Cal Poly Baseball in Review: Brett Binning and Connor Redmond

Ed. note: As a “content experiment”, I’ll be going through each player on the Cal Poly roster from 2017 to recap their season and look forward to 2018.

Brett Binning

Brett Binning was a super-utility player for Cal Poly over the past two seasons. By Owen Main

Season synopsis

After playing in 41 games and starting 30 during his junior year, Brett Binning took a smaller role on Larry Lee’s squad as a senior in 2017. In 27 games (16 starts), Binning hit .196 with a double and three RBI’s. The former Auburn Tiger wasn’t ever in SLO for his powerful bat, but was always ready to fill any infield position if there was a need. 

One thing that always struck me about Binning’s career at Cal Poly is his positive body language. There are a few players in various sports who have exuded that during their time at Cal Poly — Kenny Mitchell, Andre Broadous, Chris Eversley to name a few. In one of the most momentum-driven sports, Binning’s on-field presence was always a welcome site. 

Unfortunately for Binning, the Mustangs had three freshman infielders who all got into the rotation ahead of him at some point during 2017.

Brett Binning's positive presence, attitude, and leadership at Cal Poly were things I know I always noticed when he was on the field. Bummed to see his eligibility run out. Happy trails 7.

A post shared by Fansmanship.com (@fansmanship) on May 30, 2017 at 8:23pm PDT

Connor Redmond

Season synopsis

Redmond, a freshman pitcher from football power De La Salle High School, got an opportunity to get his college sea legs throughout the year. Of his seven appearances, two were starts and only one was during Big West play. Despite the 9.64 ERA in 9 1/3 innings, there were some signs of life. Redmond didn’t give up any earned runs in either of his final two relief appearances of the year. 

Summertime in Oregon

Redmond will join two Mustangs in Corvallis over the summer to play for the Knights. Lots of Cal Poly pitchers have ticked-up in velocity and command in past summers. Larry Lee will hope to add some additional reliable depth to the pitching staff if Redmond can find himself in college. Part of college sports — especially baseball — is that players often improve over the summer. The best case for Redmond over will be to prove between now and February of 2018 that he’s a pitcher who can be counted on in higher leverage situations in 2018.