The college baseball season keeps getting pushed back.
In 2006, the Sun Devils began play on Jan. 27, Feb. 2 in 2007, and now Feb. 22 this season.
It's all part of the NCAA's new uniform start date, which aims to level the playing field for cold-weather schools across the nation.
"The NCAA is trying to make college baseball better," ASU manager Pat Murphy said. "It may not be advantageous for Arizona State. You roll with it."
ASU must now play its 56 game schedule in 13 weeks, making everything more compact.
The schedule, itself, would have been tough as is, with matchups against nationally ranked Vanderbilt, Wichita State, Michigan and the talent-laden Pac-10 conference.
For the quirky, superstitious baseball player, the new rule may just cause an adjustment.
"It will be a positive and a negative," sophomore pitcher Mike Leake said. "You get to know opposing teams better because you can watch them more than we had the chance to last year. But, you won't be able keep your routine."
Murphy will no longer be able to pony up his three best starting pitchers for Friday nights and Saturday and Sunday matinees without the mid-week consequences.
But he does not see the change as all bad, either.
"Our position players will benefit because they'll see live pitching more often," he said. "Our pitching staff is just going to have to be deeper."
The greater emphasis on pitching depth is obvious, but it may not be an objective ASU can meet right away; especially after the news that sophomore closer Jason Jarvis is under NCAA review and may not be eligible to play in 2008.
Freshman pitcher Devin Fuller is already ineligible for the 2008 season and that, coupled with Jarvis' murky situation, is a "crush" to the team, Murphy said.
"They are two of the best arms on the club, two guys that are potential high draft-picks," Murphy said. "That pains me a bunch. I've never had a player ineligible in 26 seasons as a head coach. This is my first time, and now I've got two."
Fuller would have been a mainstay in the rotation, while the potential of losing Jarvis is twofold.
Jarvis, who spent much of his freshman season pitching in late innings, is also a candidate to play left field for the Sun Devils.
"You're losing a two-way player, so it looks like we're down three players," Murphy said. "We have to plan to go to war without [Jarvis] right now."
Jarvis went through a similar situation in 2007, missing the first months of the season and was unable to practice while the NCAA made its decision. When Jarvis was cleared, he proved integral right away, racking up 11 saves and playing the role of pinch-hitter during the postseason.
While Murphy said late inning assignments will be handed out on a "hitter-by-hitter, game-by-game" basis, junior two-way player Ike Davis may get the first shot at the eighth and ninth innings.
Reach the reporter at: apentis@asu.edu.
