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Message: [QUOTE="uconnbaseball, post: 3083432, member: 412"] Okay, so the title is misleading as we are only about a third the way through in terms of regular season games...but this team is starting to take shape enough to evaluate them. I will not give out individual grades, as I would never single out an 18-22 year old kid on a public message board over a children's sport, unless it was in the heat of the moment on a game thread in which case they're fair game. [B]Offense[/B] Apart from a couple of duds (game 2 against Charleston and the last two Texas State games) the offense has been good to great all year. Even in the first Louisville game, I thought we came to battle; we are still the only team to score off Detmers. We are averaging 6.59 runs per game without the benefit of facing weekday starters, against a top 40 SOS. Woodworth is playing like an All-American, with Prato, baby Winky, Gozzo, Phillips, and Toppa all batting above .300. Christian Fedko is batting very close to .300 while providing power, while Chris Winkel sits at a respectable .264. That's 7 good to great hitters along with a decent albeit streaky one in Chris Winkel. The last spots in the line-up have been shaky, but not as bad as you might think. Kyler Fedko is batting .450 since an 0-21 start, while Nucerino has an on base percentage of .500 due to his ridiculous walk rate. Apart from Will Lucas (freshman), the main issue has been third base. Moriarity and Langer are a combined 10/60 for a ghastly .167 batting average. One needs to step up soon, or Phillips may take over at 3rd. A- [B]Defense[/B] Winkel has thrown out 4 of 7 baserunners, so our #1 catcher has played like it. Gozzo and Phillips have combined to throw out only 3 of 17, but to be fair both have had bang-bang plays not quite go their way all year. I am very comfortable with our catching situation. We have an acceptable fielding percentage of 96.7%, tying us with Coastal Carolina. That is slightly above average nationally. Considering the fact that we are a northern school I am pretty happy with where we are at, although corner outfield and bunt defense remains a concern for me. Moriarity and Langer have both struggled defensively at third this year. We know this is a fluke for C-Mo, but Langer will need to play great defense for him to start. B [B]Pitching[/B] I won't evaluate Feole because he is still recovering from an injury, but when he returns you have to think we will be much stronger here. To put it bluntly, our non-Kersten starters have struggled in terms of length and effectiveness. We need to find a Sunday starter going forward. All of us know that. With that said, we successfully bullpen gamed Louisville, Michigan State, and Illinois (Feole didn't last long in that one). Our relief core looks as strong as I have seen since following this program 15 years ago. All of Wurster, Dandeneau, Wang, Johnson, Polonia (small sample size but still) and Wallace throw hard and keep their composure. We don't have anyone we rely on in the pen that can't throw 92+, and as we know Wallace consistently throws 98. Velocity isn't everything, but there's a reason why SEC teams have flamethrower after flamethrower in their bullpen. I am estatic where they are at...without pitching a single game in Connecticut. Whichever one of Simeone or Dunlop that don't start midweek games offers an inning eater in blowout games at minimum. Still not sure what to make of Gardner yet. The lack of a reliable 3rd starter holds this grade back, but I still have to grade us favorably here. B+ [B]Coaching[/B] Lineup and bullpen management have generally been excellent, and we don't make as many boneheaded mistakes on the basepaths as we used to. Also, the way we have snuck in Winkel, Gozzo AND Phillips into the lineup at times is a bit of managerial genius. I have minor nitpicks about the overuse of certain players but I am thrilled with Penders and his staff overall. A [B]Chris Jones[/B] A+ [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach

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