Dom Amore’s Sunday Read: Numbers add up for MLB-bound UConn student; leave Madness alone and more

“I was responsible for opponent-pitching scouting,” Clokey said. “One of our assistant coaches with Bourne came up after a game this summer and said, ‘Exactly what you said (the opposing pitcher) was going to do, he did, and we were able to jump him and get a lead in the first inning.’ .. I’m never going to pitch, never going to hit or play the field, but being able to help the guys that are out there, even in the smallest way possible, that’s what rewards me.”

Back at UConn, Clokey has worked alongside director of analytics Anthony Marotta and Ryan Catalano, who works in player development. She rushed over to the afternoon game Elliot Ballpark Friday from a meeting to discuss one of her final papers, on attendance patterns at Connecticut public schools before and after the pandemic period. A double major, applied data analysis and communication, she says she’s a few A-minuses from a perfect GPA.

It’s a good combination; the ability to communicate the analytics, as well as compile and interpret them, can make all the difference as this plays a bigger and bigger part in the modern game.

“Sara has a really good feel for pitching,” Penders said. “She can boil it down, we can see a riding fastball or read a swing and say ‘This guy has a little more giddyap on his fastball,’ but she can put numbers to it and say, ‘Yes, that is exactly what you’re seeing,’ or ‘No, you might have that wrong.'”

In recruiting, Penders and his staff have been favoring “pitchability” over velocity, and Clokey has helped identify some of the right arms.

“If we’re looking at a recruit from the West Coast, for instance, that maybe we don’t see that much,” Penders said, “she can look at the data and say, ‘The reason you don’t see a lot of strikeouts is because he gets a lot of early-count ground balls.’

“That’s very valuable when you don’t get to see a guy pitch. Now we’ve got three or four starters who can give us length in games. The average velocity on our team is probably in the bottom third of college baseball, but our ERAs are pretty good.”

During games, Clokey is usually in the press box using Trackman, three-dimensional Doppler radar technology, Rapsodo, a ball-flight monitor than measures launch angle and exit velocity, and other technology, such as slow-motion and high-speed video.

“Release height, extension, every single piece of pitchers’ motions and hitters’ swings and movement on the field can be quantified,” she said. “The role of technology and data in baseball is very contentious, everybody views it differently. It’s a very cool experience start to finish, to have the conversations with them, give them what they want and see it happen in real time. It’s something I don’t think I will ever get tired of.”

Early in her senior year, Clokey began looking at MLB job postings and sending in applications. The Guardians, her Dad’s favorite team, proved to be the connection, and she will report to the organization’s headquarters in Goodyear, Ariz., next month. “I filled out a questionnaire and went through a couple of rounds of interviews,” she said. “I was aligned with their expectations, and felt very confident answering their questions.”

And this right here is why programs matter — all programs, in or out of athletics, at all colleges — because we never know where or how a student might discover what they can and want to do. It was at UConn, back in the 1980s, where former coach Andy Baylock couldn’t find umpires for his fall scrimmages and started a night course, future MLB crew chiefs emerged. Bethany White, who worked for the baseball team before graduating in 2012, is with the Cardinals as manager of fan engagement. Where young people have opportunities to explore, things happen.

“I feel I’ve learned something every day for the last four years,” Clokey said. “(The coaches) didn’t have to give me as much opportunity as they have, but being in this environment has been invaluable. I really appreciate their willingness to pour into me, even though I am never going to hit a home run for them.”

More for your Sunday Read:

Expansion Madness

If it was meant as a trial balloon, it would have run out of helium in a few minutes. But no matter the overwhelming negative reaction, the NCAA, according to multiple reports, has begun to take the final steps to approve an expansion of the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments to 76. Next year, what has been the “first four,” will become “the first dozen” teams playing in to get to the Round of 64.

Resistance to change can be chalked up to old curmudgeonly thinking, or sentimental attachment. There’s some of that here to be sure, but also there is plenty of logic. The Field of 64, established in 1985, worked fine, a manageable number that created just enough upsets to make the first round riveting. The expansion to 68 has neither hurt nor helped much.

The argument for expansion has been percolating from the four power conferences, which have expanded to unmanageable numbers and costly coast-to-coast footprints. With so many teams joining for the money, they now find some their basketball programs lost in the shuffle, so the NCAA is tasked with bailing them out, making the tournaments large enough for these conferences to get all their also-rans in. It’s as if teams that finish in the bottom half of a conference and below .500 in conference play have some birthright to play for a national championship. On the women’s side, where blowouts are many and upsets rare, some of those first-round games figure to be can’t-watch TV.

Maybe the eight extra berths will allow a couple of mid-majors who stumbled in their league tournament a second chance, maybe it will insure the Big East gets five or six teams in every year. The bottom line, of course, is the bottom line. If there are more games on TV under the March Madness umbrella, people will watch and networks will pay, because few of us ever protest with our pocket books. But it feels like something America loves is being damaged, not fixed or improved.

Sunday short takes

*Tyler Gutsfeld, who played at Simsbury High and Westminster, a business and engineering major, is finishing up a stellar baseball career at D-III Illinois Tech. In 149 career games (roughly an MLB season’s worth), Gutsfeld is hitting .350 with 42 home runs and 152 RBI and 47 steals. Illinois Tech’s seven-game winning streak was snapped Friday, but it’s headed to the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference tournament coming up.

*CT United FC, the new MLS Next Pro franchise, has reached an agreement to play home games at Dodd Stadium in Norwich following renovations in February 2027. The team, which has been training at SCSU and playing home games at UConn and Yale, was supposed to play in a new stadium in Bridgeport, but the project has not secured the necessary state funding.

*SCSU is honoring one of its most illustrious alums, Kevin Gilbride (Class of 1974), who played for and later coached the football team, and went on to a long career in the NFL, rising to head coach of the Chargers and winning two Super Bowls as Giants offensive coordinator. The Celebration of Kevin Gilbride is June 4 and 5 p.m. at Aria in Prospect, and some of the famous players he has coached are expected. Go to alumni-friends.southernct.edu for tickets and info.

*Turned on the Knicks game the other night and saw the score was 72-22 … Thought to myself, “when did the Knicks hire Geno?”

*Longtime Avon Old Farms baseball coach Rob Dowling received the Founders League’s M.D. Nadal sportsmanship award, a testament to his dignified and classy behavior.

*Another big get this week for UConn men’s hockey, defenseman Charlie Morrison, who was starring in the Quebec junior league.

*Berlin’s Jamie Palmese is back home this weekend, starting in East Tennessee State’s outfield during the series at UConn. Palmese is hitting .335, with four homers, 36 RBI and 12 steals in 14 tries for the SoConn contenders.

Last word

Whenever a manager gets fired, Hall of Famer Joe Torre was fond of saying, “It doesn’t mean you can’t manage. It just means you have to manage somewhere else.” Jobs run their course, and Alex Cora, a very good manager fired by the Red Sox last week, will manage somewhere else — as soon as he wants to.

However, it’s fair to say Cora, who managed the 2018 World Series champs, had an exceptionally long leash in Boston, including the second chance after his suspension in 2020. His predecessors, especially Terry Francona and John Farrell, did not last nearly so long after their championships. Yes, the Mookie Betts trade was a disaster; it was also six years ago. Cora worked through three GM regimes, which is unheard of in any sport. If the owners are committed to GM Craig Breslow, who has proven he is not afraid to make unpopular decisions, then he should get to pick his own people and ultimately be judged by those choices.