Repost: 5 Questions about the ASU Sun Devils’ 2009 Baseball Season
ASU’s quest for a sixth NCAA baseball championship commences tonight—with almost none of the star power of 2008. Here are five questions and answers to get you ready for the 50th season of Sun Devil baseball.
1. No more Wally, Petey or Ike. Who’s back on offense?
ASU had 15 players selected in June’s draft—the most ever from a single school. That leaves just three bats from the 2008 squad back this season. Centerfielder Jason Kipnis turned down a sizeable contract offer from the Padres to return to ASU. He’ll headline an offense that also returns rightfielder Matt Newman and Raoul Torrez, moving from second to third in place of Brett Wallace.
2. Ouch. How about on the mound?
Ace right-hander Mike Leake returns to anchor a pitching staff that will have to replace Saturday night starter Josh Satow, find a new closer to fill in for hard-throwing Ike Davis and find several bullpen arms to chew up innings. Veteran Seth Blair adds depth.
3. We had a big recruiting class though, right?
Even 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 lineup.
Freshmen shortstop Riccio Torrez (brother of Raoul) and second baseman Zack MacPhee and junior college transfers first baseman Jared McDonald, catcher Carlos Ramirez and rightfielder Kole Calhoun could all start in the field. Freshmen Johnny Ruettiger and Zach Wilson could split time as designated hitter, and transfer left-hander Josh Spence is expected to slide immediately into the rotation behind Leake.
4. So what do the experts think of the Sun Devils’ chances?
The experts are split, ranking the Sun Devils as high as sixth and as low as 22nd in the five major polls. We’ll take Baseball America’s No. 13 as a happy median. The Pac-10 coaches are slightly more impressed, tabbing his team to win a third consecutive conference crown by a narrow margin. Five teams shared 10 first-place votes and ASU got the nod by two points over UCLA.
5. It’s your turn. What’s your take, Sun Devils?
Can ASU replace last year’s boppers and make another run at Omaha? Vote in the poll on the left side of this page and drop your thoughts in the comments below!
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Good riddance to Brett Wallace – the Eddie House of the baseball program. Gaudy numbers but did nothing in big games.
I think this team will scrap and should be fun to watch.
I am embarassed by all the people who have trashed Brett Wallace. Yes, he struggled at some inopportune times, but that’s baseball. The guy had a great career here and it is beyond pathetic in my opinion that people can’t recognize how well he represented ASU.
The knocks on Wallace really stem from the 07 CWS, in which pretty much all of the bats went lame. In the 08 postseason the guy was 9-23 (.391) with 10 R, 5 RBI and 6 BB. That’s a little more than nothing.
It’s really unfortunate from a legacy sake how poorly Brett played when the team succeeded in 07 and how sorta-well he played when the team failed in 08.
The bases loaded double play in extra innings against UC Irvine was an all-time gut punch. I think everyone expected the P-10 poy to put the game away on that at-bat.
Taking out your frustrations on a great player is not worth my reading time. Plenty of great players have not come through during clutch time as well…….in baseball it is your body of work that defines you. Brett was a great player and I am tired of the wallace bashing from people who don’t know baseball or if you do know baseball you are just talking out of frustration with the program or is it you don’t like Murphy?
Murphy has had two great recruiting classes in a row and I expect great baseball again this season. I really like this team.
Go Devils!!
Didn’t David break one of the Ten Commandments?
Thou shalt not disparage Eddie House’s name.
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