Stainmaster
Occasionally Constructive
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2014
- Messages
- 22,004
- Reaction Score
- 41,501
Excited to see what Kay will do as the ace. Just hope the offense can give him consistent run support.
Excited to see what Kay will do as the ace. Just hope the offense can give him consistent run support.
Kay will be the ace of what potentially could be a terrific pitching staff for UConn. I doubt that he will be used in relief this season, but I have to think that since he has shown that he can be tremendously effective in relief only adds to his draft value.
Hopefully we will see some of the younger players break out onto the scene. I am a huge fan of the top of our lineup with Sundberg leading off and a core of Yahn-Melley-JDD, but we have some pretty gaping holes that will need to be filled. If one of the former JUCO guys (Gnesda, Krueger, D'Andrea) can give us solid offense right off the bat to make up for the production Davey gave us, I'll be pleased. It would also be nice for a couple of the freshman to break out and hit the way Yahn did last year.
As you say, the top of the lineup should be fine. I suspect we'll at least be ok at catcher with the combination of Susi and LeFevre, and with Hill at 2B. As I've said before, the outfield corner spots are the big question marks, and those are the spots that really worry me. Unless a couple players break out of the gate hitting, it could be a real big drag on the offense.
The other thing I'm wondering about is how many pitchers will end up on the 35 man roster. If you take the 14 returning pitchers and add in five freshmen (Rossomando, Poulin, Cate, Polonia, and Hintze) plus Avery Point's Doug Domnarski, that adds up to 20 pitchers. That would leave only 15 position players. 10 returning players from last year, plus four freshmen (Susi, Toppa, Malandro, Lambrecht) plus either juco transfer Gnesda or perhaps Krueger. That leaves one player cut from the squad that will be interesting to see.
Agreed top of order can be solid...my main concern lies with replacing our best hitting catcher in quite some time and a second baseman who had an unreal season. I think pitching could be as good or maybe even better than last year but the bottom of the order is such an unknown. hoping offense can somehow not take a step back from what was already an inconsistent one at best.Hopefully we will see some of the younger players break out onto the scene. I am a huge fan of the top of our lineup with Sundberg leading off and a core of Yahn-Melley-JDD, but we have some pretty gaping holes that will need to be filled. If one of the former JUCO guys (Gnesda, Krueger, D'Andrea) can give us solid offense right off the bat to make up for the production Davey gave us, I'll be pleased. It would also be nice for a couple of the freshman to break out and hit the way Yahn did last year.
I have no doubt that whichever team drafts him could switch him to the bullpen to fast-track him and have him in the big leagues by 2017, 2018 at the latest. However, part of me is selfish and wants Kay to become our first bona fide MLB starter since Charles Nagy. Barnes is still great (and as a Red Sox fan I have extra impetus to root for him to succeed), but the longer he goes without solidifying a spot the less likely that becomes for him.
I know that on the football and basketball boards, speculation about specific players not rejoining the team is verboten, but history shows us that in general Penders has no problem dropping relief pitchers from the roster.
Agreed top of order can be solid...my main concern lies with replacing our best hitting catcher in quite some time and a second baseman who had an unreal season. I think pitching could be as good or maybe even better than last year but the bottom of the order is such an unknown. hoping offense can somehow not take a step back from what was already an inconsistent one at best.