UConn Baseball 2021

[Tmill15]

Love the part talking about Crawford and how some of the guys on the Diamondbacks watched his round of batting practice!

 

[dbmill]

Here's a quick summary of the Coach Mac interview. The guys mentioned as possible starters:

Ben Casparius - Friday night guy. Coach Mac thinks he could end up being as good as the top guys who have been at UConn.

Joe Simione - Sounds like he is the Saturday guy.

Other possible starters include Jimmy Wang, Austin Peterson (who is coming back from a Covid issue), Will Lucas, and Pat Gallagher. Both Lucas and Gallagher saw extended inning stints out of the bullpen last season. Gallagher had a rough fall, but the coaches are really high on him.

Given the pandemic, four game weekends, midweek starts and such, others could work their way into starting as well.

Guys out of the bullpen:

Caleb Wurster is going to start the season in the back of the bullpen. So much for the moving to the starting rotation, but he has shown what he can do as a closer, so why mess with it. Kenny Haus got a big mention for the back of the pen as well.

In the fall the coaches were hoping Randy Polonia was just going to be okay in terms of recovering from his summer auto accident. The good news is, in preseason workouts, Polonia is throwing great, so look out for him.

Andrew Marrero is going to be special according to Coach Mac.

Devin Kirby and Justin Willis got positive mentions as well as guys to look for.

Freshman Bobby McBride has a super arm.

Sam Favieri was hurt last season. Looking back Coach Mac says that Favieri probably was the best freshman pitching arm in the fall of 2019.

As mentioned in interviews with coaches before, it sounds like Colby Dunlop is no longer going to be shuttled back and forth between starting and coming out of the pen. They like him better in short stints out of the pen.

Stock and Crawford also got mentions for possible spot use. As for Crawford, Coach Mac says he has the best arm on the team in terms of pure stuff.

Went back and listened to this interview again. One other pitcher who got a positive mention was Brandan O'Donnell, who coach Mac says is going to have a heck of a career at UConn. It's always good to hear something like this about a lefty pitcher, especially since UConn has had some really good lefties on the mound during the Penders era. At any rate, I'm getting a sense from the various articles and interviews that I have seen and heard that there are three incoming freshmen who could get a chance to show their stuff this season if they get some playing time. That would be Bobby McBride and O'Donnell on the mound, and infielder Bryan Padilla, who has gotten some interesting mentions in preseason previews.

I'm guessing that Andy Hague, who had a terrific offensive fall ball season, gets the first shot at shortstop. If Hague's bat falters out of the gate in the coming weeks (which would be a bit of a shock considering how good he was in fall ball), then it is possible Padilla may be the guy who gets the next shot at an infield starting job. Of course, David Langer could possibly get a shot as well, but it would seem that among the incoming freshmen position players, Padilla is the one to watch. No doubt we will get a better indication on this sort of thing if and when the preseason interview with Coach Hourigan about the position players surfaces.

 

[dbmill]

2021 Preseason Power Rankings: Top 100 Outfielders • D1Baseball

Preseason All-Americans Jud Fabian, Christian Franklin and Chris Newell headline our list of the top 100 outfielders in college baseball. Find out who else made the list.

d1baseball.com

UConn players in the top 100 outfielders according to this list.

42. Kyler Fedko
63. Chris Winkel

 

[huskymedic]

No doubt we will get a better indication on this sort of thing if and when the preseason interview with Coach Hourigan about the position players surfaces.

 

[dbmill]

Nice timing. Also, always good for these interviews to come out when you have the day off from work.

 

[dbmill]

Quick summary of this Chris Jones preseason interview with Coach Hourigan.

The key thing that comes up in this review of the position players is depth. There are simply a lot of guys who can play and potentially find themselves into the lineup.

At catcher, very effusive in praising both Pat Winkel and Ciaran Devenney. UConn baseball fans definitely know about Pat, who is certainly the No. 1 catcher, but with a lot of four game weekends, including a scheduled double header in each Big East conference series, Devenney is going to be seeing a fair amount of time behind the plate as well. As for Devenney, the coaches love his power, his defense, and has a great throwing arm that comes into play on stolen base attempts. Previous interviews with the UConn coaches have indicated Devenney could get time at D.H. when not catching. Backup Ryan Hyde and David Christoforo have both have shown some ability as well. Hyde as a walk on has improved as time has passed, and Christoforo moves well for his size. At any rate, lots of depth behind the plate.

Reggie Crawford at 1B and Christian Fedko at 2B take care of that side of the infield. Christian has shown continued improvement with his defense and has gotten himself into better shape which has helped his speed.

Sounds like Zach Bushling is pretty much penciled in as the leadoff hitter. In this interview he is called an on base machine, a prototypical leadoff hitter. I'm inclined to think that he can be counted on playing somewhere on the left side of the infield, depending who else is playing over there. Bushling is described as having Woodworth type versatility. There are several candidates for the last spot in the infield, including Andy Hague, David Langer, and Bryan Padilla (who gets some comparisons to Anthony Prato). Todd Petersen and Chris Brown (nice preseason, although I don't recall him getting mentioned in any fall ball interviews or tweets) also get mentions as well, as all have been doing well either in fall ball or preseason. If someone is slumping, there are certainly other options to go to.

Plenty of depth in the outfield as it is a crowded place as well, where there are plenty of players who can provide offense and quality defense. Chris Winkel will be in CF and Kyler Fedko in RF, although it is more like having two excellent center fielders out there at the same time. Erik Stock's excellent hitting from last season gets him a big mention for the last outfield spot. Ben Maycock has apparently cut back on the strikeouts and is hitting to all fields without putting a dent into his power potential. Kevin Ferrer can certainly hit as well, and his defense has apparently improved over last season. Simmons also gets a mention as another excellent defensive outfielder candidate who also has a nice left handed stroke at the plate who potentially could see time. And Korey Morton may be one of the fastest players UConn baseball has seen. Hourigan just loves the outfield defense on this team.

No real mention of who may end up getting at time at D.H., although there would seem to be plenty of potential candidates, especially if someone is streaking with a hot bat. With the D.H., one of the spots on the left side of the infield, and in left field, there are basically three open spots with plenty of candidates to potentially fill them.

 

[BaseballDog]

Alternate access link here<<

-> “I believe this team has the potential to compete for a national championship,” he says. “It takes a lot of luck, a lot of breaks, but we have that potential.”

Is it the best UConn team since 2011, the team filled with future major leaguers that reached the NCAA Super Regional? “On paper,” Penders says. “I can’t say best team, but most talent, probably the most talent on the team since 2011.”<-

Hartford is no longer the home opener. Hartford announced they are only playing a conference schedule.

 

[huskymedic]

Hartford is no longer the home opener. Hartford announced they are only playing a conference schedule.

I completely skimmed right over that in the story... it’s CCSU now.

 

[huskymedic]

(They have the wrong Winkel identified)...

 

[huskymedic]

->19. Ben Casparius, Connecticut

In 2018, Casparius was starting at third base for North Carolina in the College World Series. Three years later, after transferring back home to play for Connecticut, Casparius will find himself in a very different role—that of a Friday starter for a Huskies team that expects to be in a regional again in 2021. With a four-pitch mix headlined by a fastball that has been up to 95 mph, Casparius has the stuff to get the job done.<-

 

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[BaseballDog]

Casparius and P. Winkel got snubbed.

 

[UCCornelius]

To be fair, the Pre-Season All Big East Catcher did hit .230 with a HR last year and .237 with 4 HR's the year before.
Cant expect P. Wink to match those numbers.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[HOOK C FAN]

Casparius and P. Winkel got snubbed.

Like everyone else, I am starving for baseball. Having said that, these preseason rankings are ridiculous. There is no way there are 90 pitchers better than Ben Casparius in the NCAA. For example, someone who has faced both Rocker (from Vandy) and Ben said Ben is a tougher assignment. Some of the other UConn player rankings are suspiciously high. These rankings are just vapid publicity cultivated by people with agendas.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[BaseballDog]

To be fair, the Pre-Season All Big East Catcher did hit .230 with a HR last year and .237 with 4 HR's the year before.
Cant expect P. Wink to match those numbers.

You can even make a case that Ciaran Devenney as all big east catcher over that guy based on those stats. His 2019 he batted .287 with 7 HRs

 

[huskymedic]

Here is the Big East release... UConn Favored In #BIGEASTbase Preseason Coaches’ Poll

 

[BaseballDog]

Here is the Big East release... UConn Favored In #BIGEASTbase Preseason Coaches’ Poll

Per the release, Kyler Fedko is co player of the year but not a unanimous selection for first team Big East OF??