A certain adage would have you believe money talks, and a certain TV ad would have you believe that money watches you.
For players in the ASU baseball program, the money waits.
The Sun Devils welcomed back All-American and First-Team All-Pac-10 pitcher Josh Spence to the team after he decided to forgo signing a lucrative third-round deal with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim last week for a final season with the program.
“It was always the thought process when I was drafted that coming back to school wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for me,” Spence said at a press conference on Aug 18. “The more I thought about it, the better fit for me was to be a Sun Devil and I’m very happy with the decision.”
The artful Aussie stormed Division-I baseball last season, going 10-1 with a 2.37 earned run average.
He combined with the Cincinnati Reds’ new $2.27 million arm and eighth-overall draft selection Mike Leake to form the best starting pitching duo in college baseball.
“[Spence is] off the charts in so many ways,” ASU coach Pat Murphy said. “He is authentic, he is unique, he is very bright, a great competitor, and, most of all, he’s a great teammate. In 27 years of coaching, [I’ve] only had a couple like that. Ever. Only a couple could begin to match his qualities.”
While Spence is anxiously anticipating his time in the big leagues, he said there was too much to accomplish in Tempe to leave just yet.
“Professional baseball is my goal and something I’m working hard for,” Spence said, “but I’m also working hard to get my degree and to be able to come back and be a Sun Devil, and to wear that uniform means a lot.”
2010 crop
Spence’s return wasn’t the only good news for ASU last week.
Senior Raoul Torrez decided to rejoin the program after getting drafted by the Angels.
The team also welcomed 10 signees: pitchers Jake Barrett, Merrill Kelly, Josh Moody, Jimmy Patterson, and Brady Rodgers, catcher Xorge Carrillo, outfielders Joey DeMichele, Andrew Aplin and Jacob Morris and shortstop Deven Marrero.
Highlighting the class is Barrett, a third-round draft choice and the 2009 Arizona Gatorade Player of The Year out of Desert Ridge High School in Mesa.
Barrett is a sturdily built 6-foot-4, 230-pound right-hander, who, at age 18, already throws in the mid-90s.
“He’s a young kid with a big arm, but again, he’s got to adjust to the whole college thing,” Murphy said. “The whole lifestyle — academics, strength and conditioning and living your life the right way — that’s what he’s got to acclimate to. If he can do that, he’ll be a good player.”
Having lost 15 players to the MLB draft in 2008, ASU only lost three in 2009 — though Kipnis, Leake and catcher Carlos Ramirez were arguably the team’s three best players.
Having been denied potential recruits like Jimmy Rollins and Cecil Fielder in the past, this year ASU limited the pillaging of recruits to the majors to only two players.
“The draft is going to affect us every year,” Murphy said. “We lose some great players. Every year is a new soup to be stirred.”
State of the program
Despite lagging behind some of the nation’s top programs in terms of overall facilities and scholarships, the ASU baseball program may be as good as it’s ever been.
Three of the last five years, ASU has finished in the top five, and the two years it didn’t, it was No. 23 in 2006 and No. 9 in 2008.
The last time ASU had a five-year stretch with three top-three finishes was 1981-84, under former coach Jim Brock.
While the Sun Devils haven’t won a national championship under Murphy, their consistency as one of the top teams is unmatched of late.
It hasn’t gone unnoticed.
“[Murphy] has done as good a job as anyone in the country — bar none,” Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin said. “[Murphy] takes college players and he brings out their abilities to the max. He is an achiever, and he makes his kids achieve.”
The Clemson Tigers lost to ASU this year in the Super Regionals, and coach Jack Leggett noticed a certain mystique when his team traveled to Packard Stadium in Tempe this summer.
“It was a great experience for our kids,” Leggett said. “You know what you’re going to get when you play Pat Murphy’s team. You’re going to get a very blue collar, competitive, aggressive baseball team. We got exactly what we expected when we got out there. There is a great, storied tradition there.”
Reach the reporter at nick.ruland@asu.edu.
