Men - UConn Baseball 2023 | Page 15 | The Boneyard

Men UConn Baseball 2023

Ever since I started following UConn baseball closely, pretty much the year to year strength of the team has been the starting pitching, which at times pretty much carried the team. That is certainly not the case this season, but the team still is making a good run for possibly hosting a regional despite this. Going into this season, for a change pace for UConn baseball no one really knew what to expect from the starting pitching. The starting pitchers have shown some good flashed from time to time, but certainly not on a consistent basis. These flashes by the starting pitchers do provide a little hope for improvement as we go along, but we'll see what happens. This team produces plenty of offense up and down the batting order, and I certainly agree with Coach Penders on this being the best defensive team he has had since he became head coach of UConn Baseball.
 
dbmill said:
Ever since I started following UConn baseball closely, pretty much the year to year strength of the team has been the starting pitching, which at times pretty much carried the team. That is certainly not the case this season, but the team still is making a good run for possibly hosting a regional despite this. Going into this season, for a change pace for UConn baseball no one really knew what to expect from the starting pitching. The starting pitchers have shown some good flashed from time to time, but certainly not on a consistent basis. These flashes by the starting pitchers do provide a little hope for improvement as we go along, but we'll see what happens. This team produces plenty of offense up and down the batting order, and I certainly agree with Coach Penders on this being the best defensive team he has had since he became head coach of UConn Baseball.
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All true. But coming off their freshmen seasons, there is no way that I thought we'd have gotten as little from Cooke and Sullivan as we have to date. We know they can both pitch. We saw them have outstandingly promising first seasons. If they can get their form back, even adjusted for the general increase in offenses this year, our chances for the post-season would be much better.
 
businesslawyer said:
All true. But coming off their freshmen seasons, there is no way that I thought we'd have gotten as little from Cooke and Sullivan as we have to date. We know they can both pitch. We saw them have outstandingly promising first seasons. If they can get their form back, even adjusted for the general increase in offenses this year, our chances for the post-season would be much better.
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I've seen Cookie in person several times including fall ball. His velocity is fine and I like his breaking stuff (when he can locate it). The issue is the movement (or lack thereof) on his fastball. Quite simply his fastball is too straight. If he can find some movement on the hard stuff I feel you would see a step change in results. Regarding Sully, obviously, it's location, location, location. The other night he got dinked and dunked early. Everything found a hole. I thought he was throwing well. However, he couldn't get through it, Hofstra started barreling balls forcing Penders to make the early change. At present SQuigs is the most reliable and Sears has a high ceiling. Cookie and Sully it's like betting red/black down at Mohegan. Who knows. Coe seems to have found his niche in long relief. However, in tourney format, you can get away with that ONE time. Then Coe is done for that stage. You can't have 2-3 blow-up starts. I don't want to be a buzzkill but the starting pitching is really bothering me. It's overshadowing all the good stuff because it's looming like a dark cloud over tourney time. Coach Mac being unable to fix this is worrisome. Means it's a real problem. He's the best there is and it's no better than it was in Feb.
 
businesslawyer said:
All true. But coming off their freshmen seasons, there is no way that I thought we'd have gotten as little from Cooke and Sullivan as we have to date. We know they can both pitch. We saw them have outstandingly promising first seasons. If they can get their form back, even adjusted for the general increase in offenses this year, our chances for the post-season would be much better.
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Cooke really is a hard one to figure out. I remember this board including myself being so excited going into the deciding game against Maryland last year knowing we had Cooke to fall back on. This year really is puzzling, but we do know that both he and Sullivan have it in them. Maybe they can get it turned around just in time for when we need them most.
 
MarkyMark said:
I've seen Cookie in person several times including fall ball. His velocity is fine and I like his breaking stuff (when he can locate it). The issue is the movement (or lack thereof) on his fastball. Quite simply his fastball is too straight. If he can find some movement on the hard stuff I feel you would see a step change in results. Regarding Sully, obviously, it's location, location, location. The other night he got dinked and dunked early. Everything found a hole. I thought he was throwing well. However, he couldn't get through it, Hofstra started barreling balls forcing Penders to make the early change. At present SQuigs is the most reliable and Sears has a high ceiling. Cookie and Sully it's like betting red/black down at Mohegan. Who knows. Coe seems to have found his niche in long relief. However, in tourney format, you can get away with that ONE time. Then Coe is done for that stage. You can't have 2-3 blow-up starts. I don't want to be a buzzkill but the starting pitching is really bothering me. It's overshadowing all the good stuff because it's looming like a dark cloud over tourney time. Coach Mac being unable to fix this is worrisome. Means it's a real problem. He's the best there is and it's no better than it was in Feb.
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Great assessment. In Cooke's case, finding movement and control this late in the season is going to be difficult. If he hasn't been able to find it during bullpen sessions by now, it might not click. Sully is also interesting as I felt it was more of a confidence thing with him.

Your assessment on Sears and Quigley is correct and Coe has found it. But we don't have enough guys outside of Ellison (who I think is better coming out of the pen) and Coe to back up 2 of those bad starts. I like Afthim, Fogell, Kirby (who I hope we don't overuse) and Willis from the 6th on. In the BET, we will need Sears and Quigley to go at least 5. In the Regionals, we will need 5 guys to come in and do their job. If not, Jude Abedessa and Brady Quinn and Joe Carea are then in play.
 
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businesslawyer said:
All true. But coming off their freshmen seasons, there is no way that I thought we'd have gotten as little from Cooke and Sullivan as we have to date. We know they can both pitch. We saw them have outstandingly promising first seasons. If they can get their form back, even adjusted for the general increase in offenses this year, our chances for the post-season would be much better.
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I can't remember any details, but I know Ian Cooke got some sort of injury either just prior or during his start in last season's NCAA Tournament game against Stanford. Also, I don't believe Cooke played summer ball last summer, it's possible he was resting up from that injury. Also Cooke missed the beginning of the 2022 fall ball season due to some sort of injury, don't know if it was related to the same injury he had against Stanford. It's possible that his pitching ability has not totally recovered yet from the injury(s), which may be a reason he hasn't done as well this season as he did last season.

UConn broadcaster Chris Jones this season has frequently mentioned during game broadcasts that run production is up all over college baseball. Chris Jones also mentioned at least once or twice a conversation Coach Mac had with other college pitching coaches. If I heard this part correctly, Coach Mac and the coaches he talked to are convinced that the baseball being used this season is different then prior seasons, basically it has been juiced. According to this conversation he ball is harder, it is more slippery to hold, and the seams on the ball are lower. I don't believe I've seen or heard mention of the difference in the ball this year anywhere else, it certainly doesn't seem to be getting much publicity that I'm aware of. Maybe the ball is different, maybe it is not.

Anyway, if the theory on the ball is true, it would help why so many pitchers this season got off to bad starts this season and had problems with their control. Again, going on this assumption, one would guess that certain pitchers have been able to adjust to the "new" ball as the season progressed, while some others have not. Definitely hard to say this is true considering there has pretty much been no discussion on the matter.
 
Next weekend will be interesting. UConn now is a half game up on Xavier for first place in the Big East standings. UConn at least has to take the Creighton series, and hope that Xavier does not sweep Georgetown. Of course, I have been posting all along how difficult it is to sweep a 3 game series, so hope this standard sticks with Xavier next weekend as well, and that UConn manages to beat the odds on a road sweep against a decent team.
 
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Bit generous but Vandy & Gamecocks going 1-3 for the week and UConn @ 3-1 for the week keeps UConn @ #9 in the D1 Baseball Top 25 Poll:
d1baseball.com

D1Baseball Top 25: Wake Forest remains No. 1, two new teams enter rankings • D1Baseball

Washington and Oklahoma State entered the Top 25 Rankings this week, but they weren't the only ones to have something to smile about.
d1baseball.com d1baseball.com

Baseball America keeps UConn @ #21:

College Baseball Top 25 Rankings

Wake Forest remains atop the Baseball America Top 25 after another series win. The Demon Deacons won all 10 of their ACC series and didn’t post a losing weekend throughout the regular season.
www.baseballamerica.com www.baseballamerica.com
->Previous ranking: No. 21
Last week: 3-1
Overall: 38-12, 13-4 in Big East (0-1 vs. Top 25)
Weekend record: 11-0-2
Results
May 10: Hofstra: W 9-7
May 12-14: Butler: W 6-5 (13), W 7-6, L 11-8
Upcoming
May 16: @ Rhode Island
May 18-20: @ Creighton

It was far from pretty, but UConn used two walk offs to propel itself to a series win against Butler. The Huskies won Friday night’s series opener via a walkoff walk, while Luke Broadhurst on Saturday crushed a walkoff home run. A series win is always nice, but Sunday’s loss dinged UConn’s RPI, leaving it with work to do to thrust itself back into the hosting discussion. The Huskies this week travel to Omaha to take on a dangerous Creighton squad. <-
 
huskymedic said:
Bit generous but Vandy & Gamecocks going 1-3 for the week and UConn @ 3-1 for the week keeps UConn @ #9 in the D1 Baseball Top 25 Poll:
d1baseball.com

D1Baseball Top 25: Wake Forest remains No. 1, two new teams enter rankings • D1Baseball

Washington and Oklahoma State entered the Top 25 Rankings this week, but they weren't the only ones to have something to smile about.
d1baseball.com d1baseball.com

Baseball America keeps UConn @ #21:

College Baseball Top 25 Rankings

Wake Forest remains atop the Baseball America Top 25 after another series win. The Demon Deacons won all 10 of their ACC series and didn’t post a losing weekend throughout the regular season.
www.baseballamerica.com www.baseballamerica.com
->Previous ranking: No. 21
Last week: 3-1
Overall: 38-12, 13-4 in Big East (0-1 vs. Top 25)
Weekend record: 11-0-2
Results
May 10: Hofstra: W 9-7
May 12-14: Butler: W 6-5 (13), W 7-6, L 11-8
Upcoming
May 16: @ Rhode Island
May 18-20: @ Creighton

It was far from pretty, but UConn used two walk offs to propel itself to a series win against Butler. The Huskies won Friday night’s series opener via a walkoff walk, while Luke Broadhurst on Saturday crushed a walkoff home run. A series win is always nice, but Sunday’s loss dinged UConn’s RPI, leaving it with work to do to thrust itself back into the hosting discussion. The Huskies this week travel to Omaha to take on a dangerous Creighton squad. <-
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UConn drops 1 spot to #11 in the latest USA Today Coaches Poll:

NCAA Baseball Coaches Poll | USA Today Sports

Weekly results from the USA TODAY Sports NCAA Baseball coaches poll, conducted weekly using a panel of head coaches at Division I schools.
www.usatoday.com
 
It feels odd that a Husky wins Pitcher of the Week, considering the disastrous state of the pitching staff as a whole, but Fogell was huge on Friday, and may have deserved the award just for that; Sunday wasn't ideal, but I think the coaching staff erred badly in even allowing him to pitch, less than 48 hours after throwing 76 pitches; if anything, throwing Sears out there would have been the better move for the long-term health of the players if they needed arms that badly.
 
Sleepy said:
It feels odd that a Husky wins Pitcher of the Week, considering the disastrous state of the pitching staff as a whole, but Fogell was huge on Friday, and may have deserved the award just for that; Sunday wasn't ideal, but I think the coaching staff erred badly in even allowing him to pitch, less than 48 hours after throwing 76 pitches; if anything, throwing Sears out there would have been the better move for the long-term health of the players if they needed arms that badly.
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I don’t think they trust Sears, if given a truth serum, that much at this point. Can’t say I blame them. But yeah that Fogell move was rough. A desperation move to keep hosting hopes alive is how I saw it.
 
CtBaseball said:
I don’t think they trust Sears, if given a truth serum, that much at this point. Can’t say I blame them. But yeah that Fogell move was rough. A desperation move to keep hosting hopes alive is how I saw it.
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Agree it was desperation and in hindsight, I don't think they would do that again. One plus with Fogell is he doesn't have a lot of mileage on the arm. Innings pitched:

2023 33
2022 39 (10 starts, 2 relief appearances, longest outing was 6 innings and 94 pitches)
2021 - COVID
2020 - COVID and injury
2019 21 (1 start, 14 relief appearances)

Even in summer ball, he threw only 2 innings that I could find. He's been much better at Uconn than at Brown. Over those 60 innings, he had control issues where he walked 36, had 14 WPs, and hit 10 batters. He did strike out 66 but gave up 83 hits. ERA was 7.50. So he's found it at Uconn.
 
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huskymedic said:
View attachment 88212

Heading into last weekend of regular season:

UConn @ Creighton
Georgetown @ Xavier
Seton Hall @ Villanova
St John @ Butler
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Seton Hall is looking like it is in pretty good shape for making the Big East Tournament. They conclude the season against Villanova, traditionally one of the cellar dwellers in Big East baseball.

While Seton Hall certainly would not considered a great baseball program on a national level, they last made the NCAA Tournament in 2011. Interesting, they did make the NCAA Tournament 11 times during the 1970's and 1980's.

Anyway, while Seton Hall is hardly a national power, they have generally have had competitive Big East team in recent years. The Pirates have been a pretty constant presence in getting to the Big East Tournament. With the exception of last season, Seton Hall has been in every Big East Tournament since the 2011. Nice record, no question about it.

In terms of baseball style, Seton Hall provides an interesting contrast to Xavier and Georgetown, 2 offensive minded power teams that play in band boxes for home fields. Seton Hall plays at a huge home ballpark where home runs are not a common occurrence, so the Pirates have a similar offensive style to Rutgers, hitting the ball where the defense is not.
 
Let's be blunt. Cooke can't start again this year (unless he shows he can throw out of the pen), and Sears isn't much ahead of him. You either give Ellison a shot or you go to your pen and put in Fogell, Coe or Kirby. At least one of those four will start this weekend, and it wouldn't surprise me if 2 do. And then you pray that Sears, Sully and Cooke can give you something out of the pen when needed.

And if we want to win the two four team, double elimination tournaments coming up, for God sakes go through the winners bracket. Because on a better weekend we can cobble together 27 innings, but with only one starter able to get through the third inning, thinking you're getting 45 innings out of your staff is just plain silly.
 
businesslawyer said:
Let's be blunt. Cooke can't start again this year (unless he shows he can throw out of the pen), and Sears isn't much ahead of him. You either give Ellison a shot or you go to your pen and put in Fogell, Coe or Kirby. At least one of those four will start this weekend, and it wouldn't surprise me if 2 do. And then you pray that Sears, Sully and Cooke can give you something out of the pen when needed.

And if we want to win the two four team, double elimination tournaments coming up, for God sakes go through the winners bracket. Because on a better weekend we can cobble together 27 innings, but with only one starter able to get through the third inning, thinking you're getting 45 innings out of your staff is just plain silly.
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I'll make a case for Sears to remain in the rotation and it's all about risk-reward. And it's simply because his ceiling is so high and the risk-reward is skewed positive so I'm willing to embrace the variance. Yes, there is a risk, no question, but the upside (see G'Town and SDSU games) is worth a shot given the current state of the rotation versus say Sully whose ceiling is 4-5 innings giving up 2-3 runs. Unfavorable risk/reward with Sully. Also, agree with you on Cookie. SQuigs, Sears then new blood is my vote. If Coe can throw strikes early in the count he is tough to hit. That's the risk there. Fogell also definitely in the conversation as well. The ceiling for those 2 are 5-6 innings and 1-2 runs. Ellison, I'm iffy on due to that Northeastern game. A good fastball-hitting team will give him problems so he's matchup dependent in my view. But again I'm open to change because you can't keep rolling out the same guys and getting the same results.
 
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MarkyMark said:
I'll make a case for Sears to remain in the rotation and it's all about risk-reward. And it's simply because his ceiling is so high and the risk-reward is skewed positive so I'm willing to embrace the variance. Yes, there is a risk, no question, but the upside (see G'Town and SDSU games) is worth a shot given the current state of the rotation versus say Sully whose ceiling is 4-5 innings giving up 2-3 runs. Unfavorable risk/reward with Sully. Also, agree with you on Cookie. SQuigs, Sears then new blood is my vote. If Coe can throw strikes early in the count he is tough to hit. That's the risk there. Fogell also definitely in the conversation as well. The ceiling for those 2 are 5-6 innings and 1-2 runs. Ellison, I'm iffy on due to that Northeastern game. A good fastball-hitting team will give him problems so he's matchup dependent in my view. But again I'm open to change because you can't keep rolling out the same guys and getting the same results.
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Thanks CP
 
IMG_4053.jpeg
 
UConn holds @ #9 in D1Baseball Top 25 Poll:
d1baseball.com

D1Baseball Top 25: Deacs remain No. 1, three teams enter rankings • D1Baseball

Auburn, Texas and Alabama enter the D1Baseball Top 25, and Wake Forest maintains its perch atop the rankings heading into conference tournament week.
d1baseball.com d1baseball.com

Despite being quite complementary, UConn drops 2 spots to #23 in latest Baseball America Poll:

College Baseball Top 25 Rankings

Wake Forest remains atop the Baseball America Top 25 after another series win. The Demon Deacons won all 10 of their ACC series and didn’t post a losing weekend throughout the regular season.
www.baseballamerica.com www.baseballamerica.com

-> Previous Ranking: No. 21
Last Week: 2-1
Overall: 40-13, 15-5 in Big East (0-1 vs. Top 25)
Weekend Record: 12-0-2
Results: May 18-20: @ Creighton: L 7-6, W 6-3, W 10-0 (8)
Upcoming: Big East Tournament (Mason, Ohio)

UConn wrapped up its regular season with a series win at Creighton to both capture its third consecutive Big East regular season championship and finish with at least 40 wins for the second year in a row. It has been a great run for the Huskies, who will remain in contention to host so long as they win this week’s conference tournament. Regardless of what happens this week, UConn is on track to make the NCAA Tournament for the fifth straight season. <-
 
The UConn baseball starting lineup currently has 6 regular spots in the starting lineup with on base percentages over .400. In 2022 UConn had 5 starters with on base percentages over .400, in 2021 it was 3 starters, and in 2019 it was 4 starters.

That is a pretty amazing stat, that's for sure.
 
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