Baseball America Likes Pat Murphy’s Class Too
No, you’re not experiencing déjà vu. Another publication has ranked Pat Murphy’s incoming recruiting class the best in the nation. Here’s a second look at the Sun Devils’ top-ranked incoming class and a second reckless stab at predicting the 2009 lineup.
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Arizona State baseball coach Pat Murphy badly needed to reload after losing 21 players from his roster and recruiting class to Major League Baseball this summer. Well, as it usually is under Murphy, reloading has been achieved.
That’s at least according to Baseball America, which ranked ASU’s incoming class the best in the nation this week. As we previously noted, Collegiate Baseball Newspaper previously agreed.
Murphy will welcome 15 freshmen and six junior college transfers to the roster this spring, and 12 of them were selected in this summer’s draft. Quoth recruiting coordinator Josh Holliday: “Even though we got hit hard by the draft, we were still able to bring in a really good group of kids. Some schools get crushed by the draft and can’t overcome it, but we were able to recover.”
The list of players is posted below, but what does it all mean? It means we’re going to have a lot of fresh faces on the diamond this spring. Here’s a reckless stab at what next year’s lineup may look like.
| Pos. | 2008 | 2009 |
| C | Petey Paramore | Carlos Ramirez* |
| 1B | Ike Davis | Abe Ruiz* |
| 2B | Raoul Torrez | Raoul Torrez |
| 3B | Brett Wallace | Zach Wilson* |
| SS | Greg Bordes | Riccio Torrez* |
| LF | Ryan Sontag | Johnny Ruettiger* |
| CF | Jason Kipnis | Jason Kipnis |
| RF | Matt Newman | Matt Newman |
| SP | Mike Leake | Mike Leake |
| SP | Josh Satow | Seth Blair |
| SP | Seth Blair | Josh Spence* |
Yes, those asterisks represent newcomers. Here’s the full list of newcomers, ranked in the order in which they were drafted. There’s a Brett Wallace, Ike Davis and Petey Paramore in there somewhere. We’re just not sure yet where they are. Do you?
- Johnny Coy, OF/IF, 7th round
- Zack MacPhee, IF, 22nd round
- Josh Spence, LHP, 25th round
- Zach Wilson, IF, 26th round
- Brandon Magee, OF, 29th round
- Riccio Torrez, IF, 32nd round
- Carlos Ramirez, C, 34th round (2007 draft)
- Johnny Ruettiger, OF, 35th round
- Jared McDonald, IF, 40th round
- Jordan Swagerty, C/RHP, 44th round
- Abe Ruiz, IF, 47th round
- Drew Maggi, IF, 47th round
- Austin Barnes, IF, undrafted
- Kole Calhoun, OF/LHP, undrafted
- Ray Hanson, RHP, undrafted
- Jeeter Ishida, RHP, undrafted
- Mitchell Lambson, LHP, undrafted
- Jeff Lusardi, OF, undrafted
- Jake Saylor, C, undrafted
- Danny Skelly, LHP, undrafted
- Trask Switzenberg, IF, undrafted
What’s Your Take, Sun Devils?
The experts are pretty high on these guys. How many College World Series trips does this group got in it?
I’m really excited to hear that the experts seem to be so excited about this class. All credit to the coaching staff for targeting talented kids who wanted to come to college in a year when they knew that they’d have a ton of holes to fill. For all of Murph’s shortcomings (HIRE A PITCHING COACH AND LET HIM DO HIS JOB, DAMMIT!), no coach is perfect and he does an excellent job keeping the program well stocked with talent and performing at an elite level year after year.
I agree. For all his faults, Murphy does possess several qualities that make him a good if not great college baseball coach. He’s not the only guy who took a long time to win a national title. Tom Osborn in football. Roy Williams in basketball. There are more, but my brain is fried.
Murphy has some really big shoes to fill. Davis’ and Wallace’s bats are going to be tough to replace. The Mets and the Cardinals gush about these guys. Paramore calls a great game and pitchers have extreme confidence in him. Will Ruiz get the same results?
Yeah, we’ve been blessed with great catchers that last few years. Gosewisch and Paramore were studs. How many teams wouldn’t be able to get Rolling on the field? Let’s Hope Ruiz can fill in.
Re: Catchers — don’t forget Casey Myers…. man, this has been an awesome decade for ASU catchers…
But yes, I think we do remember Davis and Wallace as tough to replace, but MJ’s point is spot on, Paramore is going to be really tough to replace, too.
[...] The class is expected by many to be ranked among the top 10 in college baseball. This would be nothing new to Pat Murphy, who welcomed the top ranked recruiting class in the country to Tempe this fall. [...]
[...] after seven ASU recruits signed MLB contracts for a combined $12 million, Baseball America still ranked ASU’s class No. 1 in the nation. And these kids will go immediately into the [...]