The baseball team never had that big winning streak.

[Palatine]

We won four in a row but we never had that 6-7-8 game win streak that defines great teams. I thought they would at some point reel off seven or eight. We never really had a hot streak. Baseball tends to be a streaky game but not our Huskies. The talent is there. But even checking back over the past couple years, four in a row seems to be our limit. It seems unusual.

We haven't had a conference series sweep yet with two to go. If they are going to get hot, now would be a good time.

 

[Pudge]

Deficient. Not a robust run scoring bunch. Seems to be just breaking through that more than 4 hitters bat. A few younger guys are just feeling their way to a better batting eye; and then we can hope that they keep progressing into next year. Feole being less than an Ace throughout the year seemed to drag a few losses to end momentum; and yet, Kersten - I feel - overachieved. Then. A good solid 3 guys have pitched well in relief; that has been the real good part of this team.

 

[HCCForever]

I agree that a better Feole earlier in the season could have helped. Hopefully, after last Friday he is back. I still marvel at the 2010's team winning streak of 22 games.

 

[Palatine]

I agree that a better Feole earlier in the season could have helped. Hopefully, after last Friday he is back. I still marvel at the 2010's team winning streak of 22 games.

Yeah, but that's just crazy. They were good but that defied the odds. We're due to run off a few.

 

[Jaybird65]

Last Friday looked like the 1st outing where Feole was back at top form. Hopefully he's "back" just in time.

 

[dbmill]

Deficient. Not a robust run scoring bunch. Seems to be just breaking through that more than 4 hitters bat. A few younger guys are just feeling their way to a better batting eye; and then we can hope that they keep progressing into next year. Feole being less than an Ace throughout the year seemed to drag a few losses to end momentum; and yet, Kersten - I feel - overachieved. Then. A good solid 3 guys have pitched well in relief; that has been the real good part of this team.

The baseball team has indeed had some younger players in the lineup. Hoping that the likes of Kyler Fedko, Pat Winkel, and Anthony Nucerino show improvement and more consistency at the plate next season. They have all had their ups and downs this season at the plate, but they all look like they will be useful players in coming seasons. But when you combine the learning on the job experience of these guys this year with the regression of a couple of veteran starters (Chris Winkel at the bat, and Conor Moriarty both in the field and the plate), it really put a lot of pressure for the top 4 of the lineup to produce. The decline of these guys really put the offense behind the eight ball. And it was really bad news if anyone in the top half of the lineup slumped a bit, as there was just not enough offense coming from the bottom of the lineup most of the time to make up for it.

 

[dbmill]

We won four in a row but we never had that 6-7-8 game win streak that defines great teams. I thought they would at some point reel off seven or eight. We never really had a hot streak. Baseball tends to be a streaky game but not our Huskies. The talent is there. But even checking back over the past couple years, four in a row seems to be our limit. It seems unusual.

We haven't had a conference series sweep yet with two to go. If they are going to get hot, now would be a good time.

Ever since I started following UConn baseball, the strength of the team has consistently been its starting pitching. This has simply not been the case this season. It is difficult to go on a long winning streak when your starting pitching has been rather lackluster, as it has been for UConn this year. A quality start is usually defined as going 6 innings or more while giving up no more than 3 runs. By that definition, Mason Feole has 4 quality starts, and Jeff Kersten has 2.

The starting pitching has not been eating up innings either. Both Feole and Kersten have gone 6+ innings in 4 starts each. None of the other starters have gone 6+ innings this season. Colby Dunlop has gone 5+ innings 3 times, Kenny Haus 2 times, and Jimmy Wang 1 time. That's a lot of innings for the bullpen to take over, especially for a relief corps that has been reliant on mainly three guys, plus Karl Johnson who has had some terrific bullpen stints as well some awful ones (especially recently).

Also thought I'd throw in the ERA's of all the pitchers who have started games for UConn this season. Relief appearances have not been separated out:

Feole - 3.44
Kersten - 4.57
Wang - 4.23
Dunlop - 5.75
Haus - 6.75
Simeone - 5.00

Before Feole's last start, his ERA was in the 3.90 range. If Feole is able to come close to the form he showed this past Friday for the rest of the season, that would obviously help UConn a lot. But UConn either needs either more effective starting pitching, or for a couple more relievers to contribute consistently to the cause in order to get a winning streak going.

 

[gtcam]

Noting the youth in the starting line-up and the erratic starting pitching, I like to look at it this way also - they haven't had any long losing streaks either which could happen with that combo.

 

[businesslawyer]

Ever since I started following UConn baseball, the strength of the team has consistently been its starting pitching. This has simply not been the case this season. It is difficult to go on a long winning streak when your starting pitching has been rather lackluster, as it has been for UConn this year. A quality start is usually defined as going 6 innings or more while giving up no more than 3 runs. By that definition, Mason Feole has 4 quality starts, and Jeff Kersten has 2.

The starting pitching has not been eating up innings either. Both Feole and Kersten have gone 6+ innings in 4 starts each. None of the other starters have gone 6+ innings this season. Colby Dunlop has gone 5+ innings 3 times, Kenny Haus 2 times, and Jimmy Wang 1 time. That's a lot of innings for the bullpen to take over, especially for a relief corps that has been reliant on mainly three guys, plus Karl Johnson who has had some terrific bullpen stints as well some awful ones (especially recently).

Also thought I'd throw in the ERA's of all the pitchers who have started games for UConn this season. Relief appearances have not been separated out:

Feole - 3.44
Kersten - 4.57
Wang - 4.23
Dunlop - 5.75
Haus - 6.75
Simeone - 5.00

Before Feole's last start, his ERA was in the 3.90 range. If Feole is able to come close to the form he showed this past Friday for the rest of the season, that would obviously help UConn a lot. But UConn either needs either more effective starting pitching, or for a couple more relievers to contribute consistently to the cause in order to get a winning streak going.

I'd note that you are using the MLB definition of quality start. College pitchers don't go as deep into games and more runs are scored. Just like the worst MLB quality start -- 6 innings and 3 runs -- is below average, to me a quality start is more like at least 5 innings and no more than 4 runs.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Yet.