UConn Baseball 2021

[dbmill]

UConn projected to win the Conference and Kyler Fedko predicted to be POY.

-> Connecticut will kick off 2021 with a challenging road slate before opening up its new home, Elliott Ballpark, on March 23; their success will start with a lethal everyday lineup. Kyle Fedko continues to get better and better, as he had a big fall coming off of a big, yet abbreviated, spring (.412/.434/.627) and should power this team as one of the conference’s best prospects and overall players. Christian Fedko tied his younger brother with 12 RBIs in 2020 and will once again man second base. Behind the plate, you’ll find Pat Winkel and roaming center field will be his brother Chris, two more proven performers at key positions. First baseman Reggie Crawford is a name to remember for the 2022 draft and he hit the ground running a year ago, hitting .365/.414/.558 while leading the team in RBIs (16). A standout athlete at 6-foot-4, 235-pounds, Crawford can also contribute out of the bullpen as a lefthanded pitcher. UMass Lowell transfer Ciaran Devenney will back up Pat Winkel behind the plate and DH when he’s not, as he hit .287/.446/.566 with seven bombs in 2019. Third baseman Zach Bushling will lead off with proven on-base skills. The biggest question mark in the lineup comes at shortstop. Andy Hague is a glove-first defender at the position and enjoyed a good fall but hasn’t been especially productive at the plate to this point in his career. If he doesn’t hit, Bushling or freshman Bryan Padilla could get more looks.

UNC transfer and staff ace-to-be Ben Casparius has made the full-time conversion to pitching after beginning his career primarily as a position player and has really taken off. His fastball has been clocked at 91-95 mph with three other secondary pitches that he throws for strikes. Fellow righthander Joe Simeone is one of the key holdovers from last year’s starting staff, posting a 3.00 ERA in four starts and striking out 23 batters in 15 innings thanks to an 88-91 mph fastball, a plus changeup and an improving slider. Another transfer, 6-foot-6, 230-pound righthander Austin Peterson, uses his size well to fire 88-92 mph fastballs downhill and he could be in line for a weekend role. Jimmy Wang, who throws 90-95, could see time in both the rotation and bullpen with Kenneth Haus serving as the primary setup man for closer Caleb Wurster. Wurster is a lefthander that throws from a lower slot which makes his 88-92 mph fastball play up when it comes to missing bats.<-

According to this Big East Preview, UConn has four of the top 15 prospects in the Big East in the 2021 MLB draft:

1. Ben Casparius
2. Pat Winkel
4. Kyler Fedko
15. Caleb Wurster

Reggie Crawford is picked as the top prospect in the Big East in the 2022 MLB draft.

As for impact Freshmen in the Big East, UConn has a couple players on the list, although I'm not sure they will get a whole lot of playing time given the veteran talent that is on this Husky squad.

5. Bobby McBride
6. Bryan Padilla

 

[dbmill]

Having watched this rule in the New York Penn League for a couple of years before MLB picked it up, I really despise this rule. In my opinion it makes a mockery of the game. My wife refers to it as the cheater runner.

 

[navery12]

I suspect this will be an unpopular opinion here, but I LOVE the runner on 2nd rule. It makes the extra inning games so much more fun

 

[huskymedic]

Now you know the season is close...

Mac is very effusive on Casparius’ talent/potential.

 

[dbmill]

Now you know the season is close...

Mac is very effusive on Casparius’ talent/potential.

I was just thinking I needed some preseason interviews with the coaches to listen to.

 

[dbmill]

Now you know the season is close...

Mac is very effusive on Casparius’ talent/potential.

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.

 

[dbmill]

 

[huskymedic]

 

[dbmill]

There go my weekends, not that I'm complaining. My wife certainly understands, as she is a baseball fanatic who loves listening to Chris Jones call games (just hope he gets to call a bunch of them on WHUS). However, our German Shepherd dog certainly doesn't understand. I yelled at the television the other night during a UConn women's basketball game when Christyn Williams shot an air ball that badly missed everything, with the result being that our dog got a very nervous look as a result of my scream.

 

[businesslawyer]

There go my weekends, not that I'm complaining. My wife certainly understands, as she is a baseball fanatic who loves listening to Chris Jones call games (just hope he gets to call a bunch of them on WHUS). However, our German Shepherd dog certainly doesn't understand. I yelled at the television the other night during a UConn women's basketball game when Christyn Williams shot an air ball that badly missed everything, with the result being that our dog got a very nervous look as a result of my scream.

My dog gets very nervous when I'm talking to myself during a sporting event. It's not just when I am enthusiastic after a score. If I'm even muttering to myself on who's on the court at the moment he gets very anxious. If he were a person, he'd tape the game, find out who wins and then watch.

 

[dbmill]

My dog gets very nervous when I'm talking to myself during a sporting event. It's not just when I am enthusiastic after a score. If I'm even muttering to myself on who's on the court at the moment he gets very anxious. If he were a person, he'd tape the game, find out who wins and then watch.

I usually keep fairly calm during games that I watch on television, so the outburst that I mentioned previously is pretty unusual for me. However, my wife is definitely more consistently noisier and full of nerves and comments while watching games, whether in person or on television.

By the way, the dog we have now is the third German Shepherd my wife and I have had together. The most memorable television sports incident happened with the second one. My wife and I are New York Yankee fans. When Aaron Boone hit his well known home run against the Red Sox in the playoffs, my wife jumped out of the chair she was sitting in and let out a rather loud joyous whoop. Our German Shepherd immediately jumped into her arms. To me, seeing the dog do that was probably even more memorable than the home run. We've been laughing at that dog jump ever since.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[CL82]

My dog gets very nervous when I'm talking to myself during a sporting event. It's not just when I am enthusiastic after a score. If I'm even muttering to myself on who's on the court at the moment he gets very anxious. If he were a person, he'd tape the game, find out who wins and then watch.

My dog used to be like that, particularly when I shouted. She’d be like “are we under attack? Who do you need me to bite?” Then she went through a period where she would give a long exasperated sigh and walk out of the room. Now she pretty much sleeps through it, but will come over and nudge me with her nose at half time let me know if she wants to go for a walk. I haven’t figured out how she knows it’s halftime.

 

[CL82]

I usually keep fairly calm during games that I watch on television, so the outburst that I mentioned previously is pretty unusual for me. However, my wife is definitely more consistently noisier and full of nerves and comments while watching games, whether in person or on television.

By the way, the dog we have now is the third German Shepherd my wife and I have had together. The most memorable television sports incident happened with the second one. My wife and I are New York Yankee fans. When Aaron Boone hit his well known home run against the Red Sox in the playoffs, my wife jumped out of the chair she was sitting in and let out a rather loud joyous whoop. Our German Shepherd immediately jumped into her arms. To me, seeing the dog do that was probably even more memorable than the home run. We've been laughing at that dog jump ever since.

As a lifelong Red Sox fan I find nothing remotely humorous about the story.

 

[Tmill15]

I know we normally have a summer ball thread but I thought it would be good to get this out there!!! Great for Andrew, hopefully he has a great szn, he’s got some electric stuff

 

[hardcorehusky]

My dog now knows if I say Liverpool is killing me he leaves the room. He is learning what dumb shot means too!!

 

[dbmill]

My dog now knows if I say Liverpool is killing me he leaves the room. He is learning what dumb shot means too!!

I know we normally have a summer ball thread but I thought it would be good to get this out there!!! Great for Andrew, hopefully he has a great szn, he’s got some electric stuff

If I were really on the ball I would have started that summer ball thread by now. I've seen several announcements for UConn players for summer ball over the last few months, but was too depressed by the potential Covid stuff to start a thread and post anything. I think I'll start something with this announcement.

 

[JeannoCT]

What does that mean the north remembers.

 

[dbmill]

What does that mean the north remembers.

It would seem to be a Game of Thrones reference. I vaguely recall Game of Thrones getting mentioned in Chris Jones interviews with the coaches on occasion.

 

[JeannoCT]

thanks! I've never seen it - no wonder I didn't get it!

 

[dbmill]

As a lifelong Red Sox fan I find nothing remotely humorous about the story.

While my wife and I were happy, this was hardly a leap of joy for our dog. She was quite startled, and acted accordingly.

 

[dbmill]

It would seem that UConn baseball once again has a four player "taxi squad" of players being redshirted who are listed on the online roster but will not be on the actual playing roster this season. Matt Donlan and David Smith were previously reported as not being eligible to play due to their transferring from other schools. In addition, Bowling Green transfer Mason Kolean and freshman Leo Socci are not listed in the roster that is in the 2021 UConn Baseball Media Guide. All four of these players are listed on the online roster, but non of them have uniform numbers listed with them. With these four players on the "taxi squad", that leaves UConn baseball with 40 players on the roster right now.

 

[Viet Vet]

Having watched this rule in the New York Penn League for a couple of years before MLB picked it up, I really despise this rule. In my opinion it makes a mockery of the game. My wife refers to it as the cheater runner.

It's even worse (hard to imagine anything worse) than 3-on-3 overtime hockey!

 

[huskymedic]

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.”<-

 

[dbmill]

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.”<-

Another quote from this article. And yes, from what I've seen in the recent past, the UConn coaching staff certainly likes strikeouts from their pitchers. Anyway, Coach Penders talking about Ben Casparius:

“It’s impressive what he can do with the baseball in his hand,” Penders says. “Pinpoint control at 92 mph, four different pitches for strikes. His biggest self-criticism right now is, ‘Coach, I just don’t know how to get guys out in less than three pitches, too many strikeouts is going to drive up my pitch count.’ I said, ‘Well, [pitching coach Josh MacDonald] likes strikeouts. We’ll figure out the rest.’”<