uconnbaseball
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I did midseason evaluations last year, and spurred by those very special victories over UCF felt compelled to do another write-up this year. I will try to be succinct. I promise.
Offense - B-
So far, we have three players batting over .300 on offense. No one would have been surprised to see Susi raking yet again this year, but Thad Phillips and Troy Stefanski have been major developments in the middle of our order. Both are making good contact and have added some power as well. The top of the lineup is fine with Toppa and Prato (hopefully Toppa can raise his .265 batting average a bit), and Feldstein has provided a ton of power with his 8 home runs. Winkel has cooled off from his scorching start to the season, but has power and walks a lot. If a player breaks out and joins Susi, Phillips and Stefanksi in the .300 club, I suspect it will be him or Prato.
Fedko is a solid starter at this point in his career, and I cannot wait to see what kind of player he will become down the line.
What has hurt this team is the lack of production at the very bottom of our order. Fortunately, as the coaches have settled on an order, this has been less of a problem lately. Woodworth is batting .241 but is starting to rake, so if he continues his hot bat, we will be a better team because of it. Moriarity's bat has been awful -- .123 level bad -- which has made it hard for the coaches to play his excellent glove anymore except late in games. Nucerino hasn't given us much either in terms of hits, but he has a great eye at the plate which has led to a lot of walks.
Our baserunning is very average, which (sadly) is a huge step up from last year. We still make some boneheaded mistakes, but those will happen in college baseball and they are far less frequent this year.
Overall, this is an average college baseball offense and will be graded accordingly. I went with a B- grade over a C+ grade because of the athleticism on this roster; teams have a ~95% fielding percentage against us, which is utterly abysmal. Maybe we're lucky, but our team speed and ability to put the ball in play has a lot to do with that. With that said, that hasn't translated to being a great base stealing team.
Defense - B
Our team fielding percentage is ranked 75th in the country out of approximately 300 teams. That's pretty good, considering this statistic tends to vary wildly (in other words, some elite teams like Stanford have a far worse fielding percentage than we do).
With that said, 75 isn't spectacular either; merely very good. We also haven't thrown out as many players at 2nd as we should given the talent we have at catcher. I feel a "B" is appropriate.
Starting Pitching - A-
...and save for the rough start to the season for all three of our pitchers (damn Northern rust), this would have been an easy "A." Cate and Feole are their usual filthy selves when not walking the #9 hitter on 4 pitches, and no one here is surprised with their success. Interestingly, Feole has a lower ERA (2.98) and Cate (3.70), although their numbers are similar otherwise. Feole has simply done a better job of stranding runners than Cate has. Is that luck? Skill? Who knows? We love them both the same anyway.
The reason this team is in fairly good shape record wise (and great shape RPI wise) is because of the performances of Gardner and Kirsten. Garder, like Cate, struggled a little early on in the year and often has difficulty lasting more than 5-6 innings. This lack of length would be a problem if he were the ace, but as the #3 pitcher??!? He's been awesome, and his pitch to contact method contrasts drastically with Cate and Feole's MLB strikeout stuff. His ERA is 3.02, and that number is trending downward.
Kirsten, meanwhile, is the best mid-week pitcher we have had in a while, and I look forward to him potentially joining the bullpen as a long reliever in postseason play. He's basically Gardner sans a couple MPH on his fastball.
Colby Dunlop's development will be key as we start to play more midweek games. The coaches rave about him and his ERA is low, but we can all agree that he has looked shaky out there more often than not. He's still a freshman and if he can turn into a decent mid-week guy, that would be huge for this team.
Bullpen - D
I avoided giving them an "F" because Wallace had been pitching great until the UCF series and we have had many injuries...Polonia, Rajkowski, and company will obviously help out this area of the team when then return.
If the bullpen had performed up to expectations, we would be challenging to host a regional. Instead, and unfortunately, we are in the "no man's land" position between a low 2 and a high 3 seed, which would mean being sentenced to Gainesville or Palo Alto. If we can get a higher 2 seed, we could play a beatable host like Clemson or Southern Miss, but as it stands, the most recent projections have us going back to Florida. Not sure if the Gators would love that either as we have given them immense problems, but they always seem to hold us off by the skin of their teeth...
Anyway, back to the bullpen (and you'll see why I procrastinated discussing them below):
ERA of UConn relievers:
Wallace, Jacob 3.79
Dandeneau, CJ 4.50
Poulin, P.J. 5.14
Holmes, Trevor 5.62
Rossomando, Ronnie 6.30
Simeone, Joe 8.31
That's brutal. That's awful. That's totally unacceptable. There have been way too many walks, HBP, wild pitches, and hits against these guys, with hits seemingly being the least of their problems. Poulin is particular needs to start pitching better; we brushed off his escape artistry early on in the season as Poulin being Poulin, but now that he has started to blow some games, it's fair to criticize him. It's equally fair to acknowledge he has been overworked to hell, and that he has shown he can be a good reliever in the past. Poulin returning to his 2017 form might mean the difference between a Super Regional and missing out on the postseason entirely. With the # of close games this team is in, I do not think that is an exaggeration.
Not that Poulin has been the only problem...hell, he is still one of our better relievers going by ERA and batting average statistics! The time is now for Rossomando, the dude has the stuff, but needs to locate better. Holmes has not been as bad as his ERA IMO -- he's the anti-Dunlop -- and hopefully he builds on his last outing vs. UCF. Finally, Simeone is being asked to do too much in the wake of all the injuries, which is no one's fault. We have to hope the bullpen gets healthy AND consistent this month, or else it will cost us starting in Wichita.
Also, if someone can photoshop Rivera's head on a milk carton, that is a free like.
I will let other people tackle the managing. I'm not in the mood to talk about whether Penders is a good coach or not, because the Rice board has worn me out with people going at each other's throats about Wayne Graham's competency. Of course, we're all friendly here...
Overall: B
We are who we thought we were! (pretty much...) I still think this team has untapped upside, but every fan thinks that of their favorite team. These guys need to go out and continue to win as many series as possible.
Offense - B-
So far, we have three players batting over .300 on offense. No one would have been surprised to see Susi raking yet again this year, but Thad Phillips and Troy Stefanski have been major developments in the middle of our order. Both are making good contact and have added some power as well. The top of the lineup is fine with Toppa and Prato (hopefully Toppa can raise his .265 batting average a bit), and Feldstein has provided a ton of power with his 8 home runs. Winkel has cooled off from his scorching start to the season, but has power and walks a lot. If a player breaks out and joins Susi, Phillips and Stefanksi in the .300 club, I suspect it will be him or Prato.
Fedko is a solid starter at this point in his career, and I cannot wait to see what kind of player he will become down the line.
What has hurt this team is the lack of production at the very bottom of our order. Fortunately, as the coaches have settled on an order, this has been less of a problem lately. Woodworth is batting .241 but is starting to rake, so if he continues his hot bat, we will be a better team because of it. Moriarity's bat has been awful -- .123 level bad -- which has made it hard for the coaches to play his excellent glove anymore except late in games. Nucerino hasn't given us much either in terms of hits, but he has a great eye at the plate which has led to a lot of walks.
Our baserunning is very average, which (sadly) is a huge step up from last year. We still make some boneheaded mistakes, but those will happen in college baseball and they are far less frequent this year.
Overall, this is an average college baseball offense and will be graded accordingly. I went with a B- grade over a C+ grade because of the athleticism on this roster; teams have a ~95% fielding percentage against us, which is utterly abysmal. Maybe we're lucky, but our team speed and ability to put the ball in play has a lot to do with that. With that said, that hasn't translated to being a great base stealing team.
Defense - B
Our team fielding percentage is ranked 75th in the country out of approximately 300 teams. That's pretty good, considering this statistic tends to vary wildly (in other words, some elite teams like Stanford have a far worse fielding percentage than we do).
With that said, 75 isn't spectacular either; merely very good. We also haven't thrown out as many players at 2nd as we should given the talent we have at catcher. I feel a "B" is appropriate.
Starting Pitching - A-
...and save for the rough start to the season for all three of our pitchers (damn Northern rust), this would have been an easy "A." Cate and Feole are their usual filthy selves when not walking the #9 hitter on 4 pitches, and no one here is surprised with their success. Interestingly, Feole has a lower ERA (2.98) and Cate (3.70), although their numbers are similar otherwise. Feole has simply done a better job of stranding runners than Cate has. Is that luck? Skill? Who knows? We love them both the same anyway.
The reason this team is in fairly good shape record wise (and great shape RPI wise) is because of the performances of Gardner and Kirsten. Garder, like Cate, struggled a little early on in the year and often has difficulty lasting more than 5-6 innings. This lack of length would be a problem if he were the ace, but as the #3 pitcher??!? He's been awesome, and his pitch to contact method contrasts drastically with Cate and Feole's MLB strikeout stuff. His ERA is 3.02, and that number is trending downward.
Kirsten, meanwhile, is the best mid-week pitcher we have had in a while, and I look forward to him potentially joining the bullpen as a long reliever in postseason play. He's basically Gardner sans a couple MPH on his fastball.
Colby Dunlop's development will be key as we start to play more midweek games. The coaches rave about him and his ERA is low, but we can all agree that he has looked shaky out there more often than not. He's still a freshman and if he can turn into a decent mid-week guy, that would be huge for this team.
Bullpen - D
I avoided giving them an "F" because Wallace had been pitching great until the UCF series and we have had many injuries...Polonia, Rajkowski, and company will obviously help out this area of the team when then return.
If the bullpen had performed up to expectations, we would be challenging to host a regional. Instead, and unfortunately, we are in the "no man's land" position between a low 2 and a high 3 seed, which would mean being sentenced to Gainesville or Palo Alto. If we can get a higher 2 seed, we could play a beatable host like Clemson or Southern Miss, but as it stands, the most recent projections have us going back to Florida. Not sure if the Gators would love that either as we have given them immense problems, but they always seem to hold us off by the skin of their teeth...
Anyway, back to the bullpen (and you'll see why I procrastinated discussing them below):
ERA of UConn relievers:
Wallace, Jacob 3.79
Dandeneau, CJ 4.50
Poulin, P.J. 5.14
Holmes, Trevor 5.62
Rossomando, Ronnie 6.30
Simeone, Joe 8.31
That's brutal. That's awful. That's totally unacceptable. There have been way too many walks, HBP, wild pitches, and hits against these guys, with hits seemingly being the least of their problems. Poulin is particular needs to start pitching better; we brushed off his escape artistry early on in the season as Poulin being Poulin, but now that he has started to blow some games, it's fair to criticize him. It's equally fair to acknowledge he has been overworked to hell, and that he has shown he can be a good reliever in the past. Poulin returning to his 2017 form might mean the difference between a Super Regional and missing out on the postseason entirely. With the # of close games this team is in, I do not think that is an exaggeration.
Not that Poulin has been the only problem...hell, he is still one of our better relievers going by ERA and batting average statistics! The time is now for Rossomando, the dude has the stuff, but needs to locate better. Holmes has not been as bad as his ERA IMO -- he's the anti-Dunlop -- and hopefully he builds on his last outing vs. UCF. Finally, Simeone is being asked to do too much in the wake of all the injuries, which is no one's fault. We have to hope the bullpen gets healthy AND consistent this month, or else it will cost us starting in Wichita.
Also, if someone can photoshop Rivera's head on a milk carton, that is a free like.
I will let other people tackle the managing. I'm not in the mood to talk about whether Penders is a good coach or not, because the Rice board has worn me out with people going at each other's throats about Wayne Graham's competency. Of course, we're all friendly here...
Overall: B
We are who we thought we were! (pretty much...) I still think this team has untapped upside, but every fan thinks that of their favorite team. These guys need to go out and continue to win as many series as possible.
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