After last years run through the regular season, winning the Big East regular season title, knocking off Clemson to win the Clemson Regional and playing tough against South Carolina in the Supers, I am very excited for another season of UConn Baseball. I wish the marketing department/athletic office would find ways for more people to get up to JO Christian to watch this team play because they play some quality baseball that people in New England would really enjoy watching
We might not be quite as good as last year. Let's face it, we lose 10 players to MLB. Springer, Barnes, and Ahmed all go within the 1st 2 rounds naturally will hurt most teams. The future is quite bright, though. We have several good arms coming in this season, while next season seems even better. We also have a RHP coming in who is a UNC transfer. I doubt he's eligible for this season, but he should have 3 years here. PG CROSSCHECKER listed him as a top 250 player while in HS in NJ.
This year will likely have some rough spots, but we have some good young arms that could flourish this year. Ward has a bit of a funky delivery and brings pretty good heat especially for a lefty. Expecting a big year from him. A 3.28 ERA as a freshman pitching mostly on the weekend is no joke.
i think this is a bit of a rebuild/reloading year. were going to take some lumps from usf/lville among others. my preseason thoughts are a 5th place finish in the BE and a on the border ncaa 3/4 seed somewhere if we make a run in the BET. BE should be better than last year. I think lville/usf are ncaa teams with shu/pitt/sju/uconn also in the conversation.
I agree that it will be a rebuilding/retooling year to say the least and it does hurt that we lost that many players to the majors. That being said, Penders has done a very good job with recruiting during his time with the Huskies and I think that we will have the talent out there to compete with the rest of the Big East. I feel like we'll finish around fourth in the league, behind St. Johns, Louisville, and USF
The weather does not do any favors as most spring days are fairly cold, but the baseball is really entertaining. Hopefully the courant gives better coverage which in turn leads to more fannys in the seats!
maybe the biggest boost to the program the past 10 years was the fball practice facility. alot of teams play and throw in gyms during the fall/winter on late nights or early mornings and there is only so much you can do in gyms. being able to go long toss in a weather controled enviroment like the indoor fball field must be a great tool for the players to have and also for recruiting... you go from -cold gym with a hanging cage. incred balls bouncings across the bball surface and no area to long toss to 100 yard long tossing, place to do sprints, turf for ground balls and live play situations on the bases/mound pickoffs etc. its just a big thing for the baseball team that is very underrated.
As some have said, and most others would probably agree, I think this team finishes around 4th or 5th in the Big East with an average showing from whatever new kids take over for our graduate/pro ball departures. If a couple of them can step right in and exceed expectations we might be able to sneak up on people and take 3rd place. Anything below 5th place and I would be surprised and very disappointed. One thing that can't be overlooked though is the departure of Justin Blood. I hope that doesn't have too much of a negative effect on our pitching staff.
