‘We’re a pitching school,’ Sun Devil baseball overhauls pitching approach before 2025 season

(Photo: Sammy Nute/WCSN)

PHOENIX — Arizona State baseball head coach Willie Bloomquist will be the first one to tell you that he isn’t the most familiar with the new age of baseball analytics. All the new lingo that comes along with the numbers and graphs can sometimes feel like a foreign language to Bloomquist.

He built his legendary baseball career that saw him become a superstar in Tempe before going on to play 14 years in the Major Leagues, and most of that came through hard work and trusting his eyes. When returning as the leader of his alma mater, he found the lingo had changed.

“The old school people just say, ‘That guy has a nice carry on his ball, or whatever, he’s got life on his ball,” Bloomquist said. “Well, now we’re able to call it something else and be real technical and analytical about it. Some people find that really cool. For me, I’m just like, ‘Yeah, that guy’s got good stuff.”

Over his first three seasons at the helm, that lack of knowledge of how pitching development has changed might be one of the main reasons the Sun Devils staff has struggled so much. ASU has never struggled for offense under Bloomquist, slashing .301/.385/.500 and averaging 83 homers a season.

The offense has always ranked near the top of college baseball. However, the pitching has been a different story, as they have averaged a team ERA of 6.41 in his first three seasons. The lack of consistent performances has handicapped the Sun Devils and is the main reason why ASU has not seen the postseason under Bloomquist.

A change needed to happen, and in the past offseason the program’s pitching philosophy has totally been overhauled, hiring new pitching coach Jeremy Accardo and finishing the development of the team’s pitching lab. With the completion of the lab, the team now has unprecedented access to data that it didn’t have before.

“(The pitching lab) is something new to a lot of us,” junior left-handed pitcher Ben Jacobs said. “We didn’t really use any of it last year, but this year, we dove into it a lot more with Coach Accardo. He’s got all the knowledge of it, so we’re kind of just using it, learning and listening.”

All the new language needed a translator, and Accardo, who, after an eight-year Major League career, spent time as a minor-league pitching coach with the New York Mets and the Milwaukee Brewers, was the perfect choice.

At the team’s most recent media availability, Accardo was one of the many who spoke following Bloomquist’s 20-minute press conference. And, if there was any caution about Accardo’s ability to explain all the new data and information, it was wiped away in a 40-minute media scrum in which he answered all sorts of questions, doing it all with a wide smile on his face.

“I’m happy to help these guys achieve their goals and get to where they want to go in this game,” Accardo said. “That’s pretty much what I’ve done since I started coaching, and now it’s just another level of player that is even more eager to learn and willing to listen.”

Accardo’s eagerness and experience have been crucial to ASU’s offseason development. With high-tech cameras and tools to measure data like spin rate, vertical and horizontal release height, grip tuning and more, Accardo is able to remove the confusion of why a pitch moved the way it did, positively or negatively.

Jacobs pointed to how the high-tech cameras allow him to keep his consistency. Whether he makes a good or bad pitch, he can immediately see why he got the results he did. Above all, it takes the confusion out of it. Instead of just relying on the eye test and how the pitcher felt, the staff can now look at video and statistical data to inform themselves, simplifying the process and removing the confusion.

“(The data) eliminates the overreactions,” Accardo said. “Our eyes tell us something, but just because our eyes tell us something, that doesn’t mean what’s actually happening. It’s really hard to focus on exactly what a ball is doing while we’re max effort throwing stuff. Showing them this was actually pretty damn good, it’s just you were six inches to the right. That’s it.

“It eliminates a lot of the question marks and understanding, and that was pretty good. I don’t need to let that pitch roll into the next one. I can throw that pitch, and now I can trust I’m gonna execute the next one.”

The learning process isn’t totally just one way from Accardo to the player. The pitching staff, plus the team’s catchers, have constant meetings to break down this film and come up with solutions. Once a player is comfortable with the simple things, or what Accardo likes to call the low hanging fruit, he can start pitching ideas and coming up with his own tweaks to his game.

“Kids are coming in and asking questions, feeling comfortable enough to come in and eat their lunch with me so we can just talk shop,” Accardo said. “You’d be amazed at how many great things and conversations come from that. We’ve made a ton of adjustments from just them coming up to the office and eating lunch after practice.”

We aren’t going to know if the pitching lab had any tangible effect for some time. But the only way more information can be a bad thing for the players is if they get overwhelmed with what it is telling them. But with Accardo on staff making sure that the learning process is as smooth as possible, that seems less likely by the day.

Phoenix Municipal Stadium will never become a pitcher’s park, but maybe with this new approach to analytics, ASU can one day become a pitching school.

“That’s the message, we’re not a hitting school anymore, not in this room, we’re a pitching school,” Accardo said. “They’re starting to believe, and that’s a beautiful thing. They’re picking each other up, and everybody’s fighting and pulling in the same direction because the farther we go, the more opportunities everybody gets. I think they understand that.”