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UConn Summer Ball 2021
- Thread starter dbmill
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Tonight is the first home game of the Norwich Sea Unicorns of the Futures League. Before the game they introduced the players who have joined the team. Bobby McBride was one of these players. So McBride's season with UConn is over, and he has started his summer ball season with Norwich.
Also, Andy Baylock was introduced as an assistant coach for Norwich. So it would seem he is doing more than just throwing batting practice for the team, as he has done in Norwich for many years.
Bobby McBride is also listed on the Bourne Braves roster of the Cape Cod League. Wonder if Bobby will make it to the Cape
My guess would be McBride will play for Norwich. I suspect the Bourne roster has not been updated online for a while, but I could be wrong.
The other thing to remember is that the Norwich Sea Unicorns just got accepted into the Futures League pretty recently, and had to scramble to find available players to fill the roster in a big hurry. I would guess he had only a temp contract with Bourne, and he probably got released from that when he really didn't do much for UConn this season. Remember, McBride started the season with an injury at UConn, and that no doubt had an impact on his effectiveness when he was able to return to the mound in the middle of the season.
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hardcorehusky
Lost patience with the garden variety UConn fan
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I have a feeling Smith is our new 2nd baseman next year
That would not surprise me.
The New London Day has a story on the Norwich Sea Unicorns, part of which talks about its players on temp contracts:
For locals on Sea Unicorns roster, opening day at Dodd brings back memories
Norwich — Being from nearby Killingly, Brian Albee used to be a regular at Dodd Stadium. When he was much younger, he had the privilege of meeting former Norwich Navigators Madison Bumgarner and Brand...
"It's been nice and relaxing," said Belenski, who had former legendary UConn baseball coach Andy Baylock throwing batting practice Monday. "There's been a lot going on. We had to sign a lot of guys to temp contracts. We only had 12 (players) at one point; I think we signed six guys to temp contracts. It's been a relief getting back to baseball.<<
Colton >>Bender, who contributed to Sunday's win with three walks and three runs scored, is one of the players who signed a temporary contract to get the Sea Unicorns through until the rest of the members of their roster arrive following their collegiate seasons.
Norwich's starting catcher, Bender will depart in a few weeks to join the Bourne Braves of the Cape Cod League. Bender has also committed to play his graduate year at Division I Rutgers next season.<<
Bender played this past season with Quinnipiac, and at this point he looks like the star of the team until he departs to the Cape Cod League.
I have no idea if one of the players signed to a temp contract with Norwich is Bobby McBride, but it is a possibility. Still, given how his freshman season went with UConn, I definitely think he would be better off staying in the Futures League and playing in Norwich. I have a suspicion he would be in way over his head at this point in his college career in the Cape Cod League.
Bobby McBride summer ball update. So far he has started 2 games for the Norwich Sea Unicorns, going 4 innings in each game, and he has compiled an interesting stat line to say the least. McBride has pitched 8 innings compiling a 3.37 ERA. He has given up 2 hits, 9 walks, and has 15 strikeouts. 8 of the walks were in the game last night. McBride also has 6 wild pitches and 1 hit by pitch.
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Well, that was his issue in his few Husky appearances. He didn't give up many hits, but he walked way, way too many.
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No question about it, McBride has a big problem with finding the plate when he throws. Well, that's the way it is with many young college pitchers, they often need to develop control. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. I would think McBride being out with an injury for the first part of the season with UConn didn't help him out either. Anyway, I'm thinking McBride will see a goodly amount of mound time with Norwich, so I'm holding out hope that the regular mound work he gets this summer will help him figure out how to control his pitches better. As always, we'll see what happens. The one good thing with McBride is that so far he hasn't given up much in the way of hits in the Futures League, so that is at least a potential building block for him.
I start thinking of some of the scenes in "Bull Durham", one of my favorite baseball movies.
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Someone needs to explain to me how a college baseball team is o.k. With its players — even those who haven’t played — leaving the team in the postseason to start summer league. You don’t want everyone available in case of injuries or illness?
This is certainly not a new thing this season. For one thing, there are roster limits in college post season baseball. There was an interview recently with Coach Penders, who said there was a roster limit of 30 players on a team for the Big East tournament, and the roster limit is about 27 or 28 for this NCAA Tournament. Safe to say, Bobby McBride and Todd Peterson did not fit in to these post season roster limits, so they and perhaps others were sent on their merry way to start summer ball. By the way, Korey Morton, who I would expect is on the UConn roster for the post season, will be joining McBride in Norwich, whenever UConn's run in the post season is over.
The Futures League tends to take in younger players with less experience, and it starts in the last week in May. The Cape Cod League, which is probably the top college baseball summer league, doesn't start until later in June. I expect this is because many of their players are involved in post season ball, still that league starts off while the post season games in Omaha are still going on.
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Need more pitchers than hitters at this point. In college it’s pretty much one starter per position, especially with Covid this year and limited mid week games. But look in years past, most times there’s 6-7 of the 8 fielders start every game. Those guys will red shirt and need to go get as many reps and ABs as possible.
In the past after UConn baseball closes out its season (whether or not the team makes the NCAA Tourney), soon to follow there has been a posting on the UConn baseball website and/or on the UConn Baseball twitter feed of where various UConn players are playing in summer ball. I always look forward to that. Of course, players seem to frequently move about during the summer going to new teams and leagues as well, and that sort of thing isn't always updated. Still, it is good to have a starting reference point for UConn summer ball players and their initially assigned teams.
Ken Haus has turned up on the 2021 Healdsburg Prune Packers roster, a team in the California Collegiate League. I could be wrong, but I believe Haus has used up his eligibility with UConn baseball. I've seen this sort of thing with Healdsburg before, as Jeff Kersten played for the Prune Packers the summer after his last UConn season.
The Prune Packers always seem to have a UConn player on their roster. It was reported this winter thatDevin Kirby was going to play for Healdsburg this summer. Kirby is not listed on the Prune Packer roster now, possibly due to the injury that had him missing the UConn spring season.
The Prune Packers always seem to have a UConn player on their roster. It was reported this winter thatDevin Kirby was going to play for Healdsburg this summer. Kirby is not listed on the Prune Packer roster now, possibly due to the injury that had him missing the UConn spring season.
Joining UConn incoming freshman Ian Cooke on the roster of the Amsterdam Mohawks of the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League is another UConn incoming freshman pitcher, Jack Sullivan.
Chris Brown and incoming UConn freshman pitcher Owen Kellington is on the roster of the Vermont Lake Monsters of the Futures League. Kellington is listed as Inactive, but usually incoming freshmen end up reporting to summer ball teams after they graduate from high school.