Men UConn Baseball 2024

[dbmill]

During the opening weekend game broadcasts, Chris Jones mentioned that TC Simmons was the only player on the UConn roster from California. He said usually UConn baseball has a few more players from California on the roster.

Chris Jones did not mention that UConn baseball in the last years has not been getting as many California JUCO transfers as they used to in their recruiting efforts recently. Seems to me that the last few years when it comes to transfers UConn baseball was getting more in the way of Grad transfers, and this cut into the Cal JUCO pipeline that UConn baseball developed over the years. I suspect that as we get farther from the Covid years that hit college sports, the number of Grad transfers will decline some as players won't be granted extra years of eligibility. I would suspect that with the decline of Grad Transfers, that UConn baseball will start again to pick up a few more JUCO transfers, including those from California.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[huskymedic]

Will starting pitching be a strength for UConn?

The Huskies got three great outings from their starters on opening weekend.

hookcbaseball.substack.com

 

[MarkyMark]

They moved the UC Santa Barbara home series against Sacramento State and Oregon to road games as USCB's field is still not ready. The plan I believe was Oregon was going to be the opening home series. The next home games for UCSB are on March 5 (Villanova) and March 8-10 (Uconn). If the field is still not ready for Villanova/Uconn they would probably try and move it to Fresno as there is a minor league park there I believe (subject to availability). This has to do with local govt. striking down new artificial turf, wanting them to put in sod, and the area receiving tons of rain. @huskymedic posted an article last week.

 

[huskymedic]

They moved the UC Santa Barbara home series against Sacramento State and Oregon to road games as USCB's field is still not ready. The plan I believe was Oregon was going to be the opening home series. The next home games for UCSB are on March 5 (Villanova) and March 8-10 (Uconn). If the field is still not ready for Villanova/Uconn they would probably try and move it to Fresno as there is a minor league park there I believe (subject to availability). This has to do with local govt. striking down new artificial turf, wanting them to put in sod, and the area receiving tons of rain. @huskymedic posted an article last week.

 

[huskymedic]

1 of 8 teams on the Pain Train:

-> CONNECTICUT

What Happened: Swept in three games at Cal

Why It Hurts: Some wins here could really have helped their RPI bumps in late May.

As my colleague Shotgun Spratling pointed out in his thorough write-up from Berkeley, you can tell the Huskies are going to be a good team but they’re just working through some early season kinks right now. And it appears this Cal team is going to be a real witch to deal with this season. The other painful news is how the Huskies overcame a 12-3 deficit to tie game two a a dozen apiece, only to see the Bears plate three more runs in their final two at-bats to lose 15-12. On Sunday they lost in jog-off fashion as Rodney Green Jr. capped the game with an RBI single. <-

 

[dbmill]

1 of 8 teams on the Pain Train:

-> CONNECTICUT

What Happened: Swept in three games at Cal

Why It Hurts: Some wins here could really have helped their RPI bumps in late May.

As my colleague Shotgun Spratling pointed out in his thorough write-up from Berkeley, you can tell the Huskies are going to be a good team but they’re just working through some early season kinks right now. And it appears this Cal team is going to be a real witch to deal with this season. The other painful news is how the Huskies overcame a 12-3 deficit to tie game two a a dozen apiece, only to see the Bears plate three more runs in their final two at-bats to lose 15-12. On Sunday they lost in jog-off fashion as Rodney Green Jr. capped the game with an RBI single. <-

A good summary of this past weekend.

 

[dbmill]

 

[MarkyMark]

Watching a bit of Coastal and Campbell both teams ranked. Immediate observation both teams are physically imposing especially Campbell who took a series from UCSB. Been a clean game too.

 

[dbmill]

Caleb Shpur and Gabe Van Emon.

 

[huskymedic]

Review of past/future opponent results:

No rest for the wicked

UConn baseball plays its first ranked weekend series since 2021.

open.substack.com

 

[MarkyMark]

LOS ANGELES — With the rain-delayed maintenance at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium still in its final stages, UC Santa Barbara Baseball, in coordination with Loyola Marymount Baseball, has moved its Tuesday, March 5 game against Villanova to LMU's Page Stadium in Los Angeles. The Wildcats are already scheduled to play a three-game series against LMU at Page Stadium over the weekend, and will now wait there to face the Gauchos instead of making the short trip up the coast.

First pitch remains set for 4:05 p.m. on Tuesday. For fans making the trip down to Los Angeles, admission to the game will be free and open. An audio broadcast of the game and live stats will be available through ucsbgauchos.com.

UC Santa Barbara will play its first game at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium on Friday, March 8, opening a three-game series against UConn at 4:05 p.m.

 

[huskymedic]

College Baseball > UMass loses 3 out 4 to Bucknell last week… this week has a chance to win a series against UVA. UMass visit Elliott towards the end of April.

 

[huskymedic]

Next week’s challenge - Gauchos looking to sweep the Ducks tomorrow on the road.

 

[huskymedic]

Assisted access <<

(They seemingly missed Luke Broadhurst)

 

[Rdkid]

Does anyone know what’s wrong with Jack Sullivan? He was unhittable as a frosh and started for a while last year.

 

[Rdkid]

Does anyone know what’s wrong with Jack Sullivan? He was unhittable as a frosh and started for a while last year.

Okay. Answered my own question. That was a bomb to Irish, but his stuff looks better than some of these other guys he’s seemingly buried behind.

 

[huskymedic]

Auburn up in both Polls and UCSB enters the D1/NCAA poll @ #25:

 

[dbmill]

 

[scotty0330]

Echos what Penders said about scheduling. He loves the early tough matchups to see where his team is and continue to give exposure to NE college baseball….

 

[dbmill]

 

[huskymedic]

 

[dbmill]

It seems at this point in the season that CF is a pretty open spot for UConn baseball. I am somewhat surprised that TC Simmons has not seen any time playing in the field the first 3 weekends of the season considering the strength of his game is his defense. Even though he has made some good contributions on offense in the past (even if he hasn't always been a consistent contributor on offense), it was still a surprise to me that he opened the start of the season in the D.H. spot. I would have thought he would have alternated in CF in the early games with Drew Kron, but that was not the case. Still, considering Kron and Shpur have not been hitting well either, I would expect that sooner or later Simmons will see at some point a little time out in the field, until someone starts making some offensive contributions as well as providing some solid defense. As always, we'll see what happens, it is still early in the season.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[dbmill]

This article suggests that Gabe Van Emon, Jack Sullivan, and Tom Ellisen are probably the leading candidates to be midweek starters. However, it is very possible that Van Emon could replace Ian Cooke in the weekend starting rotation. I would think if that happens that Cooke could become a big guy out of the bullpen. I would think that in addition to Sullivan and Ellisen, that Braden Quinn is also a possible candidate to to be a midweek starter.