Men UConn @ Tampa FL (Fri. 2/18/22 @6:52p vs. USF > Sat. 2/19/22 @12p vs. Charlotte & Sun. 2/22/22 @8:50 vs. Louisville (All games audio>MIXLR)

[huskymedic]

 

[navery12]

Solid first weekend, lineup was never really a concern for me. But happy to see it seems like we'll have 2 good weekend SPs and lots of intruiguing bullpen options. It's one weekend so can't read too much into any performances but I'm cautiously optimistic

 

[dbmill]

Solid first weekend, lineup was never really a concern for me. But happy to see it seems like we'll have 2 good weekend SPs and lots of intruiguing bullpen options. It's one weekend so can't read too much into any performances but I'm cautiously optimistic

We'll see what happens with Pat Gallagher, but after what he did last season (and not just one particular game) I'm sure he'll get several more weekend starts to get himself straightened out.

Still inclined to think that Ian Cooke will eventually end up in the starting rotation, but we'll see how that goes, whether it ends up being this season or next season.

Just a guess, but it would not surprise me to see Garrett Coe becoming one of the regular weekday starters.

 

[dbmill]

Like the business on throwing 50 mph curve balls. Stefanoni sounds pretty analytical and smart, like someone should be if they spent time at Harvard.

 

[dbmill]

I guess the team is back in Connecticut and off the plane, so interviews are getting posted. Coach Penders talking about Enzo Stefanoni, good stuff here.

 

[businesslawyer]

Chris Jones during the weekend broadcasts kept talking about Kevin Ferrer coming back from injuries. Not sure if he was talking about his injuries from last season, or something more recent. Whatever the case, if Ferrer is able to play the field, it would certainly increase the possibility of him getting playing time. It will also be interesting to see what goes on with Christian Fedko's playing time as well. He has carried a good bat over his years at UConn, I imagine at times he will see some playing time at 2B.

One thing I was really pleased about this weekend was the performance of the bullpen. UConn had 9 guys come into games in relief over the weekend, and the only pitcher who had a really bad time of it was Bobby McBride. This from a bullpen that Josh MacDonald said in his preseason interview while there were a bunch a talented young players on the UConn pitching staff, they had to show what they could do in a regular season games. Well, for the most part what they showed looked very good. We'll see if they can come up with similar performances in the weeks to come. But what we saw from this weekend, it looks like UConn could end up having a lot depth on this pitching staff.

I go back to what I said before this series -- taking the catchers out of the equation, we have 9 position players for 8 slots. Maybe injuries make that not a problem, assuming that most times at least one of them will be unavailable, but either (i) one of the 8 is the odd man out, only making spot appearances (because Penders' history is other than giving catchers a rest he likes having the same players play almost every game) , or (ii) he can have 9 starters for 8positions by just giving everyone a game off every other week and using Smith's versatility to move people around defensively. Obviously, the latter may come with a price defensively.

I didn't know Ferrer was all banged up coming into the weekend, but I seriously doubt he is going to be the odd man out limited to making periodic appearances. He is going to play most days. And, while Ferrer is not a great OF, Christian is not likely to be the odd man out either. Which means that if I'm Smith or Huber, I better be hitting before the West Coast swing before either (i) Christian slides back to second and Ferrer DHs, or (ii) Dana moves to 1B, which I think he has experience at from Seton Hall, and Ferrer moves into the OF.

Don't get me wrong -- having one too many players who "need" to start is not a bad thing. But I don't see Ferrer's bat being out of the lineup too often, I don't think Simmons (even ignoring that he got off to a good start with the bat) has a short lease given the defensive issues of moving Stock to CF. But besides Simmons, the only two guys who haven't proven that they are capable high division 1 bats are Smith and Huber. Not to say they won't be -- I know everyone is high on both of them. I just always lean to folks who have proven bats versus those with potential.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[dbmill]

I go back to what I said before this series -- taking the catchers out of the equation, we have 9 position players for 8 slots. Maybe injuries make that not a problem, assuming that most times at least one of them will be unavailable, but either (i) one of the 8 is the odd man out, only making spot appearances (because Penders' history is other than giving catchers a rest he likes having the same players play almost every game) , or (ii) he can have 9 starters for 8positions by just giving everyone a game off every other week and using Smith's versatility to move people around defensively. Obviously, the latter may come with a price defensively.

I didn't know Ferrer was all banged up coming into the weekend, but I seriously doubt he is going to be the odd man out limited to making periodic appearances. He is going to play most days. And, while Ferrer is not a great OF, Christian is not likely to be the odd man out either. Which means that if I'm Smith or Huber, I better be hitting before the West Coast swing before either (i) Christian slides back to second and Ferrer DHs, or (ii) Dana moves to 1B, which I think he has experience at from Seton Hall, and Ferrer moves into the OF.

Don't get me wrong -- having one too many players who "need" to start is not a bad thing. But I don't see Ferrer's bat being out of the lineup too often, I don't think Simmons (even ignoring that he got off to a good start with the bat) has a short lease given the defensive issues of moving Stock to CF. But besides Simmons, the only two guys who haven't proven that they are capable high division 1 bats are Smith and Huber. Not to say they won't be -- I know everyone is high on both of them. I just always lean to folks who have proven bats versus those with potential.

I'm pretty much in agreement with what you say here. If Ferrer continues to hit, he is going to get playing time. I would think the same would be true for Fedko.

Coach Penders certainly has shown a tendency in the past to stick to the same lineup aside from giving his starting catcher rest days.

I could be wrong, but I'm inclined to think that Kevin Ferrer is still coming back from his various injuries. Otherwise, I suspect that Ferrer might have played left field yesterday in place of Stock. Still, while I was not a huge fan of Korey Morton over the last summer when he played in Norwich in the Futures League, he did improve as time went along, and got some good notices in fall ball and preseason. I suspect that Coach Penders wants to get Morton a little playing time as well in addition to his pinch running appearances.

I think one interesting thing about David Smith and Ben Huber is that they have shown enough game to be on Cape Cod League rosters this coming summer. That is something that intrigues me. At any rate, baseball is a game where players go in and out of slumps. Obviously, the players who don't slump as much are more likely to get more playing time. We'll just have to see what happens, and how it all sorts itself out. One thing that I am concerned about is the rate at which Huber is striking out at, but in baseball it is hard to come to any fast conclusions about things based on just one weekend. By the way, one other player who did not have a good weekend at the platebat is Chris Brown at 3B.

Still thinking some sort of oddball platoon may develop that sends Simmons to the bench when UConn faces a lefty starting pitcher. Of course, that is just speculation on my part, I haven't heard anything in interviews to suggest that this might actually happen.

 

[dbmill]

We'll see what happens with Pat Gallagher, but after what he did last season (and not just one particular game) I'm sure he'll get several more weekend starts to get himself straightened out.

Still inclined to think that Ian Cooke will eventually end up in the starting rotation, but we'll see how that goes, whether it ends up being this season or next season.

Just a guess, but it would not surprise me to see Garrett Coe becoming one of the regular weekday starters.

Just thought of this. UConn doesn't need a midweek starter until March 8 when they play Hartford in Storrs. After that, they have some interesting midweek games on their west coast trip, and games against solid New England schools such as Bryant and Boston College. All these games are before the Big East schedule kicks into gear in April. It would not surprise me to see Ian Cooke get some of these midweek starts in March. Once UConn starts playing Big East conference games, I would think the coaching staff will want to have Cooke available to pitch during the weekend conference games, so at that point he would stop getting midweek starting assignments.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[CtBaseball]

 

[huskymedic]

Nice start…

 

[dbmill]

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I would say a lot depends on the development of the pitching staff. Josh MacDonald admitted in the preseason pitching interview that there were a number of talented players on the pitching staff, but they needed to show that they could perform during the spring season, and that the coaching staff needed to figure out what roles these pitchers would fill. Overall, things went very well for many of the young UConn pitchers this weekend. If this trend continues as the season progresses, the Huskies could end up having a very good team. We'll see what happens.