LJ Mazzilli

[huskymedic]

“@AmoreCourant: LJ Mazzilli, drafted by Twins in ninth round, says he will return to #uconnbaseball for senior year instead.”

Huge!

 

[ucjoet]

Looks like L J Mazzilli is coming back to UConn next year. This was reported in The Courant this morning. He is out to prove he deserves to be chosen higher than the 9th round.

 

[mets1090]

It's really tough to have three threads that all say the same thing on a forum that moves as slow as this one.

 

[zls44]

I merged the two I saw. Great news!

 

[Gregory Koch]

Woohoo!

 

[rw005]

Yes!!! I'm very excited already.

 

[huskymedic]

UConnBaseball ‏@UConnBaseball
Second baseman LJ Mazzilli just received a shoutout from Michael Kay and David Cone on YES for deciding to return to UConn #HuskyPride

 

[huskyblue]

Between ferriter not getting drafted and LJ not signing, JP got lucky here. Losing these two plus the others would have made for a very tough year in 2013. Penders very good at recruiting talent, not nearly as good at developing it

 

[Yonick]

Between ferriter not getting drafted and LJ not signing, JP got lucky here. Losing these two plus the others would have made for a very tough year in 2013. Penders very good at recruiting talent, not nearly as good at developing it

i don't agree that Penders can't develope talent. Matt Barnes wasn't even considered the best HS pitcher in state. Plus Olt wasn't drafted out of HS, nor was LePage. Nemeth also developed quite well here, anong with Andreoli, Vance, Ferriter, Ahmed & Oberg,

 

[UConnSportsGuy]

Penders very good at recruiting talent, not nearly as good at developing it

What are you smoking?!

Although, with that being your first post ever, only room to go up from there!

 

[huskyblue]

Dont mean to offend the regulars. But Blood developed Barnes, and the others you mentioned are all immensely talented and were from the get go. They all started as freshman which is proof of their "talent" vs development. No Uconn players in recent times were drafted out of high school except springer who was drafted late and has tools off the charts. Great recruiter, great speaker/public image, no denying his success just not a great developer. Just my opinion, you all reserve the right to disagree, that is the beauty of a forum

 

[businesslawyer]

Dont mean to offend the regulars. But Blood developed Barnes, and the others you mentioned are all immensely talented and were from the get go. They all started as freshman which is proof of their "talent" vs development. No Uconn players in recent times were drafted out of high school except springer who was drafted late and has tools off the charts. Great recruiter, great speaker/public image, no denying his success just not a great developer. Just my opinion, you all reserve the right to disagree, that is the beauty of a forum

No. When someone with no posting experience comes onto a forum and speaks poorly about a manager who has been as successful as this one, it normally speaks to some unspoken motivation by the poster as opposed to saying anything about the manager.

I am not saying you do have an axe to grind, but you should understand that your post will (and should) be perceived that way.

 

[Yonick]

Dont mean to offend the regulars. But Blood developed Barnes, and the others you mentioned are all immensely talented and were from the get go. They all started as freshman which is proof of their "talent" vs development. No Uconn players in recent times were drafted out of high school except springer who was drafted late and has tools off the charts. Great recruiter, great speaker/public image, no denying his success just not a great developer. Just my opinion, you all reserve the right to disagree, that is the beauty of a forum

When you say Blood developed Barnes, probably, but under Penders overall supervision. It's obvious Barnes flurished in Penders system. He calls the shots, as a head coach should. The others I previously mentioned were not rated that high out of HS. I also left out a very high number of players not highly ranked out of HS, but were drafted out of UConn.
And, let's face it, when you have around 20 players drafted out of your system, over the past 3 years, with 4 drafted within the 1st 2 rounds, Mr. Penders is doing something right after he recruits these players.
Of the 4 players drafted in the 1st 2 rounds, only Springer was ever drafted out of HS, and that was in the very late rounds. I'd say Penders knows a thing, or two, about developing a program to enhance his players talent levels.

 

[UConnHusky2012]

To be honest I have been in the same mindset as huskyblue and just haven't questioned it here yet because I wanted to sit back and give the new coaching staff time to settle in. I however have some very large concerns about some of the new coaches that have been brought in. I believe that recruiting here has always been strong under Penders and that's why we have seen the recent results that we have and will probably continue seeing those results, as our class for 2012 was excellent. However from people I talk to there are some real concerns about if our new assistants should be at the D1 level or not.

 

[21Huskies]

i am a regular and i agree with Huskyblue... 100%.

 

[huskymedic]

HB - I'm not really sure you can truly offend members of the BY... read some of the FHCRE threads or more recent PSU threads, thick skin tends to run in the bunch and we tend to eat our own when bored. I think Penders has done a damn good job for a Northeast Baseball School. He has developed some talent but more importantly, I don't believe he has done any harm to talent (First rule - Do no harm). There in no doubt he has put UConn on the map - let's pray he keeps the upward trajectory with the new staff and players. Consistently challenging for the BE Champ while picking off a few "national programs" (perceived or otherwise) will continue to keep the few D1 CT recruits home and attract those not afraid of the cold.

 

[Yonick]

The tone of this thread has gone from Penders lack of developing the talent he recruited to the qualifications of his two new assistants.
Two different topics. Regarding the new coaches, it's hard to judge them at this point. Last years "D" was not too good, but lots of frosh played. For a lot of freshmen & sophs, the pitching wasn't bad. But, when you lose 10 players to the MLB draft, including 3 in the 1st 2 rounds, as we did last year, it's very hard for a team to come back and win 50+ games the following year. Especially a northern team.
My guess is this year will tell much more regarding the new coaches qualifications.

 

[UConnHusky2012]

Yonick, the reason it went in that direction is because of the loss of coach Blood... His influence on the program should not be overlooked and it just has left me wondering if Penders can keep up what he has built. That is how we got to the qualifications of the new assistants.
I will elaborate a little on what I said above but due to some relationships in the CT baseball community that have given me the privilege to see the world of recruiting from the inside, I rather not go into great detail about some of the comments I have heard about the new assistants from HS players who have attended UConn baseball camps and gotten a chance to work with them. However like I stated above, I have been told more than once, by people I trust, that they aren't sure we (UConn) has the right assistants for the job. I am always of the wait and see philosophy so this spring will provide me with a lot of insight and should allow for us all to pass judgement on if the team is improving or if the players have become stagnant in their development like you said above.

 

[johnhuskies95]

HB - I'm not really sure you can truly offend members of the BY... read some of the FHCRE threads or more recent PSU threads, thick skin tends to run in the bunch and we tend to eat our own when bored. I think Penders has done a damn good job for a Northeast Baseball School. He has developed some talent but more importantly, I don't believe he has done any harm to talent (First rule - Do no harm). There in no doubt he has put UConn on the map - let's pray he keeps the upward trajectory with the new staff and players. Consistently challenging for the BE Champ while picking off a few "national programs" (perceived or otherwise) will continue to keep the few D1 CT recruits home and attract those not afraid of the cold.

I think that this is what it comes down to. The fact is that he's had what, 13 guys drafted in the last 2 years? That's extremely impressive for a northeast program.

 

[Yonick]

UConnHusky2012, are you saying that the HS kids, and posibly their HS coaches, are saying the new assistants aren't capable? If so, that's very dangerous for the programs future, if true.
Recruiting wise I only know of 2 kids recruited during their stay. Naturally recruiting, in college baseball, is very closemouthed. But, the pitcher from Peabody MA sounds pretty good. And also the OF from ND W Haven, Garabedian. Malone, from Masuk, committed during Blood's tenure.
I suppose the next 8-10 months will tell, but for HS prospects being turned off, that's very dangerous for the program, if true.

 

[UConnHusky2012]

UConnHusky2012, are you saying that the HS kids, and posibly their HS coaches, are saying the new assistants aren't capable? If so, that's very dangerous for the programs future, if true.
Recruiting wise I only know of 2 kids recruited during their stay. Naturally recruiting, in college baseball, is very closemouthed. But, the pitcher from Peabody MA sounds pretty good. And also the OF from ND W Haven, Garabedian. Malone, from Masuk, committed during Blood's tenure.
I suppose the next 8-10 months will tell, but for HS prospects being turned off, that's very dangerous for the program, if true.

Yeah I know of a few kids who are committed to other places that had some concerns if the new assistants were what they considered D1 level. I'm not sure what the HS coaches are saying nor do I really care about them because the way everything is setup these days AAU coaches have much much more influence on where players go. From other players that I have spoken to who will be HS Sr's this fall, a few of them have considered U of Hartford solely because of a connection they feel with Blood even though they like nothing about the school. I personally was surprised at the hirings of our assistants when they happened because none of them had what I considered major D1 coaching experience. If you look at the schools in the SEC that we want to compete with one day, when they lose a coach of two they will go out and get someone who has been in D1 coaching for a while (5+ years) and know the ends and out. In some cases I have seen mid major head coaches get hired a recruiting coordinator and pitching coaches at some of these places (S. Carolina is one example if I remember right). Now I know UConn doesn't have that kind of pull yet but that shouldn't stop us from going after say a Mike Glavine (pitching/recruiting coordinator at N'Eastern) who I have had the pleasure to meet and talk to some HS players & their families about, and all of them love who he is as a coach and think very highly of him.
That's just my 2 cents and I would love to be proven wrong in the coming seasons because that would mean my school is winning lots of games and there is nothing wrong with that!

 

[21Huskies]

i don't necessarily disagree with your premise... but as you said, UConn doesn't have the luxury of always getting those types of coaches to come in and take the pennies a UConn asst baseball coach pays.

as for a guy like Glavine... he's a Northeastern grad and its not a given a guy like that would want to leave his school to make a sideways movement as a UConn asst. i'm not saying UConn = Northeastern, but in terms of college ball an assistant job is an assistant job. its a crap position.

its also not like Blood had a long bonafide track record before coming to UConn. he was a volunteeer at Quinnipiac and i believe a grad asst at Franklin Pierce. this is college baseball in the northeast we're talking about. just about any person with a pulse, some basebalk knowledge and thats willing to work can get a volunteer coaching spot at Quinnipiac.

UConn took on young guys with familiarity to the program, certainly a risk, but Penders is a 'family' type of guy so its not surprising.

i, personally, am not as concerned with the assistants. college baseball recruiting (especially in the northeast) is mostly a relationship business. getting a former player to get a local kid from his town can often be as important as the assistants recruiting. after that its usually what the school can offer academically and other stuff any college kid would care about (atmosphere, housing, proximity to home, etc)... all stuff that UConn has to offer as an elite state school.

 

[UConnHusky2012]

I wasn't saying that Glavine would leave N'Eastern bc I know for a fact that he wouldn't, as he is going to become the head coach of the program in the very near future. I was just giving an example of the type of assistants UConn should be going after now that they have moved up the baseball ranks. Ball St is a perfect example of what I was talking about as just this week they hired a pitching coach and recruiting coordinator who had been the associate head coach at Dayton for the past 13 seasons! When Blood was hired, that was a great hire at the time for UConn because that is the type of assistant they could get for where the program was at during that time frame. What an assistant in college baseball is looking to do is be at a school for 5-6 years or less and then use their success to jump to a small D1 head coaching position. In that case UConn has a lot to offer when looking for assistants.
Also I can tell you for a fact that even though recruiting is a relationship business, those relationships are not within towns but rather they are with the coaches of AAU programs. An assistant who has been in D1 longer is going to have more connections with AAU programs such as the East Coast Grays, Baseball U, TCB, CT Bombers, Tri State Arsenal, Bayside Yankees and other elite programs, which is where we should be getting kids from. The 2012 class has 5 players from Baseball U and I personally believe that Blood was responsible for most if not all of those players, helped by the fact that Vinny Siena and Daniello committed and had some pull on their teammates. Also as of last summer, the coaches of Baseball U did not have a very high opinion of UConn baseball so when I hear negative talk about our new assistants, it makes me wonder what the AAU coaches out there think.

 

[huskyblue]

make no mistake...........blood was the catalyst for both solid recuiting and pitcher development. currently if a pitcher is struggling, there is no one there with the expertise to break things down, show him whats wrong and help correct it. same with hitters. if a hitter is struggling, he is on his own. uconn doesnt even videotape hitters. even decent high schools do that. penders is a good recruiter and being a great recruiter is a great asset for a baseball program. from a development perspective, he and his current regime are lacking both an appproach and a relationship with the players as a whole

 

[mets1090]

make no mistake...........blood was the catalyst for both solid recuiting and pitcher development. currently if a pitcher is struggling, there is no one there with the expertise to break things down, show him whats wrong and help correct it. same with hitters. if a hitter is struggling, he is on his own. uconn doesnt even videotape hitters. even decent high schools do that. penders is a good recruiter and being a great recruiter is a great asset for a baseball program. from a development perspective, he and his current regime are lacking both an appproach and a relationship with the players as a whole

I've seen players behind the backstop with a computer that has different camera angles on the batter during games.