectively struggling, it's easy to point the finger. But these guys come in every day and they preach what we need to do. They preach making adjustments, they preach two-strike approach, they preach pregame work ethic, they preach all the things that need to be said and need to be done. There's no question about it.

"I'd be foolish to sit here and take all the credit and say, 'Yeah, I'm just doing really great and that's good.' These guys have played a huge, huge role in the success I'm having. And I believe a lot of the success that a lot of players are having, I've been able to kind of see from the distance just the transformation that Jon Schoop has been able to have, and Scott Coolbaugh's been right in the middle of it. And I'm very happy for him because he cares, he really cares.

"I wouldn't trade him for anybody. He's a tremendous hitting coach. I'll go to battle with him all day."

* In case you missed my tweets yesterday, Double-A Bowie outfielder Austin Hays exited a game against Altoona after fouling a ball off his face. It was very similar to what happened Saturday night to Astros rookie Colin Moran, except Hays didn't sustain any fractures.

Hays received 10 stitches above his left eye. It was another freak accident - ball meets face without bouncing on the ground - but he should consider himself lucky.