Men - UConn Baseball 2023 | Page 6 | The Boneyard

Men UConn Baseball 2023

Noticed something on the UConn baseball roster that is listed online on the UConn athletics website. Last season and early editions of the 2022 UConn fall ball roster, Ben Huber was listed as a 1B/LHP. Now on the roster he is just listed as a 1B, the LHP part has been dropped. So it would seem unlikely that Huber will be used as a pitcher in the upcoming season. Thinking that for UConn baseball Huber's bat and fielding value are so valuable to the team that it cancels out any contributions he could possibly make as a relief pitcher. It may also be an indication on the amount of depth the coaching staff feels that this season's UConn pitching staff has, to the degree that they don't have to consider at this point using Huber on the mound.
 
dbmill said:
Noticed something on the UConn baseball roster that is listed online on the UConn athletics website. Last season and early editions of the 2022 UConn fall ball roster, Ben Huber was listed as a 1B/LHP. Now on the roster he is just listed as a 1B, the LHP part has been dropped. So it would seem unlikely that Huber will be used as a pitcher in the upcoming season. Thinking that for UConn baseball Huber's bat and fielding value are so valuable to the team that it cancels out any contributions he could possibly make as a relief pitcher. It may also be an indication on the amount of depth the coaching staff feels that this season's UConn pitching staff has, to the degree that they don't have to consider at this point using Huber on the mound.
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UConn probably wants to avoid the possibility of an injury like Reggie Crawford suffered as well.
 
HCCForever said:
UConn probably wants to avoid the possibility of an injury like Reggie Crawford suffered as well.
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Well, unlike Crawford, Huber wasn't exactly creating a lot of big buzz with his pitching ability. I'm sure UConn is still interested in finding possible 2 way players.
 
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dbmill said:
Hector Alejandro will miss the 2023 season due to an injury, according to the UConn baseball website.

uconnhuskies.com

Hector Alejandro - Baseball - University of Connecticut Athletics

Hector Alejandro (15) Right-Handed Pitcher - 2025 Season : Made nine appearances for the Huskies. Pitched 10.2 innings and earned one save on the year. Pitch...
uconnhuskies.com uconnhuskies.com
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Unfortunate. Do we know when the 35 man roster has to be finalized for the year? Hopefully it wasn’t before we lost Hector for the season.
 
businesslawyer said:
Unfortunate. Do we know when the 35 man roster has to be finalized for the year? Hopefully it wasn’t before we lost Hector for the season.
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I think in college baseball the roster limit this season is 40, the same as it was last season. This is at least partly due to players being granted at least one extra season due to the pandemic. Including Hector Alejandro, UConn baseball currently has 42 players on its roster.
 
dbmill said:
I think in college baseball the roster limit this season is 40, the same as it was last season. This is at least partly due to players being granted at least one extra season due to the pandemic. Including Hector Alejandro, UConn baseball currently has 42 players on its roster.
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they only travel with 27 which is the first 17 of 18 games they play. Be interesting to see who makes it on the plane. Most of the freshman pitchers are going to get squeezed out this year IMO. Wondering how many stick it out for next year?
 
PASTE04038! said:
they only travel with 27 which is the first 17 of 18 games they play. Be interesting to see who makes it on the plane. Most of the freshman pitchers are going to get squeezed out this year IMO. Wondering how many stick it out for next year?
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Well aware that UConn baseball usually travels with about 27 players on road trips during the season, Chris Jones has often talked about this during game broadcasts in past years. However, the 27 players are not the same on every trip, they can be replaced from time to time with other players that are on the playing roster, whether it is due to injury or player performance in either games or in practice back in Storrs. Prior to the pandemic, the Division 1 college baseball NCAA mandated limit on rosters was 35 players, and last year it was 40 players due to players being granted extra eligibility due to the pandemic. I could be wrong, but I believe the roster limit for this season is once again 40.

I believe players who get scholarship money have to be on the 40 man roster, whether or not they are injured and out for the season. If Hector Alejandro ends up on the 40 man roster, it would be an indication that he is getting scholarship money.

UConn typically has a couple players that they redshirt who are considered part of the team, but they are not on the official roster during the playing season. Unless Alejandro is getting scholarship money, I would expect that he would be one of the players on this mini "taxi squad", as I have referred to it in the past.
 
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Need my pre-season coach’s interview/preview! Best part of the off season.
 
huskymedic said:
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This analysis pretty much confirms what we have already heard about the UConn pitching staff for the coming season. It would appear that Ian Cooke, Andrew Sears, and Stephen Quigley are the leaders to be in the weekend starting rotation. Also says that Jack Sullivan and Brady Afthim (both sophomores) are both possibilities as being ready to step into the mix as starters as well.

As for the bullpen, expect it to be anchored by returning pitchers Justin Willis, Devin Kirby, and Garrett Coe. Transfers Will Nowak and Michael Quigley get nice mentions as well. I would note that Michael Quigley did have problems with his control when he was at UMass Lowell, but we'll see what happens this season.

The article also gives mentions to freshmen Thomas Ellisen and Jude Abbadessa as being expected to get some time out of the bullpen.

No mention of Braden Quinn, but I would expect to see him to get some time on the mound as well, judging from what has come out earlier this preseason.
 
tayjlaw said:
Need my pre-season coach’s interview/preview! Best part of the off season.
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Last year those Chris Jones interviews with the coaches appeared just a few days before the season started. While I would like to see them sooner, I would expect that they will get posted sometime next week prior to the start of the season. I definitely look forward to those interviews as well, they are usually fun and full of good info.
 
So the biggest omission from the discussion would be Braden Quinn. Wonder whether that means anything or is just the way the discussion happened or the article got typed up.
 
businesslawyer said:
So the biggest omission from the discussion would be Braden Quinn. Wonder whether that means anything or is just the way the discussion happened or the article got typed up.
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I expect that Quinn will certainly get some chances on the mound early in the season, judging from some of the stuff that has been posted since fall ball and in this preseason. A recent D1Basball.com article had Quinn as one of the pitchers being stretched out for use as a possible starter.

Other preview articles and interviews will follow in the next several days, we'll see what they have to say.

One things I always look forward to as the season progresses is to see what pitchers emerge to get time on the mound and what rolls they fill. That would include pitchers who don't necessarily get mentions in some of these preseason articles, there always seems to be a few surprises when the season gets going.
 
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dbmill said:
I think in college baseball the roster limit this season is 40, the same as it was last season. This is at least partly due to players being granted at least one extra season due to the pandemic. Including Hector Alejandro, UConn baseball currently has 42 players on its roster.
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I just found out the UConn baseball roster limit for this spring season is 37 players. So in addition to Hector Alejandro, four other players will have to be removed from the official playing roster.
 
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dbmill said:
This analysis pretty much confirms what we have already heard about the UConn pitching staff for the coming season. It would appear that Ian Cooke, Andrew Sears, and Stephen Quigley are the leaders to be in the weekend starting rotation. Also says that Jack Sullivan and Brady Afthim (both sophomores) are both possibilities as being ready to step into the mix as starters as well.

As for the bullpen, expect it to be anchored by returning pitchers Justin Willis, Devin Kirby, and Garrett Coe. Transfers Will Nowak and Michael Quigley get nice mentions as well. I would note that Michael Quigley did have problems with his control when he was at UMass Lowell, but we'll see what happens this season.

The article also gives mentions to freshmen Thomas Ellisen and Jude Abbadessa as being expected to get some time out of the bullpen.

No mention of Braden Quinn, but I would expect to see him to get some time on the mound as well, judging from what has come out earlier this preseason.
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As your message suggests I think the starting pitching and middle relief will take some tinkering. Back end is in great shape. They will be playing in some high-scoring games is my hunch. They're going to score a lot of runs. Starting pitching will determine the season. To have AP and PG last year was really a luxury.
 
huskymedic said:
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An interesting read, that's for sure, definitely worth checking out.

One of the more interesting aspects of this article is that while Matt Garbowski looks like the starting catcher, it also mentions that Ryan Hyde could challenge Matt Garbowski for the starting catcher spot. I've said this before, Hyde did very well playing for Norwich in the Futures League last summer.

From the gist of this article, UConn baseball is potentially deep and talented in the the infield. Three returning infield starters from last season, Ben Huber, David Smith, and Bryan Padilla, and they all had good to terrific spring seasons last year.

Transfer Dominic Freeberger is mentioned as a possible upgrade at 3B, but there is the potential for him to play other positions as well such as the outfield, or even potentially get some time on the mound.

Transfer Luke Broadhurst is mentioned as expected to be in the mix at Dan Hurley, as well as potentially seeing time in the infield. Other players getting mentions for potential playing time are Chris Brown (assuming he can return to his 2021 form), transfer Paul Tammaro, and freshman Ryan Daniels, who made a strong impression during the fall ball season. The article suggests that Daniels could potentially end up as a starter in the infield, with Freeberger possibly moving to the outfield, or even potentially replacing Padilla at shortstop.

No mention in this article on either Maddix Dalena or Levi McAllister.
 
One thing that struck me while writing this was just how much UConn seems to have leaned into being a DIII all star destination this year. Broadhurst and Tammaro both put up insane statistics last year at that level, similar to Donlan at Avery Point and Huber at Limestone in DII. It's not exactly apples to apples in terms of levels of play, but I think both guys have the potential to bring some serious offense this year.
 
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