Tyler Cannon is playing for the Mahoning Valley Scrappers in the New York-Penn League. Neal Davis and Dan Grovatt are learning life in professional baseball in the Gulf Coast League. Franco Valdes spent the summer chasing his dream, playing independent baseball for the Rockford RiverHawks in the Northern League.
Other former Virginia standouts are scattered across the country and some await orders to attend fall instructional leagues.
Regardless, a host of the names that filled box scores for the past three and four years have moved on and will not be at Virginia’s Davenport Field today as the new-look Cavaliers open fall practice.
New faces and new names will don practice jerseys for the first time, hoping to use the fall as a springboard to gain playing time for a program that has played in the NCAA tournament the past seven seasons and spent most of last year atop the national rankings.
“This is going to be an exciting time for the coaches and for the players,” said Virginia coach Brian O’Connor. “I look forward to seeing how veteran players and the new players in the program will respond over the next few weeks.”
Fans can also take a look at the new faces — the practice session, which will start at noon on Saturday, is open to the public.
The Cavaliers have major holes to fill in the outfield with the departures of left fielder Phil Gosselin, center fielder Jarrett Parker and Grovatt, who started in right field.
One local player could emerge in that mix in the outfield.
Former Orange County High School standout Derek Justice and two other highly-touted rookies (Mark Podlas and Mitchell Shifflett) join a collection of veterans, including John Barr and David Coleman, in the mix during the fall.
O’Connor has also moved natural infielders, as was the case with Brandon Guyer and Gosselin recently, and could look at that angle as well with a host of veteran infielders back.
“It will truly be an exciting time,” the coach said. “We will be looking at a number of things as we build another solid team that fans can get behind.”
Virginia, coming off a 51-win season that ended with a loss to Oklahoma in the third game of the Charlottesville Super Regional, will host the Ontario Blue Jays in an exhibition game on Sept. 24 at Davenport Field at 6 p.m. Admission is free.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement