Devils in MLB: Top 5 Devils in the Majors
Here’s a new flash: Barry Bonds is no longer in the Majors. So which Arizona State alum will step forward and claim the mantle of greatest Sun Devil in Major League Baseball?
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Last week we ranked the top five Sun Devils knocking on Major League Baseball’s door including a couple of stud power-hitting prospects. This week, the power hitters are a little smaller (especially Dustin Pedroia), but the big-time big-league results are there.
So before Ike Davis and – even sooner – Brett Wallace make it to the Majors to take a spot away from one of these guys, here are your top five Sun Devils in Major League Baseball.
1) Dustin Pedroia, Boston Red Sox
.326, 54 doubles, 17 home runs
New Englanders were all over The Jockey early last year (full disclosure: I am one and I was, too… and I love this guy!) with his awfully slow start. Pedroia finished strong though, and provided a preview of his second year as a pro. After a fantastic offensive season this year, he may be the front-runner for American League Most Valuable Player, possibly edging out fellow Pac-10 alum Carlos Quentin of Stanford. (He’s definitely our pick.) Pedroia takes two torches from a certain former Sun Devil-turned-San Francisco Giant-turned Home Run King. He’s one of baseball’s best players, and is unquestionably one of its most arrogant. Those are good things for the Red Sox, not so much for opposing pitchers, who’ve only heard the beginning of a stream of brash trash-talk from Pedroia.
2) Andre Ethier, Los Angeles Dodgers
.305, 38 doubles, 20 home runs
Last year, Pedroia became the 11th Sun Devil to play in a World Series when he suited up for the Red Sox (and proceeded to blast the first pitch he saw for a home run). This year, Ethier, a dark-horse National League MVP candidate who should at least garner some votes, could be 12th. He probably won’t be; the Dodgers aren’t very good. But Ethier was awesome for L.A. this year, posting the highest OPS – by far – of all Dodgers who actually began and ended the season with the team (i.e., excepting Manny Ramirez). His .885 mark was fifth-best among all N.L. outfielders. He’s only 26 yet he has three full seasons under his belt. He’s a very good, popular, media-friendly player in a huge market. All of that means this guy’s an All-Star very soon.
3) Ian Kinsler, Texas Rangers
.319, 41 doubles, 18 home runs
Really, we should think of this guy as a Missouri Tiger. But the crop of ASU alums in big-league ball is so thin, we’re going to go ahead and claim Kinsler. His OPS (.892) was the highest among A.L. second basemen, even higher than The Jockey. Pedroia gets the edge on this list though, because, first of all, he’s the superior defender, and second, we’ll always think of him as a Sun Devil. Kinsler… ehhhh, not as much.
4) Barry Bonds, Free Agent
.000, 0 doubles, 0 home runs
Just kidding. But there is a huge drop-off from No. 3 to No. 4. Bonds playing this year would have helped, since he would have, in all likelihood, been higher than No. 4 on this list.
4) Travis Buck, Oakland Athletics
.226, 9 doubles, 7 home runs
Buck was recalled after winning the Triple-A championship with Sacramento to finish the season in Oakland. He played very well, batting .367 with four home runs and three doubles in 12 September games. Maybe last year was just too much, too soon for the young player. He was batting leadoff this year on Opening Day in Japan and he had a bobblehead and all that. And he was just awful, batting .154 when he got hurt in April. The bet here is that he benefits from a season in Triple-A. Buck’s a good pick for a bounce-back season in 2009.
5) Jeff Larish, Detroit Tigers
.260, 6 doubles, 2 home runs
Larish, who was also our No. 5 Sun Devil in the minors, takes the same spot in the bigs. In 42 games with the Tigers, Larish acquitted himself well enough to earn some playing time next year. The trouble, though, is that the Tigers have Miguel Cabrera at first base and Gary Sheffield at DH. It’s going to be tough to get on the field, but he’ll probably get at-bats if/when Sheffield inevitably spends some time on the disabled list. Larish has power, and his minor league track record shows a guy who can draw a walk. Given enough playing time, he could be a good complimentary player on a good big-league team.
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We seem to be in a bit of a lull as far as ASU players in the majors. Pat Murphy did some very mediocre recruiting early in his ASU career and it’s hurt the Sun Devils’ representation at the big league level.
But, I feel like we’re about to come out of it thanks to the big classes of the last half decade or so. We’re already seeing it in Pedroia, Buck and Larish. Soon (I’m guessing) we’ll see guys like Colin Curtis, Eric Sogard, Petey Paramore, Brett Wallace, Ike Davis.
Does this seem reasonable?
Absolutely right on. You can look at the 2001 team as a pretty good example of a squad with good college players, but not “big league” recruits. Casey Myers, Jon Switzer, Chris Duffy, Brooks Conrad, Mike Esposito… there were some good players there, and all but Myers on that list got cups of coffee in the bigs, but these aren’t Pedroias and Ethiers.
You’ve got to recruit the Eric Hosmers and Kyle Skipworths — which Murph is doing — because even though most won’t ever come to school, some will. How many of us really thought Ike Davis was coming to ASU out of high school?
We have every reason to believe Brett Wallace and Davis are going to be good Major League players, and I think Sogard can as well. While he may not be at the all-star level of these guys, there’s no reason to think he’s not a Mark Loretta/Mark Ellis type infielder who can have a pretty good big league career.
Things are looking up for the next wave of Devils in the pros.
Curtis may be stuck in the wrong organization (Yankees). If he doesn’t get traded soon, he might be getting career advice from Mitch Jones.
Maybe then he could sue Major League Baseball? >:-)
http://www.echofromthebuttes.com/2008/09/11/lunch-links-mitch-jones-should-sue-mlb/
Greg — the big stink on the message boards over ASU recruiting the last couple of seasons is that we are bringing in too many guys with TOO high of a ceiling, who are unlikely to end up in college, and not enough guys who are good enough to make an impact but not so good that MLB is going to throw millions their way. (Of course, the people complaining about that are probably the same ones that would have complained about mediocre recruiting back in the day — Murph is damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t with some people!)
The question is, how do you identify the talented kids who really are focused on coming to school, and not just giving lip service to the idea until they get drafted? From reading post-draft interviews with some of the kids, it’s obvious that they always had their eye on going pro and were never really interested in college unless they plunged to the bottom of the draft — which is fine, it’s just a drag to invest time and effort recruiting someone who views you as a safety net.
Fair points all. And it’s a good debate, although you answered my first reaction already, which is to say people would complain about the recruiting class if it didn’t have the stars, too.
It’s sort of what makes baseball recruiting so unique. In my own opinion at least, it’s very much worth recruiting Eric Hosmer and his ilk.
First, Hosmer very nearly did not sign by the deadline this year. And it may not be naivety to think he’d come to ASU; other Boras clients (errr, “advisees”) have taken a similar tack and have actually gone to school, like Jason Varitek and Mark Teixeira. Varitek was a 23rd rounder out of high school, and I admittedly don’t know the circumstances around that pick (he may have always intended on college) but turned down first-round money (picked by the Twins) after his junior year at GT. Teixeira turned down the Red Sox (9th round) out of high school after being deemed “unsignable,” which was sort of glossed over during last night’s TBS broadcast of the Angels game, actually.
Mark Prior turned down first-round money from the Yankees to go to Vanderbilt (who, sadly, lost him anyway after his freshman year when he transferred to USC).
But while an ASU fan might lament time spent recruiting Eric Hosmer that could have been spent elsewhere — and I think ASU’s still-strong incoming class negates that notion on its own — I guarantee you UCLA fans don’t regret the school recruiting Gerritt Cole, who passed on the Yankees in the first round this year to go to school. If Kentucky’s coach hadn’t left UK, they would have likely hung onto Daniel Webb, who didn’t sign with the D-backs this year. Vanderbilt signed a number of high-risk recruits this year, and hung on to some (Sonny Gray, e.g.) and lost others (Ryan Westmoreland, e.g.).
And there is, to some degree, an afterglow of recruiting a player who never comes to your school. Some guys (I believe Prince Fielder* is one of these) consider themselves “Sun Devils” despite having never attended ASU, but in the heavy word-of-mouth world of college recruiting, any little bit helps. And if a call from Fielder can push a kid to ASU, then it’s nice for him to have your back. That better not be the main reason you recruit a Fielder-type, but it’s a nice ancillary benefit.
* – Fun fact: The year ASU recruited Fielder (2001) another star in that ASU class was Jon Lester, who looked pretty darn good last night. Just imagine Lester in that rotation with Averill and Urquidez in Omaha in ’05.
And Fielder protected in the lineup by Buck and Larish!!!
Wow — I knew Fielder had signed with the Devils, but I didn’t realize Lester did as well. Somebody oughta do a blog post about some of the other ones who got away (hint hint)!
To Black & Teal – Yeah, that’s a ton of power in the middle of the lineup, although, man, we would have been pretty heavily left-handed. And I guess Larish would have had to play third or LF to accommodate for Prince who is — let’s just put it nicely — not physically suited to play 3B or in the outfield.
To Beatuofa – That might be a fun idea. Maybe one of these days, it would be worth finding the press release from each year with the new recruiting classes, and pick out some of the recognizable names.