ASU Baseball 2024

[Mainstreet]

Another season, another excuse. It's a shame ASU couldn't win when it counted.


Blake Niemann reposted
https://x.com/_noahfurtado
Noah Furtado
https://x.com/_noahfurtado
@_noahfurtado

ASU baseball, which had the most All-Pac-12 position players, the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and a top-15 batting average nationally, will very likely miss a third consecutive NCAA Tournament for the first time since it went without a berth in its first five years as a varsity program from 1959-1963.

The Sun Devils finished with an ERA above 6.00 for only the fourth time in their varsity history — and the second time in head coach Willie Bloomquist and pitching coach Sam Peraza’s three seasons.

The first was their debut campaign, when they had to put together a rather makeshift staff upon losing two starters and two other potential starters to the draft. And ahead of this season, the Sun Devils had to replace three starters, two relievers and their closer in addition to a junior college standout who would have likely been a weekend starter.

NIL is a factor, as we @SunDevilSource have reported.

But for ASU to have one of the best offenses in the country and still be outside the apparent bubble, even after having won 15 of its final 18 regular-season games, is a result of rather staggering failures with its pitching.

1:02 PM · May 23, 2024

 

[AZCB34]

Another season, another excuse. It's a shame ASU couldn't win when it counted.


Blake Niemann reposted
https://x.com/_noahfurtado
Noah Furtado
https://x.com/_noahfurtado
@_noahfurtado

ASU baseball, which had the most All-Pac-12 position players, the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and a top-15 batting average nationally, will very likely miss a third consecutive NCAA Tournament for the first time since it went without a berth in its first five years as a varsity program from 1959-1963.

The Sun Devils finished with an ERA above 6.00 for only the fourth time in their varsity history — and the second time in head coach Willie Bloomquist and pitching coach Sam Peraza’s three seasons.

The first was their debut campaign, when they had to put together a rather makeshift staff upon losing two starters and two other potential starters to the draft. And ahead of this season, the Sun Devils had to replace three starters, two relievers and their closer in addition to a junior college standout who would have likely been a weekend starter.

NIL is a factor, as we @SunDevilSource have reported.

But for ASU to have one of the best offenses in the country and still be outside the apparent bubble, even after having won 15 of its final 18 regular-season games, is a result of rather staggering failures with its pitching.

1:02 PM · May 23, 2024

Noah isn’t wrong but I take some offense to the “rather staggering failures with its pitching”.

One of the problems is they play their home games at Muni which is a small stadium after they moved in the fences during the Tracy Smith regime. I have seen what appear to be routine fly balls keep carrying and somehow clear the fence. As a result, they seem to get caught up in high scoring games, even against lower competition.

I also think Noah doesn’t give any credit for improvements to the pitchers this year. I can name at least seven pitchers who improved as the season wore on. Yes, there are pitching issues with this years team and I am curious if there will be a coaching change with regard to the pitchers.

That team ERA, imo, is the direct result of the insane number of walks this team gave up. Just a stupid amount of walks. Pitch selection (coach), pitch execution (pitcher) and oftentimes questionable umpiring behind the plate all combined to make things difficult.

Finally, an injury to their Friday starter that kept him out of the rotation the bulk of the season plus another pitcher they were relying on to return to form after injury last season really made a jumbled mess of the staff and it took additional time to figure out where all the pieces fit.

They are what their stats say they are but I think there also needs to be some context