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Message: [QUOTE="uconnbaseball, post: 2129701, member: 412"] Starting pitching - [B]B+[/B] Cate -- when healthy -- and Montgomerie have been largely as good as advertised, despite Cate fighting off both an injury and a suspension. Montgomerie does need to break out of his 1st inning funk, but I am hoping that is a statistical anomaly that will work itself out in the long run. Feole has generally been good, apart from the BYU start, and Rossomando is settling into a midweek gig nicely. Those Domnarski starts and the lack of anyone with a dazzling ERA brings this grade down a bit, but this is still an area of relative strength. Bullpen - [B]C[/B] This might be a bit generous, but considering they have been pretty good outside of the West Coast trip – the Texas and Seton Hall series in particular – I am not going to grade this too harshly. Nepiarsky and Russell look fairly reliable, and Polonia should be alright once he comes back from injury. Dandeneau and Poulin must pitch better, they have given this board heart attacks all year. Domnarski needs to continue to improve as well. Collectively, the strikeouts and wild pitches have been ridiculous, but because of the strikeouts and ability to escape jams, the actual numbers are not as bad as they could be. Given how terrible other bullpens around college baseball are, I am willing to give this a “C.” Offense - [B]B-[/B] Although the team batting average is not superb and the bottom of the order is problematic, I think we can all agree the offense has been a pleasant surprise. In fact, the numbers are probably similar to last year, except without the home run total. Prato, Gnesda, Feldstein (break out of your slump please!), Yahn, and especially Susi have all done their part this year, and Moriarity can give us a spark as well. Hill’s bat was very painful to our lineup, so I hope to see more of Lambrecht going forward. The middle of the order needs to provide a little more power as well, and Winkel needs to stop getting so unlucky! The offense really isn’t “good” right now, but it isn’t bad either. Defense - [B]C[/B] Going into the Fairfield game, our defense was ranked 99th nationally. While that isn't very good, it still puts us in the top 1/3 nationally. As a Rice supporter,I can tell you there are much, MUCH worse defenses in college baseball than this one. With that said, numbers lie. We have had way too many costly errors at the worst possible times (Prato's error vs. Western Michigan, the mistakes vs. Fairfield when the game was still close, etc.) and have little consistency. The bunt defense also must improve. With that said, Feldstein and Krueger have made some incredible plays in the outfield, and we haven't had a game where we have committed more than 2 errors if I recall correctly, so I won’t grade us too harshly. Coaching - [B]B[/B] The bullpen management has been fine and I am not seeing the ridiculous baserunning mistakes that have absolutely killed this program over the past several years. The weaknesses associated with this team (defense, bullpen) are gradually improving, and I love the fire and competitiveness this team plays with. With that said, not starting Feole vs. Texas in the rubber match of that series when Texas could not touch a curveball was a mistake, and Penders has had way too much faith in Aaron Hill. The Santa Clara no show was also disappointing, considering they are one of the worst teams in college baseball this year. Overall, I feel Penders and co. have done a solid job. Overall - [B]B-[/B] Yeah, if we didn't have the large number of injuries that we've suffered up to this point, we would probably be 15-7 instead of 13-9. Unfortunately, injuries strike every team (Mississippi State has lost 4 of their top pitchers this year to injury!) and I honestly feel we could have a much more solid record than we do up to this point -- even with the injuries -- with the talent on this team. With that said, 13-9 is not a disaster, and this team is very young. With a lot of "young" teams, the freshman and sophomores are not really that good, but see significant playing time because of the lack of talent in their junior and senior classes. Texas is a great example of a team with terrific young talent, yet has upperclassmen that would have a difficult time seeing the field with CCSU (how Texas has such a talent deficiency with their older players, you would have to ask Augie Garrido...). However, UConn is a team that does have competent upperclassmen, so I am encouraged that freshman have been able to beat them out for playing time. The future here is bright...but by no means should this team content themselves with this happy fact. Let's go out and wreck everyone in conference play. Go Huskies! [/QUOTE]

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