Pat Murphy, King of the Living Room, Does It Again
Master recruiter Pat Murphy has done it again. Arizona State’s 2009 baseball recruiting class was finally revealed this week, and it’s a doozy. See who might be wearing maroon and gold in a few years
The Arizona State baseball program officially (and finally) announced its 2009 recruiting class this week and to no one’s surprise it’s an impressive list.
Included among the 17 prospects (14 high school, three junior college) on the list below are six of the top 100 high school players in the country.
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.
Truth be told, many of the 2009 guys will never end up in Tempe. Some will play football or basketball. Others will skip college and go straight to professional baseball, a la Eric Hosmer of the Kansas City Royals and any number of other would be Sun Devils.
The leading contenders for the latter fate are Top 100 prospects Jake Barrett of Mesa’s Desert Ridge HS, Floridian Deven Marrero, Texan Jacob Morris and Californians Andrew Aplin, Nolan Arenado and Chad Thompson.
But hey crazier things have happened. No one imagined Ike Davis would ever step foot on campus going into his senior year at Scottsdale Chaparral HS. And he ended up looking pretty good in maroon and gold.
Here’s the list:
| Andrew Aplin | OF/LHP | 5-11, 186 | Suisan, Calif. (Vanden) |
| Nolan Arenado | 3B/C | 6-2, 210 | Lake Forest, Calif. (El Toro) |
| Jake Barrett | RHP/1B | 6-3, 225 | Mesa, Ariz. (Desert Ridge) |
| Tyler Bernard | IF/RHP | 6-0, 170 | Valley Center, Calif. (Valley Center) |
| Alex Blackford | RHP | 5-11, 185 | Centennial, Colo. (Cherry Creek) |
| Xorge Carrillo | C | 6-1, 220 | Tempe, Ariz. (Central Arizona College) |
| Joey DeMichele | IF | 5-11, 200 | Phoenix, Ariz. (Arcadia) |
| Michael Englund | IF/OF | 6-0, 197 | Bellevue, Wash. (Eastside Catholic) |
| Beau Maggi | C | 6-1, 195 | Phoenix, Ariz. (Brophy) |
| Deven Marrero | SS | 6-1, 188 | Davie, Fla. (American Heritage) |
| Ethan Mather | RHP | 6-0, 195 | Ozark, Mo. (Ozark) |
| Josh Moody | LHP | 6-2, 178 | Phoenix, Ariz. (Western Nevada College) |
| Jacob Morris | C | 6-3, 196 | Coppell, Texas (Coppell) |
| Jimmy Patterson | OF/LHP | 6-0, 180 | Tempe, Ariz. (Central Arizona College) |
| James Pazos | LHP | 6-3, 220 | Gilbert, Ariz. (Highland) |
| Brady Rodgers | RHP | 6-2, 175 | Richmond, Texas (Lamar Consolidated) |
| Chad Thompson | RHP | 6-8, 210 | Lake Forest, Calif. (El Toro) |
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This must certainly be the #1 class today – are there other programs that signed six top-100 players? Has Murphy ever had a class that was not ranked in the top-5, both before and after the draft?
So why has he only been to Omaha twice?
Jimmy Patterson and Xorge Carrillo. I like it.
Hang on — Murphy’s gotten (us) to Omaha three times, no? The ’99 finals, the ’05 team (that lost to Florida), and the bunch that lost to UC-Irvine in ’07.
Still, thrice in 14 years isn’t amazing, I guess. And it’s gonna be thrice in 15 years without all the guys lost from last year’s team that got ambushed by Fresno State…
@David, indeed there have been three Omaha visits — including a second place finish and a third place finish. Still, with the types of recruits he brings in, you’d like to see more postseason success. Those lost Dustin Pedroia years really hurt. Damn Cal State Fullerton.