Fordham junior Daniel Bucciero has posted career highs across the board this season, earning a spot on D1Baseball’s Top 50 list and strengthening his case as one of college baseball’s most complete players with the 2025 MLB draft on the horizon.
The Ridgefield, Connecticut, native is batting .326 with eight home runs, 16 doubles and two triples in 57 games and leads the Atlantic 10 with 34 stolen bases, which ranks 20th nationally. He has knocked in 37 runs and reached base safely in 43 contests while handling 190 defensive chances with a .937 fielding percentage.
Bucciero closed the regular season by hitting .343 with two homers and five RBIs in a 21-18 win over Richmond on March 30. He swiped four bases in a 15-11 win over the Spiders the day prior. The back-to-back efforts highlight his dual threat at the plate and on the base paths.
“Yeah, I kind of stuck to what I’ve been doing for the last couple years,” Bucciero said. “I mean, I’ve definitely added some stuff along the way that I’ve felt comfortable with and learned and felt like it improved my game. But I thinkoverall, I’ve kind of stuck to what I’ve done because I feel like it’s gotten me to the point of where I am.”
That consistency and leadership helped the Rams navigate 30 conference games without letting slumps derail their season. At one point, the team had a series of seven straight losses before getting back on track with a conference series sweep over St. Bonaventure.
“I feel like the last couple of years, we’ve kind of been punched a lot during the season and not really been able to bounce back,” Bucciero said. “This year, the majority of the offseason and just leading up to conference play was like focusing on and emphasizing ‘we’re going to get punched at one point.’ And kind of just refocus our energy and our thinking into one game at a time.”
He said that mentality was driven equally by a five-captain player leadership group and the coaching staff.
“I’d say it goes hand in hand,” he said. “We have captain’s meetings with the coaches, but then we’ll also have meetings with just us. We’ll talk to them about what we see, they tell us what they see. And I feel like a lot of the times it comes better coming from players. Sometimes, it just sits better when it’s coming from one of your teammates or one of yourfriends.”
Balancing his power with speed was another offseason focus that Bucciero said has elevated his game this year.
“I emphasize being athletic and working on different movements that would help me in both aspects of the game,” Bucciero said. “A big part of this year with steals is just finding good counts to go in. In the offseason, I made sure I was getting more athletic, faster, and just making sure I could add that to my game because you can’t just always rely on home runs.”
Bucciero’s sustained production and athletic profile have raised his draft stock, and he should land as a mid-round candidate with upside as a multi-positional asset for needing MLB teams.
“I’d say I have the tools to do it,” he said. “I think I’ve proven that I can play at a high level, especially playing in the Cape this past summer. I’ve been pretty consistent over my three years here and I think I can compete at that level.”
