Nate Panzer | The Boneyard

Nate Panzer

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According to the November-December edition of the New England Baseball Journal, Nate Panzer is not eligible to play this coming season for UConn due to NCAA transfer rules.

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uconnbaseball

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Bummer. Depth might be this team's biggest weakness this year...it would have been nice to add a former big time recruit.
 
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There was one college baseball writer who wrote that he thought UConn has its most talented team since 2011. UConn's pitching staff seems to be in pretty good shape for being really good this season. For the non pitchers, a lot of this talent takes the form of being highly regarded prospects. A few players such as Zac Susi, Anthony Prato, and even Isaac Feldstein (when healthy and free of injury) have proven themselves as quality players. The rest of the players looking to get into the everyday lineup have potential and may be regarded as solid prospects, but they need to step up their games and show improvement to show that they are indeed really good ball players. This includes both veterans like John Toppa right on down to players who are new to the team. UConn needs a bunch of players to do this for this team to be really good.
 

uconnbaseball

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Yeah, I agree. Toppa, Feldstein, Prato, and Susi should make for a powerful top of the line-up. If we get similar production from the bottom half of the line-up as we did last year, we are a fringe NCAA team. If players like Moriarity, Winkel, the California JUCO's, etc. can give us solid .270ish production at the bottom of the lineup, we are a strong 2 seed.

I am interested in seeing who will be our Sunday starter. Gardner and Rossamando look like intruiging candidates. If a freshman can step up and be the next Feole, that would be a welcome and unexpected boost for the team.
 

hardcorehusky

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I think we have a bunch of candidates for the 2 and midweek starters. My concern is: who will be the closer?
 
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I think we have a bunch of candidates for the 2 and midweek starters. My concern is: who will be the closer?

Pitching is going to be the strength of this club, and that includes the bullpen. I would guess there are two candidates who would be the favorite for the closer role. Assuming that he does not end up as a starter, lefty PJ Poulin is a prime candidate to have a feature role on this pitching staff. In the second half of last season, Coach Penders showed a lot of confidence in Poulin getting out of tight situations, whether he inherited them or created them himself. Poulin followed this up with a big summer out the bullpen in the Cape League where he did very well, to the extent that he could very well be drafted next summer. The other prime candidate is Jacob Wallace. Wallace had a very good summer in the Futures League. There have been other posts to the Boneyard's baseball threads where it is stated that he was also very good in Fall ball in Storrs.
 
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I think we have a bunch of candidates for the 2 and midweek starters. My concern is: who will be the closer?
P.J., Wallace, Colby Dunlop and possibly Polonia (when/if healthy) should all see some action in late innings.
 
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P.J., Wallace, Colby Dunlop and possibly Polonia (when/if healthy) should all see some action in late innings.

He might not be a closer this season, but I also figure freshman Joe Simeone is a candidate to get work out of the pen as well, considering the excellent summer he had in the Futures League. And like you said, Colby Dunlop is the other freshman who will get bullpen innings.

Randy Polonia is an interesting case. He could be terrific if he is healthy and has some semblance of control of his pitches, something that was rather rare his freshman season.

I'm interested to see what Ronnie Rossomando will do this season as well. After a very inconsistent season with UConn last season, he had a horrible summer in the Cape League. He has plenty of talent but very inconsistent with his control of his pitches. The question is, can he finally harness his control, or will his career trajectory continue to spiral down in the same manner that Andrew Zapata's did. If he can throw strikes, he will definitely get pitching time.
 
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He might not be a closer this season, but I also figure freshman Joe Simeone is a candidate to get work out of the pen as well, considering the excellent summer he had in the Futures League.
Simeone’s control was very inconsistent during the fall on the occasion I saw him. If he can figure that out, I agree, he can be another name added to the list of late inning guys.
 

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