Informative 45 minute interview with Jim Penders.
Most interesting tidbit concerns Christian Fedko, who was all set to play summer ball in the Northwoods League before the coaches suggested to him prior to the end of the season that he might be better off spending the summer in Storrs and working on conditioning, toning his body, and working on his game. Fedko agreed to this immediately, and apparently the work was showing dividends during fall ball. According to Penders, due to the work that he put in over the summer, Fedko's infield defense is vastly improved. Sounds like there won't be a need to have a defensive replacement for him this season at 2B.
Also, a nice bit on John Toppa. After not getting picked in the mlb draft, Toppa decided to forgo summer ball so he could rework his swing so he could hit with more power than he has in the past. Reworking his swing became his summer project, so much so that he declined several invites to play in the Cape League so that he would not have to interrupt that work.
Also, the last five minutes or so of the interview is about the new baseball facility. Among other things, apparently the bullpen is going to be named after Matt Barnes.
