(Photo: Reece Andrews/WCSN)
In the first year of the Willie Bloomquist era, Arizona State Baseball went 26-32. As is normally the case in the first year under a new regime, ASU’s 2022 season was rocky at times.
And the biggest issue for the now-second-year head coach and his staff without question was the lack of pitching depth in both their rotation and bullpen.
In 2022 the Sun Devils played 30 Pac-12 games. They let up double-digit runs in 14 of those games. The staff allowed 8.9 runs per game in conference play, and a team earned run average of 8.26 was 1.8 runs worse than USC. Additionally, ASU walked the most batters in the conference (272).
Sometimes, a team can get away with walks as long as they are still striking out batters at a high rate, but the Sun Devils failed to do that as well, striking out only 456 en route to the third-lowest total in the Pac-12.
It was a truly woeful showing on the mound.
Entering 2023, Bloomquist and pitching coach Sam Peraza had a clear goal of upgrading and retooling nearly the entire pitching staff. But Bloomquist preferred building his own roster as opposed to working on what he was given last year.
“In the recruiting process, getting to know (the players) on a personal level before bringing them in is obviously a little bit different than getting the hand that you’re dealt with,” he said. “When you get here, having an idea of their personality before they got here and then being given the chance to work with them for the last four or five months has been good.”
The biggest concern from last year was the depth of the starting rotation, so attacking the portal and grabbing as many quality starters as possible was the mission for Bloomquist and Peraza. In the end, ASU will have a completely new look to it in 2023 after adding 15 pitchers to its roster over the offseason, which includes an all-newcomer starting rotation.
The headliner of the 2023 transfer class on the mound is junior left-handed pitcher Ross Dunn, who transferred from Florida State. Dunn is an experienced arm that Peraza is hopeful will turn into the Sun Devils’ Friday night starter and proverbial ace.
“We’re hoping that Ross Dunn can anchor the staff,” Peraza said. “Obviously, he’s a proven arm. He went out and pitched for Team USA, won a gold medal, and put himself on the map.”
In 2022, Dunn appeared in 16 games as a Seminole, starting 11 of them and recording a 2-4 record with a 4.88 ERA. Although his ERA was high, Dunn’s strikeout total jumps off the screen. In 48 innings pitched, Dunn managed to strike out 77 batters, with 1.6 strikeouts per inning; Dunn’s strikeouts per nine innings was a whopping 14.4.
The Salt Lake City native’s strikeout totals are indicative of his above-average stuff. Dunn has a fastball that tops out in the mid-90s and an impressive slider, which, according to sophomore starting catcher Ryan Campos, is one of the three “nastiest” pitches on the team.
Dunn missed time in the fall due to what Peraza described as a “minor procedure,” though the injury isn’t believed to be arm-related and Dunn is expected to be ready by opening day.
Joining Dunn at the top of the ASU rotation is Texas A&M junior transfer Khristian Curtis. Curtis is a right-handed pitcher who has displayed quality stuff in limited time on the mound. In five starts last year for the Aggies, Curtis went 2-0 with a 1.42 ERA across 19 innings pitched before his season was cut short due to a right-elbow injury. Curtis is now fully recovered and will look to slide into the Saturday starting role.
“When we recruited him when he went into the transfer portal, we kind of outlined everything,” Peraza said of Curtis’ recovery. “We kind of outlined for his first weekend to be a five-inning start…. Hopefully, barring those setbacks, that’s where he’s at. The timeline’s perfect. It’ll be five innings. Starting on Saturdays. I’m pleased with where he’s at. We took it slow, but we got him where he needs to be.”
Curtis’ addition to the staff can not be understated. He brings a fastball that averages 93-96 mph and a changeup that Campos said was the best pitch on the staff. The Louisiana native also revealed that he has added a cutter to his repertoire.
“It moves like a slider, but it’s been low-90s,” Curtis said about his new pitch. “It’s definitely a good pitch. My last live outing, I struck out three with the cutter low and away,”
After sitting out most of last year, Curtis is itching to get back on the mound. This time in a premier weekend role.
“It’s definitely something I’ve looked forward to for a long time,” Curtis said. “Just being in the weekend rotations or getting the opportunity to. I feel like I’m definitely ready for it, and the coaches here have prepped me for it. Mindset, mentality, everything like that is ready to go.”
With the two spots at the top of the rotation appearing to be locked up by Dunn and Curtis, the other rotation spots seem to be up for grabs.
“This year, our Sunday and Tuesday rolls aren’t defined yet,” Peraza said. “We have about three or four guys that are capable of going into that slot which gives us better options. Now whoever doesn’t win that spot is gonna come out of the bullpen, and I think we have a lot more flexibility. We have a lot more guys that are proven and capable and have done it at this level.”
One pitcher that is expected to contend for one of those openings is junior right-hander Owen Stevenson, who often appeared on Friday nights for San Francisco before transferring to ASU in the offseason. In 69 innings over 19 appearances last season for the Dons, Stevenson had a 4.57 ERA, striking out 49 and walking 22.
It won’t be the first time Stevenson has pitched at Phoenix Municipal Stadium.
“Owen pitched here against us on a Friday night,” Peraza said. “He was a Friday night starter for the opposing team against us and pitched well…. But now we’re talking about him being kind of a hybrid guy. Where does he fit? ‘Is he going to be a Sunday guy?’ ‘Is he gonna come out of the pen on Fridays?’ When you have that type of flexibility, it makes you feel better than this time last year.”
Stevenson’s stuff has already evolved since coming to ASU. After saying he was more of a fastball-only pitcher at San Francisco, Stevenson now boasts a five-pitch mix with a fastball that has topped out at 96 mph.
“I mean, that was just all winter. I was working on that, trying to get some blowback,” Stevenson said about his new velocity. “I’m really excited to see what I can get up to this year.”
Stevenson is competing with junior left-hander Timmy Manning, who has also drawn plenty of compliments this preseason. Coming out of high school in 2020, Manning was one of the most coveted recruits in the country, as Perfect Game ranked him the seventh-best left-handed pitcher in the country. But in two years at Florida, Manning slightly underperformed, boasting a 5.50 ERA in 18 career appearances with the Gators.
Despite a rough time at Florida, Manning’s potential still flashed in a few of his appearances. In a late May start against Texas A&M last year, Manning went five innings, striking out six and allowing just five hits.
The pitching depth throughout the offseason is already being tested, with sophomore right-hander Tyler Meyer, who was ASU’s primary midweek starter a year ago, being sidelined for the season after undergoing labrum surgery last week.
Meyer is certainly a blow to the team’s rotation, but Bloomquist believes that the group is now built to survive such a loss.
“I think we have a lot of options or a lot more options this year,” Bloomquist said. “We’re confident about it, certainly with the guys we brought in, we feel that, you know, in the event that we had something extremely negative like Tyler going down, that we still are able to weather the storm a little bit.
“We’re excited about Ross, Khristian, Owen Stevenson, and Timmy Manning. We got some options. I think last year, if we had had a guy go down, we weren’t really equipped to weather that storm very well.”
In the new age of college athletics, the transfer portal is the easiest way to instantly retool a roster.
Bloomquist and his staff attacked the portal and came out with what they said is a deep roster with a much-improved rotation. With opening day a little under three weeks away, the Sun Devils are eager to start the season, and showcase what they hope is one of the best pitching staffs in the Pac-12.
