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Message: [QUOTE="huskymedic, post: 4406752, member: 549"] Great read if ya can find a way… [MEDIA=twitter]1583102804670849029[/MEDIA] -> It was mid-February 2020 and the University of Connecticut baseball team was in Arizona to play in the MLB4 Tournament. The Huskies were taking batting practice in the cages at Salt River Fields — the spring training home for the [URL='https://staging2.theathletic.com/mlb/team/rockies/'][COLOR=rgb(0, 0, 0)]Rockies[/COLOR][/URL] and [URL='https://staging2.theathletic.com/mlb/team/diamondbacks/'][COLOR=rgb(0, 0, 0)]Diamondbacks[/COLOR][/URL]. The sound coming from the UConn cage drew the attention of the Diamondbacks’ hitters a few cages away. Huskies freshman Reggie Crawford was taking BP. “And they all stopped because they heard it first. They heard the sound off the bat, and then they looked at Reggie and someone said, ‘What year is [I]that [/I]kid?’” longtime UConn head baseball coach Jim Penders recalled. “When we said freshman, they had to stop and just watch the rest of his round because they could not believe that he was just 18, 19 years old with the way the ball was coming off his bat.” Three years, a pandemic and one Tommy John surgery later, that freshman is now a 21-year-old first-round pick who stops just as many people in their tracks when throwing a bullpen as he does taking swings in the cage. He may also be the future face of San Francisco Giants baseball. “He’s a special individual,” Giants scouting director Michael Holmes said last week. <- -> “He’s got a dynamism. The only guy that I’ve coached that’s close to it is George Springer, who had that same kind of magnetic personality,” Penders said. The first time Holmes met Crawford was on a trip to the UConn campus with Bridges. Holmes says the three of them spoke for two hours and he was blown away by Crawford’s maturity, intelligence and thoughtfulness. He almost thought it was too good to be true, and he called Penders — whom Holmes has known for more than 30 years — to find out if Crawford was truly as poised as he seemed. “It’s natural to kind of question how can a guy have it all,” Penders said. “You shake his hand and you feel little. He’s got an imposing presence and yet the most down-to-earth demeanor and he makes you feel really comfortable and kind of pulls you in. So, it’s quite a juxtaposition there.” [/QUOTE]

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